"La Feltrinelli"
Max Stefani
by Wild Bunch N ° 633 April 2007
ONCE UPON A TIME.
TO HAVE SOME OF THE MANAGEMENT Libreria Feltrinelli, MEGASTORE BECOME WITH THE ACQUISITION OF OLD MEMORIES AND 'IN HAND Bocconians MANAGER RELEASED FROM SUPERMARKETS GS. QUALITY 'OF THE SERVICE AND' collapsed, the work seems exploited without restraint. Last year I went on strike. A DISTANCE OF ONE YEAR AND MAYBE THE SITUATION 'even worse. ONCE UPON A COMPANY who depends on human resources. WHERE WAS A PLEASURE TO WORK. ONCE UPON A TIME APPOINTMENT. We talk to UN EX DIRETTORE, DA POCO FELICEMENTE APPRODATO A UN ALTRO LAVORO, CHE MANTIENE STRETTI RAPPORTI CON I SUOI DIPENDENTI.
L'anno scorso, di questo periodo, siete andati su tutti i giornali per il primo sciopero dei lavoratori delle LIBRERIE FELTRINELLI. Fu un caso nazionale. Molta gente non si capacitava. Per molti era come andare contro la propria madre. Poi tutto è finito lì. Quali erano i problemi allora, quali sono oggi e perchè non ci sono stati altri scioperi? A leggere il blog http://effelunga.blogspot.com / ne succedono di tutti i colori.
Non c'è stato un seguito perchè i nostri sindacati ci hanno pregato di smettere perchè non si poteva scioperare contro un'istituzione of the left sacred in this country. We were wrong. On the other hand it is not clear which way is the union. The blog is just the tip of the iceberg. Why then are there in the end we end up in the outpourings of those who still had a work history that ended badly, find themselves in stressful situations, or digest on this Feltrinelli sore that does not correspond to reality. However, the idea makes perfectly general dissatisfaction due to the change of management. There are people there for twenty years and found that there is more. Things changed when you put everything in the hands of people (Giambelli, Sardo and company) from the GS. While simultaneously the old leadership, people with balls or as Montroni Antonini was taken out. Of course, with the approval of the Feltrinelli family. The management of libraries has been equated to the commercial logic of a supermarket. Harassment, exploitation of staff, reduction of the same etc.. Not to mention the arrogant attitude.
Where there has been this change?
Things have changed in 1999-2000 with the acquisition chain of memories. A managerial choice to differentiate your product and grow. Before you invoiced only 10 books, now with 20 DVDs and music. Even if the books are always better because Feltrinelli continues to be a mark in the collective related to books. Obviously at that point things had to change by force. When you have to compete with monsters like Fnac Euronics or you must have the means to fight. Until treated only books could also be in your small garden but when you get down into the arena to fight tailored to their own commercial logic.
What does it mean exactly "commercial logic"?
Large retailers is based primarily on hourly productivity. If the library "X" sells 100, I can not afford eight booksellers / committed. E 'equation is valid throughout the commercial retail. Count only the hourly productivity. Obviously, the quality drops because you need to go within budget.
I give you an example. The megastores are open 7 days a week 7 with a time ranging from 10 am to 21. The director of the library can not do it physically to keep this momentum. Consequently, it begins to delegate maybe
already giving the keys to the boxes and store in a third level that should not have this responsibility. Same thing managers must make the case that the signature on the closure of banks, putting the final ok on counts of 10 cases. If this puts me signing a first level I can feel well, but not when the cashier older, which is always a fourth level, however, forces her to take a responsibility that is not his. So it happens that by dint of delegate ognuno fa molto di più di quello per cui è stato assunto prendendosi responsabilità che non sono sue. Non potrei fare ordini di novità ma lo faccio lo stesso, vado in magazzino e lavoro i colli ma non sono magazziniere...
Io facevo dieci cose contemporaneamente. A volte alla sera uscivo con venti milioni in una busta per andare a versarli nella cassa continua...Se mi rapinavano? Quando ho chiesto anche un riconoscimento monetario mi hanno risposto "mi dispiace ma questo è il contratto". Ma neanche ti danno un riconoscimento morale! Chessò, una pacca sulla spalla. Allora, ho detto, ok adesso faccio quello per cui sono pagato, ma diventi subito una sorta di dissidente. Se tu rifiuti quello che ti propone l'azienda, che è sempre oro ovviamente, sei un traditore. Secondo i loro conti non posso permettersi secondi o terzi livelli. E vogliamo parlare dei turni? La libreria apre alle 10 del mattino. I primi però entrano alle 8 per fare l'approvigionamento dei banchi. Come alla Pam o a Panorama. Ti ritrovi con interi piani gestiti da una persona sola. Un ragazzo, un quarto livello, che viene messo lì per otto ore. E' l'unico che può stare dietro al cliente, mettere i libri sui banchi, prendere un ordine per un libro, un cd o un dvd. La qualità del servizio crolla totalmente.
Prima non era così.
Per tanti anni a Feltrinelli hanno puntato tutto sulle risorse umane. Lavorare da Feltrinelli era il paradiso. Agevolazioni, quindicesima...Ma non era solo questione di soldi. Era l'ambiente, il rapporto umano. Adesso facciamo degli orari che sono da miniera del Furci. La domenica dalle 10 alle 21, spesso da soli in tutto il piano. Se ti vuoi andare a prendere un caffè non è possibile. Sei responsabile di un intero piano dalla mattina alla sera. Arrivi alle 16 che sei già morto. Devi sentire mille persone al giorno. La risorsa umana è completamente demotivata a tutti i livelli. Si è persa quella che era la peculiarità per 30 anni della Feltrinelli, quella del servizio al cliente. C'erano dei professionisti. Adesso ci sono commessi che non sanno neanche dirti il prezzo del libro. Magari mettono in un intero piano di libri una persona abituata a vendere dischi che i libri non sa neanche come sono fatti. Però ti copre il settore. Non c'è ovviamente più nessuna gratificazione sul lavoro. Se tu vai a sentire gli anziani ti metti le mani nei capelli. La concessione dei livelli è praticamente bloccata da 5-6 anni. Perchè per loro elargire un "livello" vuol dire aumentare le spese di quel punto vendita. Per carità! Per questi nuovi manager vendere una bistecca o un libro è la stessa cosa.
Esiste una differenza tra la casa editrice Feltrinelli e i punti vendita?
Sono due ditte differenti. La casa editrice è una cosa, i Megastore un'altra. Se tu guardi su internet e digiti "Librerie Feltrinelli", ti si apre la catena dei negozi. Se digiti "Feltrinelli" ti si apre la casa editrice. Prima Feltrinelli publisher Feltrinelli and libraries were a single company. Now they are two different things. Two different managers, both fiscal and financial. Carlo Feltrinelli from 5-6 years ago decided to just ignore the publisher and retail outlets. Travel the world looking for new authors, it has also thrown in the cinema, making DVDs. Choices also absolutely right because it's a serious person, but has left out Feltrinelli Library in the hands of these managers really preppy ... Inge is in the clouds. Libraries Feltrinelli go on their own. They are "cash and carry" a money machine. Galleria Colonna (Rome) invoice of Euro 20 million per year. Although I think they thought of making more money with the Megastore. They left with Piazza Martyrs in Naples, the grand opening with Jackson etc. At the start, the cashier had to make the cashier, the bookseller bookseller. The seller of the seller of hard disks and so on. Were invented also the "customer service". A section dedicated to the management of clients with a desk, a person. It is now virtually disappeared and is no longer a fixed figure, because in the room are more productive. Now there is not even the administrator who makes just the stewards, counting money all day. The structure was built to hold many salaries, but as they realized that the blanket was shorter, could not help but ask the guy who had been hired to do only administrative to 3 hours and hours in the other case.
short, the "Library" was something else?
say. But Christ not to use this historical name. Call it "The Casting of Feltrinelli"! Operators are now handled by workers. Are you a number. If you're on the balls for some reason I am sending you in Treviso. What about you? Many eventually give up. There were a lot of part-time for example. You want to work on Sunday 100 Euro? Oh well, I do not need. Stay at home. I take a part-time contracts to 3-4 months at 20 hours and I do 10 hours on Saturday and 10 Sunday and it cost me less. Now they too are all swept away by the restriction of the workforce. Must be another question. As Feltrinelli made to become what it was? Why was the sensitivity to handle beautiful books and a nice catalog and the will to be alive culturally. Once the "head house" I could because I had liked me a book on Eastern philosophy and the internet. This order of 30 copies and inserted because it was a good book. Now that space is sold to the highest bidder. There Bruno Vespa for sale. There is this myth that associates the name Feltrinelli culture, conditions for workers to be taken as an example but it is not true. We are treated like animals.
So much so that their editor is Berlusconi and associated reference. Which is also fair, given the market share, but have exceeded certi limiti. Tempo fa venne Carlo Feltrinelli da me e mi chiese: "come mai c'è un'esposizione così forte della Mondadori e i libri della Feltrinelli non si vedono?" Io gli ho risposto: "dovresti parlare con i nostri-tuoi manager . Ce li hai messi tu mica io!".
I manager d'altra parte devono fare fatturato e spingono Mondadori che pubblica Vespa etc. Però domando, tanti anni fa avrebbero preso adesso come tutti gli anni le 1.000 copie del solito libro di Vespa? Prendiamone solo 400 e le altre 600 magari ce le giochiamo con 10 libri buoni del piccolo editore. Magari anche di Rizzoli. Adesso siamo un punto vendita di Berlusconi.
All'entrata dei nostri negozi non esistono piu' le macchie degli editori. Perchè devo fare un lavaggio of the brain talking to those who enter the Vespa etc. Once we help small publishers to grow. One Donzelli as we helped a lot, but once we were we are now smerciatori booksellers of books. In fact, objects.
Information technology work? There is a project
PRC. An external company has been handsomely paid for to teach us, who are also there for 20 years, to manage the merchandise in the warehouse and divide it in various sectors. They designed a system that worked perfectly on paper but has a small leak. If you do not have the people that are in stock and do manual work, who share the philosophy on the one hand, the other dvd ... everything stops. If everything in the store there is only one person, and a maximum of one part-time to handle 11 million of merchandise ... Who does it? In fact go to see how the store now and you put your hands in your hair. You do not even have time to open the cargo arrives. Not to mention the return of old books.
One has the password to order, one to work in a casino cash .... Missing persons. In some libraries are few, too many others. They make a simple equation: "tot tot sales people." It should be a square meter. If then there's the desert patience. Then when you are asked "Aesthetics" and to Hegel is not there, vaglielo to explain to angry customers. But they are careful to note that you do not say "hello" to the customer but, "hello". Always a smile. As if I, after 10 hours of work, I still want to smile. Then "I recommend when looking for the book you need to entertain the customers' ... yes, the story of jokes! Not to mention the time 20-21. If you come at that person's a plan. If you find it. Why in this hour is going to throw away the cartons. Then you come and can not find anyone. Maybe there is a person who should be the plan but the cash is to help the only cashier, then you find the CD cases opened without disk inside. In those 60 minutes could take it all away. There is a closet with cameras that are pointed everywhere, but no one looks at them because they have decided to save even on that. And then we are always open. We were the only ones to remain open when the Pope died not look at anybody. We wrote a letter to Carlo Feltrinelli, but I think he answered?
Of course people do still queuing up to come to work at the Feltrinelli but as in any other place.
But in all this spare, at the expense of quality, money is still coming ...
sales over the years has obviously increased every year ... On the other hand open 2:00 to 3:00 outlets. See Viale Libia in Rome, Viale Marconi last year. The year before it was renovated Viale Giulio Cesare. Obviously you are very exposed with the banks and to recover this exposure with the banks where they go ... save? There is also much "bullying." People "episodes" are starting to receive letters of reference, threats of transfer ... They say it is not dismissed because they have the right to move from one shop to another, but certainly if they send you from Rome to Treviso .. . Unfortunately, there is a union contract ...
Exactly. But the unions?
I was a first level. If I went to work on Sunday I took $ 150 as bonus. I was a director and then paid me the fact that I got up Sunday and went to work. I committed took a 70-80 euro if they woke up on Sunday. Under the new national agreement two years ago, now take a large pat on the shoulder. The concept is "work and do not break my balls. "They put on a contract that is not on shifts working six days but on 7.Non there are more public holidays. It 's the logic of supermarkets. To this I say we talk of not more than Feltrinelli Megastore .
Unions signing will receive something in return. I do not know what. It could also be an increase in the ticket for example. The last increase was a few tens of cents. It is now almost 6 Euro. I want to see in the center of Rome where eat with 6 Euro. Maybe in Catania. Even now the directors ask for total mobility. Sometimes without a reason. Just to break the balls. Obviously the answer is a "look at that with the 1700-1800 euro per month you have given me I zone out there pitch. " If you send from Rome to Treviso or Genoa in Brescia is like if you force him to sign his resignation. Of course, with good output in black. I am one of the few went to trial (and when they have fallen hard since I wanted the pants), but most of that caca below and maybe you do not have money or time, in front of 15,000 € on the nail .. . It tells of night passages of envelopes full of money ... The blog is not very reliable as anonymous, but there is much truth.
A shop assistant librarian how much he earns?
900-1000 € per month.
As the competition ended with FNAC?
The big clash with FNAC is over. He won Feltrinelli. Doveva essere la calata dei francesi ma si sono fermati subito. Napoli, Verona, Genova, Torino e Milano. Non c'è abbastanza fatturato (in Italia) a livello di "prodotti culturali". FNAC, se solo volesse, si mangerebbe Feltrinelli in un solo boccone. E' una catena mondiale, mentre Feltrinelli è solo italiana. Mondadori non è concorrente. Sono strutture vecchie come erano le Rizzoli arancioni troppo piccole per reggere. Melbookstore, che è di un privato, sopravvive, ma credo sia solo a Roma e a Milano. Mi sembrano un pò più umani, hanno anche l'usato che è una scelta indice di un differente modo di ragionare.
Come vengono scelti i libri da "spingere"?
Se la site sends you 5,000 pieces of Moccia, I somehow have to sell them. So a manager knows how to do a "page". The "page" for example, are those two walls as you enter. Then just run theoretically by the Director. If you send me 1,000 copies of the Vespa, but sucks for me, I must somehow be disposed of. Then come 3-4 times a week say the "charges" in the sense that the marketing department has sold the "space". Maybe not in money, but a percentage of the invoice. And there does not have space to operate.
The medium-sized publishers are out of the game. Sometimes they can be saved on the sensitivity of directors or any bookseller. But you can not work on the computer. Chess if we talk about a book because there is a debate on an issue or a TV appearance you can force a second order of 30 copies instead of 10 and enter by force "in page". The same applies to dvd or cd of course. If you have a book that might sell 2,000 copies by Feltrinelli do not get it. Unless you convince the director, personally, in the sense that you go there and talk to eye, to get the books on consignment. It happens. It may be that you have a local celebrity but it's still ridiculous figures. However, I am the last human gestures that are resistant. Now everything goes by the central computer.
books of the publishing house Feltrinelli have a treatment benefit?
There is an old legend that says that at the brand Feltrinelli had to have a main aisle at the entrance. Then it began to retreat more and more and now in 50% of outlets do not exist anymore.
At least the publisher is working well?
We went from Doctor Zhivago and a Ligabue Jovanotti. The philosophy? Boh. Sociology? Boh. We had a necklace that all the psychiatrists and psychologists Italians bought. It was a series of reference. Do not do it anymore. Jodorowsky print because it has become a reference point for those who follow the new age, the Allende now sells those three copies a year. What were the best-selling books di Feltrinelli? Stefano Benni, Beppe Grillo. Per carità bravi però siamo fermi lì. Il livello è molto più basso.
Ricordo che sul sito c'era un testo dove spocchiosamente dicevano una cosa del tipo: "Non mandateci testi da leggere...perchè non abbiamo tempo": Ma tu guardati i cataloghi degli ultimi due anni. Sono indecenti. Einaudi se li mangia. Quando c'è una promo Einaudi vendi quattro volte di più. E se pensi che tutto è nato con il Gattopardo!?!?! Mi sembra che anche nel vostro "Annuario" del 2006 su 50 titoli ci siano solo tre Feltrinelli. Il 6 per cento?
Ormai le case editrici di Berlusconi (Baldini e Castoldi, il Saggiatore, Einaudi, Sperling & Kupfner) make 70% of turnover.
The name "Feltrinelli" is saved only for history. Poor service in Feltrinelli is accepted by the public who may not be forgiven by some defaillance by, say Mondadori.
How does the management of the musical events?
Who offers the highest price. The agreements run 50 per cent of events, books or music. The others are determined by who owns the space, but the most beautiful events are "imposed". The most famous and talented are not free. There you can come as cows or those that are hard for the "Manifesto."
Many events are used to fill the gaps, come to the people.
Do you think there will sell more IL Cows in libraries?
Well. The risk is real. On the other hand, if you want to write what you think we have to pay a forfeit. 'S life and I think you know well. However, consulates, consider how many people will buy this copy Feltrinelli.
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