How WalMart Really is
Description of how WalMart really is from a past employee.
I know what you’re thinking, “This is just another Wal-Mart article trying to put ideas into my head and to sabotage Wal-Mart.” Well, it’s not (you probably heard that one, too). I am just telling you my experience at Wal-Mart and what I think of the company. I’ve had good and bad experiences working at Wal-Mart, and seems upon doing some wishful researching so has many others. I applied and was hired from Wal-Mart twice. Both times, two different Wal-Marts, for me, was mostly bad experiences rather than good ones.
As a past employee of Wal-Mart (twice), I’ve gained some experience, knowledge, and opinions of Wal-Mart. I’ve also noticed how other employees and managers really are behind those smiling faces they give to customers. I’ve noticed that there are a lot of employees that are just not happy working at Wal-Mart. It’s wasn’t the kind of company they thought it seem to be. A lot of employs just wanted to go home, and when they went home at the end of their shift, it was always with a headache, stressed and exhausted.
When you are hired by Wal-Mart and you go into orientation. They make Wal-Mart seem like the perfect job ever and you can’t wait to start working. Then after sometime of working there, you may realize that it is not all that it was said to be at orientation. They tell you all these wonderful things about the company. How it works, how managements is, what the jobs are like, the benefits, the discount cards, how they’re not really a turnover company. Or how the company is suppose to be anyway, few months later, I realized majority of what was said wasn’t entirely true.
One of the things we were told at orientation is that Wal-Mart is not a turnover company. Now, that’s what they say but I believe otherwise. But one thing I notice is that employees come and go so fast and are replaced almost immediately. Though, their turnover rate has falling, from bout 65% to bout 40-50%, from what was told at the orientation I went to last year. And yet, I still saw familiar faces leave the company and new faces arrive. Regardless of the facts I may find on Wal-Mart and their turnover rate, I do believe that Wal-Mart is a turnover company whether they want to believe it or not. I believe this because, they do think that their employees are replaceable. One main reason is their Leave-of-absence policies. You have to be their a certain amount of hours to qualify for a Medical Leave-of-absence, where you job is protected. But if you don’t meet that qualification you have to take a Personal Leave-of-absence. Where pretty much your job is not protect and you can be replaced at anytime. Why is this? Because you are replaceable.
I TOTALLY AGREE WITH YOU!!!!! BEEN THERE, EXPERIENCE IT FOR OVER 5 YEARS NOW. WHY I DON’T QUIT? JUST WORKING FOR SOME EXTRA POCKET MONEY AND LIVE CLOSEBY.
I agree with everything! I’ve been with them for 2 years now and I am a victim of their favoritism, I’ve been promised advancement after advancement…”you would make such a great supervisor!!! -giggle- -giggle-!!” I’ve had countless interviews “oh, but don’t get discouraged! keep trying!” and I’ve still yet to see it while others get advanced within 4 months of working there. I think Walmart likes to promote people that actually have no clue as to what they are doing, maybe it is some kind of job security for upper management??? I always encourage people to avoid shopping there and avoid applying for a job there as well.
I have worked at my local walmart twice now. First as a cashier. And big surprise, I left because if I didn’t I would have been fired for being gone on medical leave too long ( about a month ). I was told when I reapplied I’d be hired in a heartbeat since I was such an amazing worker, I reapplied 3 times, and ended up needing to call them and figure out what the hell was going on. They had forgotten why I left and assumed I left on a bad note.I think the new LOA policy is a joke. I’m in apparel now, but I’m friends with people all over the store, one of my cashier friends was in a terrible car accident and was in the hospital, she was denied an LOA because she had worked just under a year. Another cashier friend of mine was threatened her job if she left while she was miscarrying her pregnancy. I’ve been really upset with the personnel people lately. On my availability I’m not available past ten, and not available at all on mondays, what are my hours? shifts until 11, and I was put on the schedule monday nights even though I have college night classes. I also agree with what that Doc hopper person was saying, they really screw people over with promotions. Why do we have people who have been cashiers and apparel for 15 years? We recently had an overnight guy get promoted to support manager after he had been working ten years.
I’m just looking forward to moving out of this small town. I would love to get a job somewhere else. You know, at Hy-Vee they don’t have all of this “absence” crap. if you’re sick then you’re sick, stay home. At Walmart, if you’re sick, who cares, get to work and throw up in the bathroom or else it’s your job.
yea i agree with you bud me n my mom wer workin there …y i dont know because we live in a motel room and cant afford rent of a real house cause we dont get paid enough and they just fired her for taking time off from that medical loa crap….witch they told her she had anyways
I worked for this company for way too long and should have left long ago. I was approved for FMLA leave but missed some time (not a full day) beyond what the law covers. They made me request and begin a personal leave of absence immediately. Then they sent me a letter rejected my request for leave because I wasn’t totally disabled. Now they can claim I abandoned my job or terminated my employment by choice, which is totally false but disqualifies me from unemployment benefits in this state. I know they wanted to get rid of me because of my chronic medical condition. I’m not the first person they’ve targeted, and this wasn’t the first time they’ve shown their disapproval toward “sickly” associates. They began trying to get rid of me in very blatant ways, just like they have done with several others on FMLA. I understand they want us gone, but I hate the way they act about it – like they’re just doing their job. Seriously? Your job is to harass workers with a history of excellent reviews and several promotions because taking time off for a serious illness is unacceptable? That’s messed up! I didn’t work in a store, so I’m not sure how things are there, but I expect it’s worse with such high turnover. Don’t assume turnover is improving because the company is a better employer. Since the economy crashed, people are afraid to leave their job so turnover is decreasing nationally. This change in worker behavior is effecting all companies, even the ones that suck. Plus reorganizing your workforce means firing people based on their position and then eliminating the position and creating a new one with a new title, so that doesn’t count against turnover calculations.