Pros
The benefits package that came with full-time employment was fantastic when I started working here over 5 years ago. One hour lunch, paid on the clock. Vacation time adds up very quickly and there's rarely an instance a time-off request gets refused as long as reasonable notice is given ahead of time. The stores still function on most holidays, but everyone is given a paid holiday added to their schedule every month, with exception of Christmas and Thanksgiving. The insurance is affordable and covers just about everything. Employees are also able to take out advance payday loans through their store, up to $1000. To top it off, there is a company-wide quarterly profit share. You never know what people are going to bring in to sell and there's no shortage of interesting materials to sort through. The majority of the employees are fun and intelligent people who make retail into a fun experience. For every customer who gives you a hard time, there's an employee who will make you laugh and smile. Sounds, pretty good huh?
Cons
The benefits package that came with full-time employment was fantastic. "Was", being the key word. One hour paid lunch, no more. Instead they decided to beat the national minimum wage increase and just re-calculate your pay scale so that 35 hours a week will add up to what you were being paid for 40 hours. Vacation time still adds up but requests are sometimes overlooked and managers don't always make sure to give you your paid monthly holiday. Insurance is not what it used to be as the cost is increasing while the benefits are decreasing. And the profit share? Well, it appears to be a thing of the past as we haven't received one in the past 2 quarters. There's no way to be sure though because corporate doesn't feel it necessary to communicate with anyone. I guess we'll just figure it out on our own. "Stores are closing, but the company is okay." Kinda like, "There's a hole in our boat, but that's okay because we have buckets." It's not good. It's not okay. Things are changing in the world of Half Price Books. The company is taking on internet business, and it appears they may have bitten off much more than they can chew. The store I work in is not staffed very well. According to the grapevine, that's another corporate decision. Five years ago, we had almost twice the amount of people working in our store. With the new internet business we are being forced to add more procedures to our daily routines and we are not going to receive anymore staff to help with the increased work load. This is resulting in less employees picking up more customer service on the sales floor and telephone, and getting less books on the shelves to sell which in turn results in less income for the store. Imagine this: 4 people open a store; 1 on register, 1 buying books, 1 answering phones as well as customer service requests and pricing/shelving books while trying to assist the register or buy counter becuase the other (1) is stuck pulling orders for the internet sales. 4 phone lines ringing, 3 college students wanting a dozen textbooks they don't even know the right name of, and by the way, there are 5 people waiting on offers for their stuff. How fast can you dig through 4 tubs of paperbacks while answering a phone and simultaneously expressing your desire to help the guy who can clearly see you're on the phone and yet insists that you help him with his list of books. There are times when the staff just wants to throw our hands up. We need more people to do this job properly. No one can seem to get on the same page as to current buying, selling, pricing, and stocking policies. One person comes in and says this, another person calls and says that, and then the email from someone else, says something else. Communication is a huge failure for this company. Digging through some peoples things can be miserable. People don't use discretion when they bring us things to purchase. We have to dig through dead bugs, various animal hair, urine, feces, mold and lots of dust on occasion. Many people don't understand the math behind the buy policy and feel it's unreasonable and borders on being unethical. Some customers become very offended and irrate and we don't get paid enough to deal with that.