Staples Bain Capital and Romney associates - treat employees like China work slaves. Never get lunch forced to work extra hours without pay even though u clocked in and out they would change it an rip you off Riverhead, New York

NONE of this stuff is even the slightest bit true. I've been an employee of Staples for years and have worked at several different locations, and nothing even remotely in this ball park has ever happened at any store in my region, or any other store that I've heard about. And let it be of note that I'm not a manager, or anyone with any sort of position. I'm just a sales associate. I just felt the need to respond because these are blatant lies and this company has always treated me well. It's my opinion that this complaint is more of a complaint about Romney/Bain, than it is Staples.

        The most ludicrous "complaint" here is that employees are forced to work off the clock. There is no manager in the world that would take this risk. The idea that a manager would attempt to save a few hours (which they do have a bit of leeway with any ways) while risking getting sued into oblivion (both as a company and as a person) is insane. There have been several times where I have attempted to work off the clock in order to catch up on some things, or to help a customer of mine who needed assistance, etc and it was strictly forbidden. I have OFFERED to work off of the clock more than once and my managers simply would not let that happen. No one is willing to risk getting sued in case of an injury or shut down by the department of labor over $9. Get real.

        And again, with the breaks, we are REQUIRED to take a break of a half hour for every 5.5 hours worked. This is non-negotiable. You can't even choose to work through a break, or not take one at all. Again, it's a legal issue. No manager is stupid enough to put their jobs and Staples on the line to get an extra half hour of service. We are also offered 2 15-minute PAID breaks for every shift worked. Those are completely optional, though.

As for the coverage issues; again, more silliness. Every department is staffed with at least 3 associates for every shift. Perhaps more if it is a larger volume store. The only exceptions to this rule are the Copy and Print and the Mobile Consultants, who can be staffed only by one person if the work load permits it. We're a service-driven retail store. Not having associates on to sell things would be counter-productive. Obviously, if an associate calls in, or something happens where there's simply not enough people hired at a time to cover the shift(s) coverage can get sparse. But no one has ever been the only person on in Office Supplies or Easy Tech in the history of Staples. That's barely a hyperbole.

Managers abusive? Not likely, but it could happen. I've run into a few less-than-great ones. The only times I ever had complaints about managers I would either mention it to his direct superior and it was addressed immediately. For example, I had a sales manager that I didn't get along with. not so much on a personal level but more so that our selling styles did not gel whatsoever and was causing undue tension. I brought this up to my general manager and he worked it out so we were never scheduled the same shifts. Another time I had an issue with a manager making personal complaints about me- so I brought it up to HR. Our HR department was super-helpful and he manager was swiftly and severely reprimanded and hasn't been an issue since. And our district manager checks in with me regularly to make sure everything is still gong well. If you file a complaint with HR your job is unconditionally protected. You will not get fired for lodging a complaint. Quite the opposite is true. It's nearly impossible to get fired after complaining to HR. Again, this is a legal entity. No one is trying to get sued, if nothing else. And one last example; our Sturbridge, MA store once had a general manager that got fired simply because of low employee morale. We fill out anonymous surveys quarterly to see how the associates feel about the work environment. This particular manager, while not having had any specific complaints lodged against her was fired without warning because her staff was not happy working for her.

I don't believe this person ever worked for Staples. My main reason for this (aside from all of the other stuff I just addressed) is that he claims that we out-source our Business cards- NOT TRUE. All of our business cards (and everything else from Copy and Print for that matter) is made on-site. EVERY STORE. No Exceptions.

I can not believe someone would be so petty as to make up a bunch of things about Staples to further some political agenda. Get a life, dude.