A seemingly increasing number of GameStop employees are fed up with their working environment and quitting their jobs for being understaffed and overworked. One of the latest cases comes by way of Kotaku, which can confirm in a new report that four staff members of the GameStop located at the Gateway Mall in Lincoln, Nebraska, recently walked out, forcing that location to close down over the weekend. A letter posted at the store alleges that the district manager had no respect for them as employees “or as human beings” and goes on to list three alternatives for retail game purchases, urging readers to spend their money somewhere “that respects its employees.” This is the second time this year that a GameStop in the area saw its entire staff resign in protest, according to Kotaku.
“For my health I had to leave,” Frank Maurer, the store’s recently promoted manager, told Kotaku in a phone interview. The stress and anxiety were so bad he had trouble sleeping and wasn’t even enjoying games anymore. He said he only started working there in late 2021, and while at first it was fun, it quickly turned into a nightmare between the lack of resources and management’s strict quotas. To put up with it Maurer said he was paid $17 an hour, just $2 over the entry level rate at the nearby Target, while those under him made only $9, Nebraska’s minimum wage.
He also claimed he was never properly trained by the company on any of the new responsibilities he was given as manager, nor given the resources and time to train others at the store. At one point he said he had to work over two weeks straight with no days off just to keep the store functioning.
Source: Kotaku