You MIGHT go home after 4 hours EVEN IF you're throwing up all over the place

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I saw his name on the "Walk of Shame" last time I was back home visiting.

What's the "walk of shame"

Sounds like yet another reason I should be thankful I got one interview at Wally World in town and nothing more.

[Crosshair]

po'drph

Yes there are some bad managers and some dumb company policies, find me ANY company that doesn't have these. (You won't) From personal experience and input from people I know. WM is one of the better retail companies to work for in my area. I have had FAR worse jobs than working at WM. Everyone rags on WM about different things, but forgets to mention that many other retailers do the same or worse.

As for the "treating employees like crap" I can say that at my store, that is simply not true.

If you don't like WM, fine. But my experience with WM has been very positive.

[CSR Kim]

I worked at Wal-Mart for almost a year. As part time jobs go, it wasn't terrible. They worked with my college schedule for the most part, and the job was mindless and not difficult (cashier in Lawn & Garden, yay.)

There were two reasons I quit. 1) All the managers that actually "knew" me moved to other stores, and I was more or less treated like a non-person by those who were left. Trying to speak to one to get anything changed (they scheduled me outside my availability for example) was next to impossible. I was always given the "I'll meet with you later today" or "I'll take care of it" and nothing was ever done, even when I did follow up on it.
2) I got sick of being treated like crap just because I was a cashier. People had a tendency to think that I was dumb or useless because I was standing behind a cash register. One time I was straightening the area around the register on a slow day, and I had a customer whistle at me like a dog to come back to my register. Incidentally, they had unloaded all the junk on the register that I was not on. So I walked back and stood at my side and said, "Oh, I'm sorry. That register isn't open." Didn't even help them move their stuff either. I do not tolerate being treated like a lesser human being by anyone.

[Kara]

What's the "walk of shame"

Most Wal-Marts have one, but I've seen some that don't. It's usually in the walkway dividing the men's and women's clothing sections. After five years, they put an employee's name and start date on one of the floor tiles with a little star above it. After 10 years they fill in the star with a gold color.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Interesting. I will look for that the next time I visit Wally World in town. If it has one I'll probably see my aunt's name on it.

[Crazyredhead]

I used to work in a call center called Convergys and they refuse to accept doctors notes from anyone. There were some former employees that would alter the doctors notes to get excused days off from work, they were caught.

They would only accept a doctors note if you missed 2 or more days off in a row, so they could all be condensed into one excused day. There way of thinking was that you should have already know when you were going to be sick, so you could schedule off for that day. If you missed more than a certain days in a year you were terminated/fired.

[Jack7957]

I worked one place that allowed 3 days off for an immediate family member death. They would verify that it was a direct relative by checking the obits to see if your name was listed among the suviving relatives.

[Sandman]

My boss came over and ordered me to take the rest of the day off: "And you're not coming in tomorrow either. Go home and get well!"

She knows I'm stubborn and would probably die in my office chair before asking to go home ill.

I'm just like the same thing. My boss one day took one look at me and told me to go home because I looked like I would faint at anytime. I called out the following day and my boss said "Don't worry, we expected you to call out because you didn't look to well the day before and we know you never call out."

[Reyneth]

They would verify that it was a direct relative by checking the obits to see if your name was listed among the suviving relatives.

Oh, that's great. The newspaper in my hometown charges for obits. And rarely are grandchildren's names listed.

Luckily, when my father died it was right after Christmas (ok, that wasn't quite lucky) but buisness was slow so I was able to ease back into things over about 7-10 days. And my DM came to the calling hours (well, he did more than that.......) so there was no concern about "proof."

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

My solution is to wait until I can't make it to the bathroom. When you harf in the middle of the store they get you out of there to prevent the customers from freaking out if you toss cookies a second time.

Never failed me once

[BookstoreEscapee]

I worked one place that allowed 3 days off for an immediate family member death.

How do they define direct relative? My grandmother's obit only listed the names of her children and their spouses, and said she had X grandchildren and XX great-grandchildren. She had 8 grandchildren and 4 step-grandsons (who I've always just considered cousins even though they're not blood relatives) and I've lost count of how many great-grandchildren. Most of my cousins are married. That'd be one expensive obit if they listed us all by name. But I did get 3 bereavement days, also, for the funeral and stuff. I missed work the day after she died (which was late on a Sunday night so I didn't want to drive back to PA) and the funeral was that Thursday so I just took of Friday too. Only went to work Tues and Wed because it was better than hanging around the house being sad.

[Banrion]

How do they define direct relative?

Everyone loves their grandparents, but they are NOT immediate family. Immediate family is: Parents, Children & Spouse, thats it. Anything else doesn't count, and most companies will make you take personal time for a death that does not fall within those guidelines.

[Reyneth]

Immediate family is: Parents, Children & Spouse, thats it. Anything else doesn't count, and most companies will make you take personal time for a death that does not fall within those guidelines.

I can see people abusing time off for a death - but I think it's crummy that you're forced to take personal time. I'd rather have unpaid days than take up my vacation time - which likely will be more needed now after a family or close friend death.

And, again something that probably came about because of abuse by sucky employees, but I hate that they can define family like that. I spend lots of time with my grandmother (despite being in a care facility, my mom is there 1-2 hours every day, minimum so I spend a lot of time when I'm visiting my mom and when she goes to the ER/hospital I'm home as soon as I can be to help my mom) and that doesn't "count" yet someone could be estranged from parents for years but gets "credit" when their father dies? BS

I'm really bitter regarding a state school (think protests and students killed in the '70s) where I was attending grad school. My dad died Dec 29. Funeral was Jan 3 (needed autopsy because it was sudden and completely unexpected and then the holidays). New semester started Jan 12. I went back, thinking it was the right thing to do. Came to the realization about 3 weeks later that I should not be there - working 45 min away at a fulltime job (that luckily was very understanding), driving 45 min the other direction to my mom's to start cleaning out my dad's house (that took 3 months of serious work), and my heart wasn't in the classes I was taking.

Of course this was *right* after the drop deadline. Person I talked to said it shouldn't be an issue getting my money back, they have an appeals process for situations like mine. Because of the autopsy and general buisiness of that time of year (lots of people die then!), the death cert took until right after the appeals deadline - and they needed it to make a decision. I was denied, the reason given that he died before the semester started, I had plenty of time to make a decision.
You're kidding, right? Wrong. I'm now paying back a student loan for classes I never went to and was assured I wouldn't have to pay for!

[zeoquean]

po'drph
From personal experience and input from people I know. WM is one of the better retail companies to work for in my area.

PLEASE EDIT QUOTES

You know, it's the same way at my WM. I've been there over 5 years. My managers are great, and everyone is super nice (well, minus one cashier that I can't stand...but the other 250+ are awesome)

[Pezzle]

Well I work for a major consumer electronics store dating back to the fifties. Sometimes as a higher paid associate one gets a few benefits. We have no rules for how long associates must stay if they are ill. We can call out whenever we please, as the SD doesn't enjoy getting sick... ntm he has a young boy.

I was so sick I was coughing up blood, they understood and I was not penalized what-so-ever. Whenever another technician is sick we always stay another hour or two so he can get rest and we can work together as a tight unit again. We're only 4 people, we're pretty tight.

So remind me to never work at Wal Mart