Is Wal-Mart really that bad to work for?

[theredbaron47]

I noticed a few posts from rerant in the co-worker's section about how horribly Wal-Mart treats their employees.

Does anyone else have any feedback as to whether or not that is the case? I'm just curious.

[CancelMyService]

Some stores are better than others in terms of pay, but generally speaking they are pretty anti worker with their ridiculously anti-union hysteria and joke of a heath care plan. If you're just working their part time or during breaks from school it seems ok, but if you work there full time you end up having to spend your life at the store or risk getting fired. This is one of those "your milage may vary" deals, so it may not happen at the store you wish to work at.

With all the heat on them (including lawsuits) about their off-the-clock policies and unequal pay for female employees, they are desparately trying to fix their image as a place to work.

My question is (even if some of the tales are exaggerated, it's certainly not the greatest place in the world to work), why would you want to work for them?

[powerboy]

Yes they are bad to work for. Back when I was working for them, in 9 months. I only gone 3 months, getting brakes when I was suppose too. They do treat the employees like shit.

[ShinyGreenApple]

I was there for two years, and saw a steady decline even in that short time. When I worked there, if you had limited availability, they would threaten to cut your hours, though I still got 40 a week. Now, I understand, as I've tried re-applying, they refuse to hire unless you have open availability, but they also only hire part time, so you're pretty much screwed, because with open avail, there's no chance of having a second job or going to school. You can thank the Draconian attendance policy for that.

Then they decided that I could run the lay-away department in October/November of '06. By myself for an entire shift.

They finally fired me for a disagreement over an LOA. I had a sick relative I very much wanted to see because we weren't sure at that point whether he was going to live or die, I got tired of trying to track down the SM after an hour of chasing him round the store and 'just missing' him about a dozen times, and dropped the paperwork to personnel without his signature on it.

Best thing that ever happened to me

[bainsidhe]

I've worked there p/t for almost 2 years now. I think there some detractors, poor health care plan/benefits & consistant scheduling being one of them. But the main thing is they are just so BIG. I used to work for Media Play for far less pay and more BS in the way of personal sales goals, but it was a small staff and you could negotiate or compromise with management. At Wal-Mart, there are so many anal policies and red tape that are in place to "be fair to everyone". Basically, you can't do favors for one person without allowing them for all. I think it varies store by store, but my location takes the whole "off the clock" thing seriously as we are talking BIG fines otherwise. It's just that there are so many people running around that things are pretty chaotic. It sounds horrible, but so many cashiers need babysat by the CSMs in order to get them to work. Used to be a person would take personal responsibility for their job.

So to sum it up, I make more money than I would doing other retail, the work is not hard, benefits are paltry considering the size of the company (but at least they offer benefits since not all retail/food service jobs do), and the store is so BIG (appx 500 employees). I don't feel proud or accomplished at the end of the day, just tired. Fine p/t job though, which is why I'm still there.

Also, I've noticed many workers at WM use that wage to support their entire family. Perhaps that's one big difference between WM and other retailers. The wage & benefits seem ever more important when you are feeding a family with it. Other places I've worked are mostly high school, college students or seniors. I know that isn't completely accurate, but it is one thing I've noticed around here.

[blas]

Not sure about the Wal-Marts where you guys live, but on average, Wal-Mart employees make more than I make. Granted, they don't all get insurance and bennies, but it's along the same lines of bullshit that has to be put up with, idiot managers, too big, etc etc. A lot of similarities.

But hell, I hear Wal-Mart has a no overtime thing. I may have to apply.

[Dont Berobot]

Yes.

It isn't worth the extra $.43 per hour you'll probably make. I worked for walmart for just under 6 months and, coincidentally, had some sort of psychotic episode that caused me to want to quit. When I called in the day I finally quit, I was absolutely hysterical and the manager I talked to said "well, uh, we're pretty swamped, so try to get in here soon" and hung up on me. I never showed up for that shift...

Not to mention, I had a very sensitive doctor's note that I just had to give to the CSM and she gave it to another employee to make a photocopy of! This was about a week or two before I quit...anyway, the contents of the letter suspiciously sort of got around and caused me great pain. I did tell upper management about the CSM doing that, and she got scolded or whatever, but nobody gave a crap. The only difference was that I stopped getting my breaks until the register closed me off for being logged in too long, and I never got the change I needed.

Also, they openly lied to my mother (also a walmart employee) about the insurance plan, completely screwing her over for a year right after she was diagnosed diabetic. They paid $.16 on a $400-ish toe surgery she had. (I'm not even freaking kidding.)

So...don't do it. There are a million other little things that suck (like the scheduling...the computer does it, but somehow the computer can vindictively schedule you on for your school days), but the main point is you will lose your sanity and your self worth.

[Dark-Star]

YES. They are that bad. The horror stories you hear are true and then some. Workers are treated like road salt - useful, but don't mind walking all over it.

Their attitude on unions is so nasty, Wal-Mart is known for a fact to have a 'flying squad' of execs and social specialists that fly out to any site that is suspected to be forming a union. McDonald's has a very similar team.

The strategy consists of three main things:
1: Flattery
2: Offering rewards for snitching
3: Threats

Do not work there unless you are in an absolutely desperate situation.

[theredbaron47]

Wow, I had no idea.

I have no intentions of working there, I was just curious.

I'm sorry to all those who put their time in.

[marasbaras]

Their attitude on unions is so nasty, Wal-Mart is known for a fact to have a 'flying squad' of execs and social specialists that fly out to any site that is suspected to be forming a union. McDonald's has a very similar team.

This is true. And, they don't fly coach, business, or first class ...

... they have their own team jet.

[Javarod]

I worked for them for two years, two stores, plus a bit in two other stores, cashier, electronics, DSD and finally assembler. My first store, and the one I helped out at in between steel day and possession day wasn't bad. Unfortunately my last store sucked, quite frankly the manager couldn't handle a Super Center, though he was apparently great at a Div 1.

I've heard from friends about the forced to work off clock thing, and some severly sexist behaviour (unforgivably so), but never saw it here. It might be the high growth here requires them to keep the employees happy, its enough of a struggle just to find enough people staff the stores and they open something like 2 stores a year out here or more between Wal*Mart, Sam's Club and Neighborhood Market.

Overall, most I can say is its really a crap shoot, as they said in the class action lawsuit by female employees, the stores run fairly independent of the home office, they actually don't have all that good of an idea of what's going on, they've gotten far too big for their own good (has there ever been a retailer this large in history?).

[IvorTangrean]

I worked for a WM in Canada for 3 years (One of the busiest in the country) and the thing was management was a bunch of pushovers (There is a reason for it believe it or not!), but with a few exceptions they were good people who when I see them around I stop and talk to them. The co-workers I had for the most part were good people too but we had the worst customer base in the city (six or so stores total).

As to WM management being pushovers there is a little known policy (in Canada at least) at WM that if a customer phones corporate about a issue corporate will make the store give it to the customer and a $20 gift card, so with this policy in mind they don't fight because they will get overruled.

Knowing this I would not bother to fight customers and just get a manager for anything I could not do, it was not worth the stress.

[princess4life]

My mom has worked for Wal-Mart for over 10 years. She is a department manager she calls me up everyday complaining about management. They will come up to her with 2 hours remaining in her shift to give her a laundry list of stuff to do and tell her that she has to have it done before she goes home and no over time is allowed.

I have tried talking her into leaving and going somewhere else but she is afraid if she isn't good at the new job she goes to that she wont have anywhere to work and she would lose all her tenure at Wal-Mart.

She applied for an assistance manager program and was told there was a pecking order and she wasn't in it.

I worked for them for a year, when I was old I didn't earn a raise because I had missed 2 weeks of work the month before I turned in my 2 wek notice. FYI I was out for 2 weeks because of emergency surgery.