Pluspunten
There is a staff discount. Nice location in Christchurch. Managers were thankful when we went above and beyond and expressed gratitude, and tried to make our work better. You are encouraged to make improvements if you can. Some of the people that work there are friendly, helpful and happy to explain things to you. Everyone is hardworking and wants to excel. You will be pushed to grow and develop your decision making.
Minpunten
At Bookends, everything is about the task at hand and there is no time to consider your needs as an individual. I felt little warmth or connection within the team and felt like a cog in the machine. There's not enough managers so you won't have regular 1-1s, which makes it difficult to discuss your progress and how you're finding things. In the time you do get to speak to management, it will primarily be about very task-specific concerns. Most tasks have been made hyper-efficient, which means everything must be done in a very specific way and can feel micro-managed. You are expected to be highly proactive, ask questions about every small deviation from process, and not make any assumptions in your work. There is no freedom to manage how you choose to do something. It is hard to feel any sense of responsibility when every step has already been laid out for you. Standards are extremely high and a lot is expected of you. Your thought processes and decisions you make will be interrogated. I was often given more tasks and expected to make time for it, which lead to an ever-increasing workload and feeling constantly under pressure. If you can't make time for your tasks you have to awkwardly ask your colleagues for help when you know they are just as busy as you. Mistakes will be discussed in front of others which makes you fear making mistakes, and creates a sense of mistrust and shame. I have overheard managers have very private conversations about performance or other staff members in the open.