As of Aug 15th, 2008 I have resigned from Staples Business Depot. I was employed as a Depot technician at the Sarnia warranty repair depot. I have ended my association with Staples due to discrimination towards me and unethical practices by the other employees.
I will start by describing my position, so that you can understand a bit better. I was a Warranty repair depot technician. Unlike the resident technicians that you would find in any given Staples location who handle all the software aspect of computers, the repair depot only deals with hardware issues.
I was hired on as part time with a possibility of full time. Needless to say I didn’t get a full time position. My number of hours had started to reduce, so I asked my supervisor if I could get more hours. He said it wasn’t a possibility and to “Do what you have to do.” I tried to find a second part time job, but I was given very sporadic hours that didn’t allow me to seek another job. So I did what I had to do. I was doing small computer repairs on the side to try to make ends meat. When Staples discovered this, they jumped right to a final written warning threatening termination if I didn’t stop. They were telling me that due to a conflict of interest I could repair computers part time for them or nothing at all. Aren’t welders and construction workers allowed to work on more than 1 job site? Why wouldn’t I be allowed? In my opinion they were holding me back in my field because I am a woman in a male dominated field.
There is also a lot of very unethical work happening in the repair depots. They use tape to hold down parts, super glue to fix broken parts, using broken computers to fix customer’s computers under warranty, having uncertified technicians working on computers, breaking customers computers then lying about it to them, and the main part supplier only deals with refurbished computer parts. The list of unethical practices can go on, but I think you get it. I refuse to work for a company that supports and defends these actions.
Since my job started there have been more male technicians than female, 4-2 at the Sarnia location. All the men are full time and all the women are part time. I can’t be sure for all of the repair depots, but in Ontario I only know of 1 other female technician in Toronto.
I was the only employee that had to get a bag check, with or without a bag. I asked other employees about the policy but nobody knew what I was talking about. I had made a complaint to my superiors but they all dismissed it as policy and that everyone was following the policy. It made me feel like a thief even though I’ve never stolen anything from Staples or any other store. I have never given them any reason to suspect me of theft.
Nearly every work day I was told to do computer repairs, while they worked on diagnostics. I was replacing defective parts, tearing down laptops, replacing every component within a computer. In other words, I was doing the grunt work. They were placing a diagnostic program cd into the computer and letting it tell them what part was defective. If that didn’t work, often they would reload the factory image of the operating system using the recovery cd’s that came with the unit. If all that failed, then they would actually take a look at the computer, or they would guess and order a part. However useful my repair skills may have been, every so often I would get in trouble for not doing diagnostics and helping them bring in additional profits.
The other technicians kept double checking my work, making me feel as though I was inferior to them. As though since I’m a woman I couldn’t possibly work on computers properly. I was the only person working in the repair depot that didn’t have a key to get in and I was not to answer the phone.
Inaccurate performance reports of my work were compared to everyone else’s accurate performance reports. There was a few times where many computers were shipped in from other depots for me specifically to repair, other times where we covered for other depots while they were on vacations. All of those repairs were never counted onto my performance reports and they used full time hours to create my average even though I was far from full time. There have been times where they say I have only performed 15 repairs in a week when in reality I have done double that amount of work.
I was trying to fill more hours by getting a job in the storefront, but I was turned down. I have enough skills to be working in the repair depot, but apparently I am lacking the skills to work with customers in the store. They never formally interviewed me or told me I was turned down; they just waited a few weeks then told my supervisor I didn’t get the job.
There were false accusations made that I was running in front of moving forklifts. Since one of my previous jobs where my supervisor tried running me over with a forklift, I stay away from them.
Every time I asked my supervisor about getting more hours, he would tell me that I had to be certified to be a full time employee. Only 1 technician has shown proof of his certification, the others have not been able to provide their certification information when asked for it. With the quality of their work sometimes it’s hard to believe that they would be.
In conclusion, I went into this field to fix computers. Not lie to people, not cover for people, and to do my job. Staples is the last place that I would ever get that experience in the tech field. Take from this what you will, but your customers deserve better. Shame on you Staples.
I will start by describing my position, so that you can understand a bit better. I was a Warranty repair depot technician. Unlike the resident technicians that you would find in any given Staples location who handle all the software aspect of computers, the repair depot only deals with hardware issues.
I was hired on as part time with a possibility of full time. Needless to say I didn’t get a full time position. My number of hours had started to reduce, so I asked my supervisor if I could get more hours. He said it wasn’t a possibility and to “Do what you have to do.” I tried to find a second part time job, but I was given very sporadic hours that didn’t allow me to seek another job. So I did what I had to do. I was doing small computer repairs on the side to try to make ends meat. When Staples discovered this, they jumped right to a final written warning threatening termination if I didn’t stop. They were telling me that due to a conflict of interest I could repair computers part time for them or nothing at all. Aren’t welders and construction workers allowed to work on more than 1 job site? Why wouldn’t I be allowed? In my opinion they were holding me back in my field because I am a woman in a male dominated field.
There is also a lot of very unethical work happening in the repair depots. They use tape to hold down parts, super glue to fix broken parts, using broken computers to fix customer’s computers under warranty, having uncertified technicians working on computers, breaking customers computers then lying about it to them, and the main part supplier only deals with refurbished computer parts. The list of unethical practices can go on, but I think you get it. I refuse to work for a company that supports and defends these actions.
Since my job started there have been more male technicians than female, 4-2 at the Sarnia location. All the men are full time and all the women are part time. I can’t be sure for all of the repair depots, but in Ontario I only know of 1 other female technician in Toronto.
I was the only employee that had to get a bag check, with or without a bag. I asked other employees about the policy but nobody knew what I was talking about. I had made a complaint to my superiors but they all dismissed it as policy and that everyone was following the policy. It made me feel like a thief even though I’ve never stolen anything from Staples or any other store. I have never given them any reason to suspect me of theft.
Nearly every work day I was told to do computer repairs, while they worked on diagnostics. I was replacing defective parts, tearing down laptops, replacing every component within a computer. In other words, I was doing the grunt work. They were placing a diagnostic program cd into the computer and letting it tell them what part was defective. If that didn’t work, often they would reload the factory image of the operating system using the recovery cd’s that came with the unit. If all that failed, then they would actually take a look at the computer, or they would guess and order a part. However useful my repair skills may have been, every so often I would get in trouble for not doing diagnostics and helping them bring in additional profits.
The other technicians kept double checking my work, making me feel as though I was inferior to them. As though since I’m a woman I couldn’t possibly work on computers properly. I was the only person working in the repair depot that didn’t have a key to get in and I was not to answer the phone.
Inaccurate performance reports of my work were compared to everyone else’s accurate performance reports. There was a few times where many computers were shipped in from other depots for me specifically to repair, other times where we covered for other depots while they were on vacations. All of those repairs were never counted onto my performance reports and they used full time hours to create my average even though I was far from full time. There have been times where they say I have only performed 15 repairs in a week when in reality I have done double that amount of work.
I was trying to fill more hours by getting a job in the storefront, but I was turned down. I have enough skills to be working in the repair depot, but apparently I am lacking the skills to work with customers in the store. They never formally interviewed me or told me I was turned down; they just waited a few weeks then told my supervisor I didn’t get the job.
There were false accusations made that I was running in front of moving forklifts. Since one of my previous jobs where my supervisor tried running me over with a forklift, I stay away from them.
Every time I asked my supervisor about getting more hours, he would tell me that I had to be certified to be a full time employee. Only 1 technician has shown proof of his certification, the others have not been able to provide their certification information when asked for it. With the quality of their work sometimes it’s hard to believe that they would be.
In conclusion, I went into this field to fix computers. Not lie to people, not cover for people, and to do my job. Staples is the last place that I would ever get that experience in the tech field. Take from this what you will, but your customers deserve better. Shame on you Staples.
