Bitchy manager at Wal-Mart

[blas]

So I did my weekly Wal-Mart shopping at 5:30 am this morning after I finished my overtime.

Unfortunately, all the self checkouts were turned off, so I had to go to a regular register.

As soon as the transaction was over, a manager stomped over and started to berate the cashier RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME!

"Billy, did you forget to do a drop of all your big bills earlier? Because that is a total NO NO and you can get written up for it!" or some hoo ha like that. Not really any of my business so I didn't try to listen to it, but I couldn't help but get upset over it. Surely that bitch could have waited until I left to bring that up with the poor cashier.

[chops]

That reminds me of a time many years ago when I was at a Rich's (now-defunct department store chain in the Northeast)...a poor cashier was being chewed right in front of me and was almost in tears. Talk about unprofessional management.

[ditchdj]

That's really pathetic because THAT was a major factor in causing an employee at the Jeep plant in Toledo to finally lose it and shoot three of his bosses with a shotgun a couple of years ago. It stemmed from managerial harassment, with a good deal of it happening right in front of other workers. The way I see it, those managers that participated in it are just as guilty of murder as the gunman himself that took his own life and should be doing hard time for murder, NOT simply back on the job.

[Bright_Star]

And the stupid ass clueless as hell managers wonder why there's such a high turnover rate of cashiers at Wal-Mart.
You keep treating cashiers like they're the scum of the earth & they'll QUIT-SOONER OR LATER!

[ditchdj]

I heard that a sky-high turnover rate actually benefits the company because they save money in paying benefits like paid vacations and contributing to health insurance.

[iradney]

I heard that a sky-high turnover rate actually benefits the company because they save money in paying benefits like paid vacations and contributing to health insurance.

What they save in that, they pay for in training and recruitment. Not to mention that new employees, until they're fully adjusted, generally don't give the same level of customer service as experienced employees.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

What they save in that, they pay for in training and recruitment.

Probably not true for my store. Here is more or less how training goes at my store:

(this all happened this weekend with a new employee I'll call C)

C comes in to work and asks what he's supposed to do all day
Manager: Okay, you're going to be filling and backstocking the freight off last night's truck.
C:Okay....I never did that before
Manager: Oh, just follow somebody around who's working on freight. You'll pick it up.

A call for a carryout comes over the PA, and our carryout person doesn't come in until a couple hours later
Manager: Oh C, you're also going to have to do carryouts until our carryout person comes in
C: Okay....I've never done that either.
Manager: Well, have somebody help you then.

So C gets a carryout and spends close to 15 minutes looking for the item, because he doesn't know where all the various backroom locations are. Customer gets pissed because she has to wait so long. C then spends the rest of the day following various employees around like a puppy and still doesn't really know how to fill or backstock or locate things in backstock.

[symposes]

or C gets trained for a register. Thats not hard either.
You can train someone to run a register, for normal stuff, in less then 20 minutes.
less, if they have experience in running a register, and just need to know what buttons to hit.

[Broomjockey]

Most places hire specifically for cashier positions though, so if "C" is ending up in cashier, it'll more likely be "C! We don't have any carry-outs, but the lines are 10 people deep! Grab a til!" Think it's not likely? Happened in my theatre with only minor variation.

[RammsteinGirl]

IPF, you must work where I work (national retail chain, rhymes with May-tart). God that sounds exactly like the way they train people. For cashiers, they'll have someone stand over them for a couple hours for one day and after that, they're on their own, and are forced to learn as they go, often by mistake.

One time, my manager begged me to cover Sporting Goods/Pantry/Housewares/Furniture/Automotive/Hardware departments.. nevermind the fact that I have NEVER worked a dept on the floor before (I've always been checkouts and cash office) and I don't even know where half the shit is in the back if a customer wanted an item, and I don't know how to process hunting/fishing licenses. I also wouldn't be able to lift any kind of furniture (I'm female) and I don't know jack shit about hardware or automotive parts. I told her this and she's like, oh just call someone to help you out then! Yeah, thanks.

I covered it, luckily I had an easy shift and I just put out freight for most of the time.

Next year, once they re-open the Garden Shop - I WILL FLAT OUT REFUSE TO BE SCHEDULED BACK THERE! I don't know the slightest thing about flowers and plants, so I was livid when I was randomly scheduled to work out there all by myself. My HR manager was like, "Oh, it's easy! You'll do fine! Every plant has a ticket that tells you what it is inside." Yeah, thanks, that helps a lot. I had people asking me if we had certain types of plants that I had never heard of (a CLIMBING hibiscus? ) and I didn't know what to tell them "Well.. do you see any out here..?" I was so embarrassed because I'm sure it was completely obvious I didn't know anything.

Can't wait to quit this company after Xmas.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

IPF, you must work where I work (national retail chain, rhymes with May-tart)

Actually, I don't.

Most places hire specifically for cashier positions though, so if "C" is ending up in cashier, it'll more likely be "C! We don't have any carry-outs, but the lines are 10 people deep! Grab a til!" Think it's not likely? Happened in my theatre with only minor variation.

Happens at my store every day, but the lines don't get to 10 people deep before we call for extra cashiers. Company standard is backup cashiers must be called when there are 2 people in each line. We don't follow this to the letter because we usually have so few registers running at once, everybody on the floor would be doing nothing but running a register all day.

The suits get anal about it though, and if they're walking off the store and see more than 2 people in each line they get pissy. "There's three people in every line! Why haven't you called for backup yet?"

or C gets trained for a register. Thats not hard either.

C is a salesfloor employee, so technically he is supposed to be register-trained.

[BookstoreEscapee]

B&N's line standard is 5 people per cashier (they have the single line - multiple cashiers set up). Of course, when there are only 4 people closing, including the manager (plus 1 each in kids and music), as has been the case numerous times when I've stopped in Store1 and chatted with a woman I used to work with), that's not always possible.

They do have a detailed training system with workbooks to read for the different aspects of the job, and when I trained someone on register, they would read the book, then we'd go through the basic transactions in training mode, and then I'd put them on a live register and watch them do several transactions, and they would always be left with another cashier until they were relatively comfortable on the register. Their first shift, at least, they would not be left alone.

[Sandman]

What they save in that, they pay for in training and recruitment. Not to mention that new employees, until they're fully adjusted, generally don't give the same level of customer service as experienced employees.

It's usually around 25% more in the amount of money they saved.

So if they would have saved $50,000, it ended up costing them $75,000

[werewolffan98]

Plus the guitars at Wally-World seriously are junk, because when i get enough money i'll buy myself a Strat.

Because i got one of those First-Act electrics and they do have bad tone.