Thread regarding Barnes & Noble layoffs

They haven’t even called back the cleaning staff.
The stores have been disgustingly filthy for some time ! I won’t use the restroom there or eat in the cafe ! I’ve seen how the part time kids ( who obviously have never done it at home) clean !

The OP is drinking way too much Kool-Aide. No one is that positive.

I pity all of you GOOD people who stay on the sinking ship
I DO NOT !
You’ve been warned time and again!
You saw how they treated dedicated , career Employees, in 2018. If you stayed you’re a fool. If you came on board after the 2018 firings ( like a scab) you deserve what you’re getting !

While it is unfortunate many furloughed will be separated by September,
the good news is that with a streamlined staff, and fresh ideas courtesy of Mr. Daunt,
we can realign the companies focus, and serve our customers better.

Please expand on what is going to be realigned? What is the focus other than to reduce headcount and expenses? And how can you serve customers with a reduce staff in such large stores?
What is Daunt’s vision? He hasn’t really detail his master plan other than stating BN was poorly run and mis-managed. (We all knew this). What is Daunt going to do to get that Amazon shopper back to BN?

BN can’t beat Amazon on price or delivery expectations. What they could have done was highlight the one thing Amazon lacks. A knowledgeable, passionate staff of dedicated booksellers. So what does Daunt do, fires these people and hires cheaper, less committed, less passionate bodies. Short term gain for a long term loss.

Remember, the tone of a Company is set at the top. How a leader treat his employee, is how the employee will treat their customer. This has been forgotten, not just at BN but by many retailers.

If you've been working for this company for more then 10 years, you knew that you had to get out. It's been going down hill before the recession and then that POS Nook disaster- you all had the clues to get out. But I understand when you invest your time into one of the worst managed companies ever, it's difficult to leave and look for something. And now, it's even harder to find something decent.
I pity all of you GOOD people who stay on the sinking ship.

Evidentially all the corporate stooges are posting their “Gaunt is god” posts.
He’s doing what he did to Waterstones. Why are you surprised ?

2018 all over again !!!!
( and no I’m not an ex employee. I’m a store manager)

I keep seeing that Daunt is "bold". What's bold about buying some new tables. Oh my! He's so ground reading who would have thought of round tables! And firing longtime employees to bring in new people at a cheaper wage? What a bold and daring innovator!

To the thebperson who complains we are asking to often what Barnes and noble can do for me? Have we come so far from basic human decency that asking them to let us know whats going on is too much? To not be fired over the phone? Sorry but that is tacky. Some of the loyal customers who depend on a lot of the knowledgeable booksellers are also not going to like it. When this gets out the company will lose customers. They are positioning themselves to look weaker than ever. Customers need faith in a company to support it and buy memberships. This makes them look terrible.

We were mislead and lied to by the store management. I never got the first letter about the furlough. The company is cowardly. They took advantage of COVID. They will see the employees they bring back will grow tired of open schedules, and few employees to share the burden of the work. They will end up quitting. They haven’t even called back the cleaning staff.

What you're missing is that most of us here wouldn't be working at barnes and noble anymore to see it succeed...so why should we care, especially with the cowardly way the "brilliant" Daunt is having us terminated by letter or phone? Give me a break!

Excellent post, regardless of who penned it.

You cannot argue with a successful turnaround, which James
accomplished via a sinking Waterstones.

The man has a brilliant business sense, along with creative ideas
and bold moves.

I see a lot of: What can Barnes & Noble give me, instead of:
What can i do to help Barnes & Noble succeed?

This is a major error on the employee's part.

Help the company, and you will help your long term prospects with
said company.

Does anyone remember seeing the video of the Barnes and Noble CEO talking about selling his book of the year pick - The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse? The man sounded so inarticulate and pathetic! His words: Just use your book selling skills, do the best you can, and sell the book.

I was like you've gotta be kidding me. THIS from a supposedly top notch independent bookseller from the UK! Gimme a break!

And all you happy, little proud boys (and girls) still working there, remember too that your CEO said that you'd be working harder than you've ever worked in your life. Just don't expect any more money. You are working class peons whose job is to secure my place as an upper class Brit who travels the globe promoting literacy and my very own personal brand. Tata!

I'm telling all of my co-workers to come read this right now, and bring popcorn!

James? Is that you? But in all seriousness, what are you even doing on this site? Do you just want to be a troll and taunt the people who are losing their jobs? You are not a good person. How can you speak so callously about people being terminated? Many of which are long time, dedicated employees who are hurt and confused by how the company is being shady.You are a cruel person to even be posting the things you are. No one wants you and your gloating about having a job on a site about being layed off. Go away

Let’s start a boycott of all stores and online. My $$$$ and friend’s is going elsewhere. There are consequences of treating people badly.

Post ID: @1ztp+16A51oLt
Now that was a great speech! Bravo!

Yes, have a positive attitude when your former full time position as a manager becomes a part time position with increased responsibilities and you have to fight over said position with the other SIMs at your store. Be positive when as a part timer you are now a "specialist" with all the responsibility and expectations of a lead but no raise or benefits. Be positive when you are micromanaged by not only a store manager but a cluster manager, an area manager, cluster support, specialists, leads and seemingly infinite layers between you and any kind of upward mobility within the company. Be positive when as a cluster support person you now have to drive to one of five or six stores in a thirty mile radius every week, never knowing where you're going to be working. All this for just above minimum wage for a CEO who will publicly sh– talk you and the company you work for because he has absolutely no respect for anyone. But stay positive, I'm sure things will change for the better, it's not like the already clique-ish high school environment of BN is just going to get even more insular and impossible for anyone who isn't friends with an SM or ASM to penetrate. Have fun with that.

Maybe you managers should read some of your reviews on those job sites on that other comment below, they're stellar!
haha.

Everyone will be screwed when they close all the stores. Especially managers as more and more retail companies go out of business. I’m looking forward to supporting the libraries:)

This is such a steaming load of garbage.

The company will be in chapter 11 and liquidated. If they cannot bring back minimum wage booksellers they are broke. Also they will not have adequate staffing for the holidays. The company is planning to be out of business by then that is why they are terminating people.

Yes!

And thank you.

We ARE strong.
We are Barnes & Noble Booksellers.

Great post, and yes, a positive attitude will be key in all of this.

With all the negativity & whining on here, it's nice to read something
championing a company that refuses to quit.