https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2016/04/26/staples-ceo-pay-package-dropped-percent-million/zIJlL2pvwHgFwqEg8S4SXP/story.html
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Staples truly sucks as an employer.
Look at reviews on Glassdoor. The ones spouting glowing praise are all throwaway accounts from Staples HR. The only reason Staples has a 3 star rating (out of 5) is because of these fake HR accounts posting overly positive reviews. Even fake posts can not bring Ron Sargent's approval rating over 46%. He is an ineffective leader at best, and either tolerates the toxic culture his execs create or is himself the orchestrator of it.
There is a very stressful and unnerving culture of intimidation and threats, absolutely no positive motivation or inspiration. Otis Pannel, the SVP of retail operations is an ignorant, misogynistic, racist bully that loves to instill fear and anxiety. All those below him follow his lead and exacerbate the stress and anxiety with frequent threatening emails and throwing temper tantrums in public on store sales floors during store visits.
This is one former manager's synopsis of Staple's culture after working elsewhere for a few weeks:
" It's not ok for insecure leaders, all the way from GM's to DM's to RVP's to Otis and Ron themselves to take pride in their bad behavior. It's not ok to look to these clowns as mentors and repeat that bad behavior. It's not ok for people like Otis to do store visits and make GM's cry. It's not ok for RVP's to kick over endcaps during a temper tantrum and make Assistant Managers quit their jobs. --- You can have good leadership, that holds people accountable, and still treats people with kindness. "
https://www.reddit.com/r/Staples/comments/4gx33e/so_staples_culture_is_abnormal/
Seems like some real clowns running this company. Should be over soon.
38 years of retail management taught me that when the sh*t hits the fan, the folks at the top will spend endless hours and effort to make it appear that all the folk below them are the problem. Keep in mind the folks at the top designed the systems that hired and promoted all the folk they now blame.
Then they bring in the "corporate hit men" to terminate everyone to make it "appear" they are taking action. This is how Otis got his job. Otis may be the least intelligent, nastiest, racist, I have ever seen outside of politics. However he has no need to be intelligent, nice, or color blind to do his job, which is to make most well paid managers quit. At this he is exceptional, because no one wants to work any where near this little man who has no idea how to lead or inspire. The company has no future with or without a merger. The merger is simply about Ron and folk like Otis lining their pockets.
Doesn't matter that he gave up a raise or cash incentives (should of denied then for the other execs too).
He is still over compensated for his performance.
Stop blaming the stores - 99.9% are doing all they reasonably can with the payroll given. If Staples expects more from managers they need to stop harassing the sh-- out of them and ensure full bonus payout when stores meet their goals, regardless of EPS. To many consecutive years I busted my assto beat sales/margin and CSAT to get a bull sh-- raise and partial or no bonus for reasons I had no control over.
EPS is Ron's and Otis' goal - if it's not hit then execs should not get their bonus and should not get options either. Store managers and management of other business units should receive bonuses based on their units goals.
Get rid of Otis (and Servello). Stores do not need an idiot who can not even pronounce the word business correctly going in and actively attempting to upset managers (extra points for females) to the point of crying. It is not a motivator - it detracts from performance. Vinnie tries so hard to emulate Otis he carries the routine even further. These two are absolutely the worst business executives I have ever met in 20+ years of running stores across 3 companies.