Is your bookstore still open?
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The governor in MA just ordered we “stay at home”— depending on how your school has been handling COVID depends on how you fair during this. Because our school is closed to the public, everyone but my store manager was laid off yesterday afternoon. They will work alone filling SODA orders and getting adoptions for the upcoming semesters. Awesome.
Logoed hoodies deemed "essential" business now?
Shelter in place order? We were told we were still required to report to work in person.
Follett needs to invest in its store management teams to allow them the flexibility to work from home at this time too.
Do the right thing before you're forced to do the right thing, Follett.
Look after your workers.
Our stores are petri dishes right now. You cannot wipe down all of our surfaces after each customer. The students that are stuck on campus go to the bookstore because everything else is shut down. No one is buying a thing. Come on Follett, order all stores to close to foot traffic immediately. Let us go in and deal with SODA without the customers. Show you care just a teeny bit about your employees health. Shoving your head in the sand doesn't make the issue go away. You are the leaders here, ACT LIKE IT
I wonder that myself. Seeing a lot of communication about how we are serving or partners but nothing about how the company is taking the wealth/health of their team members into consideration. No direction on how to handle possible Contaminated Boxes that we are receiving. You can tell how a company feels about their associates by how they treat them when times are bad. And yet again, the wagons are circled around the executive suite while the rest of us are expected to find a way to make it work.
Basically, we're going in to open the store even though the students aren't there.
Personally, I feel Follett needs to step up here & provide some clear directive that involves looking after their employees' health.
I think it would be interesting to know how many of the upper management are choosing to work from home while the plebs are sent to open the stores.
I'd be interested to hear from store employees at affected campuses. We're supposed to be serving the campus communities in which we work. However, we actually work for follett. How is that tension relieved?
Our campus clients have never faced this before. They're deciding to instruct from home. How are you supposed to service the campus community if you can't get to the store? What is expected from you, by the campus. Is follett enabling you to support your campus?
That's all well and good but what about employees who are in shelter in place city? (San Francisco, Palm Springs, NYC sounds like it's going that way soon...) Schools without dorms who have gone online till Fall. Places where stores and schools are shut for the next weeks or months?
Anyone in these locations? Have you received any guidance other than file for unemployment once PTO is gone?
Any PT that tests positive for COVID-19 is granted two weeks paid their scheduled hours. It was in the initial update.
Part timers earn state mandated sick pay up to 40 hours per year in Massachusetts, would guess similar plans in other states.
What part timers at follett get sick days?
Part time gets 3 days in California. In case of a shelter in place order or extended closing, full time people were told to do the same.
How much sick time do part timers get?
Home Depot is giving full time employees 2 weeks EXTRA to use as needed and part timers 1 week EXTRA vacation to use as needed.
Boy, Follett is the place to be in the retail work space!
Part time was told to use sick time until it's gone then file for unemployment.
It's really infuriating that Follett cares so little about their employees and customers. We're open, because the campus didn't explicitly tell us to close. Who cares about social distancing, right? Let's let anyone into the store, letting them browse around, touching all the products. We don't have the payroll to have employees following every customer around, sanitizing everything they touch. There are no restrictions whatsoever. All the bored students who have nothing else to do can just come in and potentially spread their germs around. It's insanity. They're giving zero thought to the consequences of this.
Follett family and Follett leadership has one direction always. Profit over employees.
Major retail stores are closing left and right. Apple, Urban Outfitters, Nike. All bars, restaurants, gyms. Yesterday, Trump told reporters that the coronavirus crisis may not be brought under control until July or even August.
What is our contingency plan? What have you heard from management?
They have made hourly staff use their PTO days for water main breaks, floods and electric outages.
so nothing would surprise me.
The economic impact of this is going to be huge, particularly when the company is already struggling. So many people will lose their jobs. So far, the company is only offering 3 paid days to full time employees in the event of a closure. Part time get nothing. I hope they reconsider this policy.
a statement was issued actually; closed campuses however are glaringly under-covered in their detail. For those who are feeling ill in the field at least (even part time) they are expected to stay home for two weeks and to be paid based on the working schedule. Closed schools however are still a 'work in progress' although all travel has been frozen barring approval from the ivory tower.
They need to issue a statement, fast. All schools will be closed or online only in the coming weeks.
Based on the history of the generous nature of the Follett Family I’m sure we have nothing to worry about. All will be paid their full 40 hours even if the store were closed. No one will be asked to use their vacation days. PT associates will be paid their average wages based on their past 2 month earnings.
God Bless the Follett Family and their willingness to forego their dividends to support the Associates that work so hard for the Family!
Surely they won't expect you to use your vacation time up but what about the hourly staff who don't have anything?
Does Follett have a policy in place? Are we going to have to use all our vacation time if our store/campus is closed? It doesn't make much sense to have a store open on an empty campus.
School closing for rest of semester going on line, don’t know about store. What about rental check ins?