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I'm thinking about Applying for a job at Borders..

Sun, 02/20/2005 - 01:34 — dianaberry

I'm thinking about applying for a job at borders. I'm going to be 40. I have a somewhat high stress phone job.

How long would I have to wait to get insurance? I went to one of the stores and someone told me 6 months??? Is that correct..for most companies the probation period is 3 months. Also, how much would I expect to earn starting off? Also, I read somewhere on this board that full time is considered 32 hours? is that for all the stores?

I'm not looking to go into management. I just want to be whatever the position is called ..sales/cashier..your basic low level position. I just want to do my job..don't have any management career aspirations. Would the stress level be pretty low? I'm trying to get into a less stressful situation.

I'd love to get some feedback. thanks.

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Sun, 02/20/2005 - 04:46 — guenevere

I didn't know there was a waiting period for insurance--but being a military dependent, I don't need it...

and how much you makes depends on where you live. starting hourly wage for my area is $6.75 per hour. and yes, 32 hours is considered full time.

this is probably not a good time to look for a job at Borders..the after holiday rush is over and we are cutting hours. all full-timers have been cut down to 32. (we have been working 35).

and being 40 will have no bearing on getting the job--AARP is going to name Borders their employer of the year as nearly 15% of their work force is over 50.

I like my job at Borders--have few complaints--. Good Luck.

Sun, 02/20/2005 - 07:36 — bordercollie

Nearly 15% of us are over 50? Of our staff at a flagship store, I can think of maybe three or four people, plus only about the same number who may be over 40. Maybe they have more older employees in suburban stores?

Sun, 02/20/2005 - 08:50 — duckswangoose
duckswangoose's picture

Insurance starts the first of the month after 30 days of employment. Fulltime is anything from 32 hours on up. At my store, the fulltime people get 35-37 hours. Not all stores are cutting hours. Some stores got more hours with the new payroll matrix. Try applying online and you go into the pool for all the stores in your area.

Mon, 02/21/2005 - 00:08 — dianaberry

Thanks for the insight. The 30 day waiting period for insurance sounds more reasonable.

Well even $8 would be a cut for me. Do you think even suggesting 8,8.50 or 9 dollars would totally beyond comprehension??

My job does let you work parttime with full insurance benefits. If things get worse..it might be a better situation to just go to parttime (less stress at that job) and maybe try to pick up another part time job..like Borders,etc that might be less stressful.

The working dynamics today are so tough.

Mon, 02/21/2005 - 02:05 — news

What makes you think Borders isn't stressful compared to a phone job? Borders is a phone job. It's also a register job, a warehouse job, a shelving job, a customer-in-your-face job, a clean-the-bathrooms, evade a customer/stalker, burn yourself on an expresso machine, deal with psychotic local artists/authors, and fend off a robbery-attempt job.

Some people like that, though.

Sun, 02/27/2005 - 01:51 — NoCoHo

Suggest more than $6-7 as a starting salary, and you likely won't even be considered at most stores, depending upon where you live. Find out what starting per-hour rates are at McDonald's and similar fast food places where you are, subtract 50 cents to a dollar from that, and you might have Borders' starting pay. Seriously!
My store's starting pay is still less than $7/hr.

You also have squat of a chance of being hired on full-time at most Borders these days unless it's a store just being opened. I went full-time within 3 months of being hired, but that was just pure luck as the store had had a really good holiday season and someone unexpectedly quit.

Thu, 03/03/2005 - 23:37 — mtnman

youre not only going to be expected to do your job, youre going to be expected to do a lot of stupid and pointless shit, do it all perfectly, and then do even more stupid and pointless shit. thats what i saw happen in my time at borders.

news wrote:
What makes you think Borders isn't stressful compared to a phone job? Borders is a phone job. It's also a register job, a warehouse job, a shelving job, a customer-in-your-face job, a clean-the-bathrooms, evade a customer/stalker, burn yourself on an expresso machine, deal with psychotic local artists/authors, and fend off a robbery-attempt job.

Some people like that, though.

Fri, 03/04/2005 - 09:49 — NoCoHo

On my lunch break yesterday, I went to a nearby natural foods store that has a great organic salad bar. After I got my salad, I decided to pick up some other things, so I wandered around a bit, counting how many employees I saw on the floor just out of curiosity.

It's a fairly small store...maybe a quarter the size of my store if that big. At 10:00 a.m., we had (excluding the single cafe person who rarely leaves the cafe for obvious reasons) a dozen people available on the main floor. (Well, except for our GM doing the usual holed up in office bit.)

When I went to check out, an item I was buying wouldn't scan or key in and had no price label on its shelf, so the cashier had to call for help. Add the AM and SM, both of whom came up to help determine the price, to the total I observed, and that tiny store had FOURTEEN staff available.

That should tell anyone considering a job at Borders these days something pretty significant about how much this company really cares about giving good customer service.

Thu, 03/17/2005 - 20:55 — ExPaperchaseHo

Retail is stressful...but what's silliest is how the job itself doesn't actually mean anything! You will be bombarbed by management telling you customer service is the important thing in the world.

There will be MANY stupid customers.

Many pointless jobs to do.

And what's best is the crappy pay!

Good luck!

Wed, 04/06/2005 - 15:32 — BookHussy

Dianaberry, I think the level of stress is somewhat related to the management of any given store. My store's management used to be amazingly supportive and cool. Our new GM sucks and adds to the stress level simply by being there. If you know any of the employees at the store where you want to apply, ask them for a candid opinion of their GM and other managers.

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