delivery driver

sales associate

responsable des ventes

general manager

chauffeur livreur

Staples

Pros: 
- I have learned so much since I started, either directly on my own time to be better at my job, or yet from other knowledgeable and helpful senior staff. I have vastly broadened my knowledge of many brands of tech products, particularly which have allowed me to help others outside of work with technical matters, as well as for engaging in better customer relations, all of which I feel will continue to be relevant skills/knowledge going forwards.
- Good discounts for associates, especially helpful for students to acquire a variety of things they may need for their studies. Lots of things sold make for great gift ideas for others also.
- Good work culture for the most part and staff are typically good to work together if necessary to best assist customers with their needs.
- Management are also good at resolving any problems one may however encounter. 
- It can feel very rewarding to assist customers both before, and after their purchases if they return, and receive praise for your work from customers and management alike. 


Cons:
- Some days can be near dead quiet, and almost relaxful leaving you feeling you've got plenty of tasks done. While unfortunately, some others can be fast-paced overly so resulting in stressful or hectic moments interacting with customers both either in person and or over the phone. It can feel like you have got next to nothing done which was asked of you some shifts due to staff shortages / maybe poor scheduling (or what I mention below) and there's simply nothing you can do but leave said tasks for the next day(s) / another person at times. 
- Management won't always ask/check if you have taken a break(s), and if you don't take the initiative and insist upon it you may miss out on some of these. Some associates who even started shifts later than me have at points snuck off to take breaks first without a thought given to those who have been here earlier / have maybe worked harder (more on this last part soon).
- Continuing from my above point, some staff in my experience have not always pulled their part, and just socialize/remain on their phones, and tasks needing to be done besides helping customers are neglected / not fully finished when they could have been. Management with their own tasks to do - which at points brings them out of sight - don't always see this either, and so I don't necessarily take it upon myself to direct the others around on what's expected of them when I'm hardly paid much more than others despite difference in seniority. By this mindset, I could do much the same as them but I hate to be lazy and like trying to keep the place organized and be worthy of the wage I do however get.
- This is more of a minor observation compared to the rest, but since we all wear the same uniforms, customers however often mistake what department we belong to. So, it can be even frustrating at certain points to serve customers when you feel required to do the part of another department you're not directly trained in because that position is missing someone present for a shift who called in sick, etc (i.e Sales associate vs. Copy and Print associate). 


Working at Staples will feel like a chore once you get past training.

TRAINING: 
Training itself, is a lot to take in but the trainer does try to add some fun to it. It is nerve racking the first time you deal with customers and are not 100% sure how to run the systems, but they do have individuals there to help you.
After the first part of training is done, you are on the floor taking calls which is pretty straight forward but can get very repetitive.
After a few weeks, you go back to training for Print and Marketing (Staples Copy & Print) which is more complicated. You are only able to see very basic information about customers orders. Anything more complex, you will need to reach out to CSHD (Customer Service Help Desk)
Once training is done you are somewhat on your own (at least it will feel that way at the start) but the managers and supervisors are there at the start (If they tell you something once remember it, they will get annoyed if you repeat inquiries more than twice)

SHIFTS: Beware of shifts sometimes (Hours are 7:30am - 8pm) if you get multiple consecutive shifts, email your manager with the inquiry

PAY: Pay is not the greatest (after taxes approx $13.50 - $14.00 an hour) sometimes it does not seem worth it for the volume of calls you may take in a day. Calls at times seem like they do not stop (You WILL feel like you are alone on phones even though management says you are not)

WORK/LIFE BALANCE: Is average at best, especially if you have an early shift. Beware, if you have a shift from 11:30am - 8pm, the work life balance combo goes out the window, and all you will want to do is catch up on sleep.

ADVANCEMENT: There is little room for advancement, maybe to different departments, such as Drop Ship or Fraud, however do not hold your breath.

NUMBERS/VOLUME: Management is somewhat easy to talk to, but all managers are numbers driven (how many calls you take, how long your call lasts, etc.) Speaking of numbers, adherence 100% determines your pay raise at the end of the year (August is the year end for Staples). So if you do not take your breaks exactly the time they are scheduled, adherence goes town. It is said they want employees between 98 and 100% but 9/10 times that is not possible.

There is a lot of switching from email and chat to voice, but very rarely do you get switched from voice to anything else, so expect 96% of your shift to be on phones due to the phones being the most effective way for customers to reach Staples.

MISC./BONUSES:
There is a cafeteria on site (Huge Bonus) Pretty good menu variety, but it does the job (BLT, fries, wedges, patties, various drinks, you cannot go wrong)
They WILL send out emails offering Voluntary Time Off (VTO) if they are not busy, however that is rare (Usually April - August are the common months VTO is offered)

PROGRAMS/SYSTEMS:
There are a lot of bugs on the systems. Orders held, orders on fraud, with very little reason given. Also customers not receiving their orders, receiving the wrong orders, a lot of delays with deliveries and returns, credits for customer returns not being received. So prepare for a lot of unhappy and sometimes confused customers
Tracking numbers are mostly inaccurate (most tracking numbers say they are incorrect or unavailable)
Order status change very quickly, so make sure a customer wants their order before placing it. (This does waste a lot of time for you and the customer if you cannot cancel an order they placed 5 minutes ago because the status changes so quickly)

A typical day at Staples was quite enjoyable. I am close with many employees. All were very good roll models to me. I had many tasks to complete everyday and was always efficient enough to get them done. I would do a report on one aisle everyday day of the week. After completing the report and looking for merchandise i would down stock the entire front half and back half of the aisle. After fully down stocking the aisle i would do stock that was received that day. Anywhere from 1-30 pallets of stock i would work on daily. The management was very happy to see how hard i work and how efficiently i work and complete so much in a short amount of time. I was consistently recognized for my attitude and energy. Throughout the day I'm also helping customers with all there needs and questions. I also would cover breaks at the tills when the cashier wanted to take her breaks. I was placing orders online for customers if we didn't have the product in store. I would also call other staples in Calgary to transfer in product that we don't have in stock to be able to get the product to the customer that they are asking for. The hardest part of the job was the beginning, learning where all the product went, how to work the scanners and also how to organize tasks so they are completed efficiently and properly the first time. I developed all those skills needed in a short amount of time and it was often recognized. After one year i was promoted to Aisles Lead/Captain. This job consisted of training everyone in aisles new or previous employees. I trained them everything there was to know about aisles. I was always open with them and welcomed them to ask any questions. I wrote lists of tasks for the night associate before leaving work. Writing the list i found helped the management for that night it gave them a idea of what needed to be done and they could guide the associate if they had any questions about the tasks. Leading the entire half of the store was most definitely one of my favorite things. Loved to watch people grow and learn. I consistently recognized all people i trained. When the employees were doing a good job i found it very important to be encouraging and proud. If they had any struggles they knew they could ask. If i noticed they were having difficulty completing a task i would talk to them and go over it with them to help them further understand. After doing that i would personally help them with the task just in case they had any questions or concerns. The other benefits were working with all my fellow associates, and interacting with customers and helping them with what they needed. It felt great to be able to help customers. I also liked doing the stock, once all pallets were empty you feel accomplished and you know you made a difference and also made the management very happy. I've taken a lot from this experience and I am ready to begin another chapter and experience and learn more.

Working at staples as a part time sales associate felt about as gratifying as working at any other sales job that doesn't pay you commission for your sales. During my time at staples the expectations of what we were expected to sell kept increasing but our pay did not. When I was hired we were initially expected to sell in store tech services and warranty, if the whole department (not the individual) met a quarterly percentage of these sales there would be a small department wide bonus administered to everyone at the end of the quarter. The expectation for these sales attachments was to have them on 15% of all sales. However the bonus provided little incentive for this and the salesman were not able to do price adjustments or make commission off of their sales making this task droll and unrewarding. A year into my working here the warranty system got a new "monthly plan" that was bundled with a subscription to some "Canada Located Tech Support" the big selling point was that it was supposed to be 'cheaper than Best Buy's Geek Squad' and for good reason. Whereas Geek Squad has actual value in that they provide in home services and installation this IT service plan was completely remote service meaning you were expected to sell something as if it was better than the service Best Buy provided, essentially expected to blatantly lie. 

For half of my time working here our supervisor was on sick leave, so the rest of the store management felt the need to all try and manage our department, the micromanagement of the department resulted in massive employee turnover bordering on lunacy wherein managers would scold sales associates for even standing near one another which they dubbed 'employee clotting'. This made it impossible to share information regarding handling in house Tech Orders or getting advice from other salesman regarding sales or basically any other form of communication with your fellow staff. Returning to the store I see none of the people I worked with currently working there anymore which I assume is simply because they moved on to higher paying less demanding jobs. You are paid minimum wage here but expected to act like you are paid commission. Do not work here if you are only looking for part time work.

Working in the copy center was horrible. There was never enough staff and those on the floor and management were not copy trained. There was never enough help for when many people came in at once. A lot of the time costumers would get frustrated with me because I couldn't help them but as one personI can only help so many people in at one time.

The management was never helpful. A lot of the time they seemed to think they were more superior and better than everyone else, that they didn't have to do any physical work and could just order everyone else around. There was never any consideration in that regard.

A few people in my department had quit, and had given minimum two week notice but they were never able to hire anyone to replace them so they begged the associates to stay another week or two (one person had given 7 weeks notice and another had given three weeks). A bunch of the shifts had fallen onto me because of their inability to hire someone new. I never wanted more shifts, if anything I wanted less. I had made sure to tell management two weeks before both people left, that I wanted my availability changed to less days but when they finally left I was asked to change it and questioned on why I couldn't work certain days, even when before I had told them I'm going back to school. From what I know, as a part time worker the employer is supposed to work around the employee's schedule but that could be wrong.

The work itself isn't hard but there can be a lot of difficult costumers and a lot of the time I can't do what they want. When I get a manager, most of the time they take the costumers side even though it goes against what I know is right. Most people aren't trained or have any knowledge on what the rules of my department are so they just do whatever they want.

Schedules are another issues, we get the schedule for Sunday-Saturday the Thursday/Friday before. It's hard for me to plan appointments and do school work properly let alone have time for family and friends.

Since our store opened the same people have been the head of each department but our managers get switched out at least once a year. No one ever gets promoted and your raises are based on how many hours you work in a year, not on performance.

If you're a high school student who just needs a job for spending money, I'd say go for it and get a couple shifts a week but if you are looking for a more serious job then I'd say to look elsewhere.

I have worked for Staples for over five years, I started out as a temp at Back to school one of the busiest times of the year for Staples. I started working Full Time hours with Staples but was never offered a full time position I was still technically a part time associate.

 I worked these full time hours for about two years and asked a couple times if I could be brought on as full time so I could get the benefits and have vacation time. I was never given the full time position I was asking for.  I started to grow tired of the way they were using me as a full time associate but never seeming to want to give me the full time benefits. The work isn't too bad I worked shifts from 6AM-3PM they are long and we only get a half hour unpaid lunch and two paid 15 min breaks. I worked as a merch associate so I was responsible for putting out the stock when It came in and keeping the shelves full. 

I feel like there is nowhere for me to move in this position you have to be in a sales position for management to pay attention to you and allow you to get promoted and move up in the company. For Staples its all about the sales numbers and as a merch associate I hardly ever get any sales. 

The workplace culture is good they buy us lunch some days and they will even give people birthday cakes and will do summer and winter staff parties.

The hardest part of the job is dealing with the lack of training I received. They expected me to work the cash when I had no training and cover the receivers position when I only had a few hours of training. This made the job really stressful for me.

I have not had a great time working for Staples. I have very little respect for this company and the way it treats its non sales employees. After working for Staples for this long I see no way for associates with non sales roles to move anywhere with this company. After trying for so long to even get a full time position I lost all motivation to try and move anywhere with this company and it just became a paycheque at the end of the week while I went to school to move away from Staples.

I worked here for a number of years while finishing school. Whether the job culture is good is completely dependent on the manager of your location.

Some will throw you out to sea to see if you sink or swim and others will offer pretty solid advice , support and guidance. Although, this may be just retail as a whole.

Upper management scrimps and saves by cutting hours for a given store fairly often. It is a regular occurrence to show up to your shift to find just two of you are opening the store for the first couple of hours. In a busy location. In a major city. This isn't because of sick call-ins, it is because the store is stretched thin with a low amount of hours that can be allotted to all associates. So it can feel like your drowning for the first few hours of your shift. 

Theft and security was also a huge issue when it came to our safety. On multiple occasions, we had things stolen from our lockers from customers. It was been complained about for years, but nothing had come of it by the time I'd left. 

Also, very little upward mobility in the organization (as a retail sales associate). They usually hire manager roles and head office positions from outside the company anyway. This does not make it impossible though as I have known 1 or 2 people to make the jump from the retail location to head office.

Training was not sufficient, especially for the Copy and Print role. I didn't even receive training and was thrown in once to cover a colleague for a week. I broke down crying after the first day. Safe to say, I always insisted to never be placed in that role again.

The hardest part of the job was making do with what we had. The best part of the job were my co-workers. We really felt like a family and despite everything else, that is the reason I stayed for so long.

Overall, your manager and your co-workers are what makes your experience with Staples, not the company itself.

Working an 8 1/2 hour day starting at 8:15 and ending at 4:45 wasn't the hard part. The hard part was being 6 months pregnant and constantly on your feet. In the morning as soon as I would arrive I would go to the back room and get my till. After I had brought it out and put it in my register the fun would begin. I would start with making up the break schedule. Whoever started first would be the first to get a break, whoever started after them would be the second to get a break and so on. After I had the break schedule done I would then clean up whatever was left from the night shift the previous day. That could take anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours. As I would clean up the undone pricing materials from the previous shift, I would get a pile up of clearance and new pricing items for me to do throughout the day. I often would end up finishing that and leaving nothing for the next shift to do, depending on how busy the store would get during the day. However, if I did end up leaving some for the next shift, I would end up having to finish it off the next morning. If I had finished my work for the day, I would stock the candy shelves around customer service and clean the counters of customer service. When this was all done, if there was any mess I had made throughout the day I would clean it and organize my work place so it wasn't messy for the next shift. When I had finished everything there was to do I would write in the cashier blog and let the next shift know whether there was stuff left over to do or not. I would do all this throughout the day while dealing with customers with a smile on my face. I learned how to work with a schedule and often was rushed. Management was amazing, they were the best managers I have ever dealt with. And my co-workers were very welcoming and I found that if I had any questions that there be no need to be afraid to ask. The most enjoyable part of the job was coming in, in the morning and finding myself with a busy day ahead of me. It always made work fly by.

A typical day of work is pretty straightforward. Checking for new prices and promotions. Ensuring staff on-duty know what the latest specials are. Making sure inventory is correct and running audits on previous large transactions to ensure clarity and transparency. Once all those tasks are finished, it was straight selling.

Working with the company, I learned how to properly diffuse tense situations and find the best solutions for my clients. I also learned how to take charge of conversations and step in when needed to help fellow employees.
Growth within the company was stagnant at best, with associates being denied promotions despite excelling within their department.

Management was supportive at first, but as time went on, it became clear they had no intention of helping you. Word about your personal life travels fast, and to the point where the smallest thing can lead to constantly walking on eggshells
The GM is very non-confrontational yet overly emotional, and holds grudges for even the smallest issue. If a mistake is made, even when it's on the GM themselves for not properly coaching the associate, the GM will proceed to disparage the associate to the other managers in the store.

This place quickly turned into a "keep your head down, and shut your mouth" culture, all while putting on a facade of being inclusive and having an open-door policy.

With the introduction of new endeavours such as Amazon return handling, OLG implementation and introducing new products that have no correlation with what Staples is known for; paired with the huge slash in labor hours, and constant restructuring. It's clear that Staples has been struggling.

Even though the pay was good, and the experiences with customers are rewarding. It's best to stay away from this company.

In my time at Staples, I saw the company evolve and change over and over. The team I surrounded myself with for years were both my co-workers and friends. We pulled through the pandemic shut down together and came out the other side stronger as a company and a team. To this day I know we will always have each others backs.

You can learn so many skills and advance very easily within the company on a store level. It makes it fantastic for someone with no previous experience to gain knowledge. 

Starting part time and moving up the ladder was easy if you have the drive to do it. It was rewarding and fulfilling to work with the team and clients to find them solutions. The main issues I saw were not until you got into management. 

Sadly things from higher up (home office) started to change in the past 2 years that have begun to negatively impact the stores and employees. Some examples of this are: Reduced hours, always running on a skeleton staff to make more profits, Bonuses only going to GMs and DMs and not to the teams, poor scheduling creating a very poor work-life balance, slow or no promotions, hiring new talent rather then promoting talent integrally, poorly screened new hire managers, etc.  This is ultimately creating a culture opposite to what the company values are and leaves stores with a high turn over. 

Leaving became the only option when a toxic manager was hired and given a role I was trained for ultimately. Being told that "new talent" had to be paid for and as such my own promotion had to be put off.

I love the company and what they have been for years but they are slipping on their core values and beliefs but not following what they preach.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Delivery driver 24 salaries reported	$23.31 per hour
Sales associate 7 salaries reported	$17.86 per hour
Responsable des ventes 16 salaries reported	$64,750 per year
General manager 5 salaries reported	$75,740 per year
Chauffeur livreur 6 salaries reported	$20.00 per hour

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