20 Wal-Mart Hours Per Week, And Yet You Can Only Have One Job
If you move job classifications or shifts you are automatically made part time. This is not seasonal or due to the current time of year; this is a permanent move. Wal-Mart is so good for America that it is making its workforce part time; things are so good in our country that no one needs a full time job according to them. Didn’t there used to be a law that a certain percentage of employees had to be full-time? How are they getting away with being a full time business, with full time workloads, and not providing full time work for employees anymore? This is an atrocity and an outrage and they should be run out of the country. In some small towns where Wally World is the economy now the only job you will find is part-time. They also make you have open availability: that is you must be willing to work any hours, anytime to be able to get your hours, so you wouldn’t even be able to get a second job to make up for their cutting you to part time. In my opinion Wal-Mart is a criminal entity, no morals, corrupt, and Americans need to wake-up and demand that they stop stealing livelihoods from Americans!
–anonymous
Scheduling
40 Hours a Week is Part-Time?
“I have worked for about 8 months now at Wal Mart, and have not received promised benefits although I work full-time hours. I was told it was because I am classified as a part time employee. Uh, hello? 40 hours a week is part time?? Oh, and these folks do love to cut hours late in the pay period too, so as to “not go into overtime”. Last but not least, I was cheated out of a bonus several months back because I “wasn’t there long enough” by about a week or TWO DAYS (depending on who’s doing the counting), or perhaps long enough (by my own reckoning). But then I guess the bean-counters opinion is the only one that matters, isn’t it?”
A temp worker’s bad experience at Wal-Mart
“I was a temporary night shift worker at Wal-Mart during the holiday season and my experience was utterly horrible. The pay sucked. I would arrive at 10 pm and most days we were not allowed to leave until 9am because everything on a certain list had to be done no matter what it was, or how long it was going to take. I was a good worker and worked hard. Once Christmas was over, I was called in the office on 01-01-2009. They let me go because the season was over. Just like that, I was unemployed.”
- Patrick Stein
Scheduling
Wages
Age Discrimination at Walmart
I have been at Walmart for 6 years this feb. I am a Dept Manager in the fresh area for 4 and 1/2 years. I am a very young 61 year old and can do the job of 3 20 year olds and do. I have always liked my job until recently. My yearly evals have always been exceeds job expectations. Recently Walmart did some pay grade changing which I was interviewed for but never got. Each time, and there was three differant positions, one went to a woman 35 years old, one to a women 49 years old and the last one was a male 34 years old. I have been paying attention to hiring trends recently and new hires are very young. I feel like I have been discriminated against. I have noticed things recently that I feel as though they are trying to make the older dept mgrs quit. I feel if I file a discrimination complaint against them I would be really harassed. Has anyone one else had a similar experience lately at Walmart?
Discrimination
Anonymous in Alberta/Nova Scotia, Canada
“I work at Wal-Mart in Alberta and I needed a transfer. This was to be my second one, and I wanted to go back to my original store in Nova Scotia. I called the Manager of the original store and he said that I was not trustworthy enough to come back to the store because I went behind his back to the Regional Manager about getting a transfer the first time. After a brief period of hollering and screaming, he asked me to come into the store and we would sit down and discuss the issues face-to-face. When I got home, I found that he had no intentions of bringing me back to the store. I was also told by fellow Associates that as long as I stood up to him he would not bring me back. I also found out that this person had fired another associate because of integrity reasons. What was the reason? The policy at Wal-Mart is that the Managers and Assistant Managers are not allowed too associate with fellow associates inside or outside the store. This particular night, two male Assistant Managers and the Manager in question were at a local bar with this individual who was fired along with other Associates. The Manager pretty much forced this individual (who was fired) to dance with the Assistant Manager. She finally agreed to dance with him and that was when all hell broke lose. The Assistant Manager wanted to have relations with this individual (who was fired and married as well). She refused him and the next morning, it was overheard by the Manager that she would be gone in two days. Sure enough – DISMISSED! Complaints went in and an investigation was done. Nothing was found, other than the fact that the Assistant Manager was sent off to northern Nova-Scotia. The Manager is still at the store. I was essentially told to re-apply and lose the two years service invested into the company.”
Discrimination
Anonymous, Off the Clock
“I guess I’m one who fell through the cracks! After 35 years of management and three degrees, I was terminated for helping customers while checked out on lunch. I know the policy and what instituted it, but I was simply passing by the bike rack in the store (never watched by anyone) when three customers asked for my help. Well Mr. Walton and I seem to have the same ideas when it comes to customers, without them there is no Wal-Marts!!! Anyhow my efforts sold three bikes and resulted in three happy customers. For this effort I was fired because I had the gall to help a customer while off the clock.
“While for different causes I got into trouble with others: for helping customers, for refusing to sit and chat with others at work. Secondly, in my first 10 days of work I wrote 9 different suggestions all having to do with safety and hazardous materials (I didn’t get a chance to turn it in). I saw no reason to pursue the suggestions since the store manager left them in his in box for three weeks without reading them or taking any action. Then they were hid while people from headquarters were in the store. As a professional manager and consultant I can freely say there is no manager in my store! Employees are back-biting, fighting like 4th grade students, show no consideration for their fellow workers…I spotted this in three days on the job. People actually say “you cant concentrate if you’re smiling.” I found quite the contrary, customers asked for my line as cashier and received how pleasant it was for the consideration I demonstrated. With basically no training my cashiers skills (never done this before) exceeded all others i the Garden area where I was assigned. They are all hiding from true effort there and sexism is rampant for females wanting to get rid of men.”
Corporate Culture
Discrimination
Anonymous on Age-Based Termination
“My wife has 25 years at the Wal-Mart warehouse in [LOCATION RETRACTED]. To put it in a nutshell, Wal-Mart is systematically targeting anyone over 40 years of age for firings by assigning the heaviest, most back-breaking jobs to that class of people in the facility. Managers are encouraged to pressure senior employees into quitting and firing to ensure that young strong backs are maintained in the facility. They use a displacement policy to force high senior employees out there preferred jobs to young buck back-breaking jobs. In another words, they have found a way to throw out the old dogs and give them incentive to get out. My wife was the most senior person in her office, and they displaced her despite her seniority and threw her to the sharks.”
Discrimination
Anonymous on Gender Descrimination
“They are still making each one of us do four or five people’s jobs and never giving us our breaks or lunches on time. They are changing a lot of people’s hours, making them start working night hours, such as 4 PM to 1 in the morning when they have been there for more than six years on 7 AM to 4 pm. We think they are trying to make it harder on us, so we will quit and they can hire part-time without insurance and lower pay! We definitely need someone pulling for us in our corner. We never have a man scheduled in the morning, so we have to do load-ups in the Garden Center. They are harder on me than they are on the guys who are in their 20’s. They seem to get by with a lot, not the women. We have favorites there, too. We do the men’s jobs but don’t get paid for it like they do.”
Discrimination
Anonymous on Discriminatory Raise Practices
“I went to the EFCA meeting week or so ago; a meeting about getting a union in. In not so many words, the district human resource person tells us we need to vote republican, about how the bill would pass if the democrats got elected into power and how Wal-mart likes their associates to speak for themselves. Is that not a little unethical? I thought you still had freedom of choice here in America, but I might be wrong. And what is all this with pay-caps? I know people at other stores who hold the same department title that I do, have been there less than half the time I have and make over twenty dollars an hour, because they are MEN! What is the need for a yearly evaluation now if you are not going to get a raise because you are “capped out.” I didn’t kiss a** or brown nose to get at my current salary–I worked my a** off and do my job at above the standard. The only way I’ll ever get another raise is to go into management! NO THANKS! Shouldn’t we be entitled to a cost of living raise? New hires make pretty darn close to what I do! Lee Scott made $26 million last year, plus all his extras. Sam Walton surely didn’t want his company to turn into the greedy giant it has become.”
Discrimination
anthony_gritz_locked_in_a_wal_mart
Anthony Gritz, Locked in a Wal-Mart
“I’m a former Wal-Mart Employee. The company used to lock us in the store at night and wouldn’t let us out until all the work was done. The management used to tell us if we said anything about this we would be terminated or written up. They also used to tell us if we didn’t like it, then we could punch out never come back(after we finished our work, of coarse). They also used to make us work off the clock without getting paid, constantly threatening us with terminations and coachings.”
Corporate Culture
Anthony Gritz on Unionization and Discrimination
“I was discriminated against by Wal-Mart. They used an illegal pre-screening method/form to ask questions about having any type of disabilities, they would use this to not hire you. They also would use any type of injuries/disability against you if you couldn’t do certain types of work. They would still make you do the work, but if you tried to complain they would harass you with coachings or termination.
“If we tried to talk about unionization, we would get coached. Wal-Mart would find ways to get rid of us if we even talked about it-they did this with me. I was trying to unionize and they harassed me to the point where couldn’t take it anymore. I was followed around and harassed by Wal-Mart management and security. I was even followed around by Wal-Mart Truck drivers. This is how far Wal-Mart would go to harass not just their employees, but anyone that didn’t believe in,or anyone that didn’t follow Wal-Mart’s business model. I’m the only one from this area that has stood up to Wal-Mart and fought back against their heavy-handed tactics. They have tried to make my life miserable by using these subversive tactics against me, thinking I will give up. I’m not giving up and I urge others to fight back against Wal-Mart; take the fight to them and never back down. If enough people fight back against them, they will back down and will eventually be forced to start treating their employees better. Stop Wal-Mart from harassing people; fight back. That they must: pay better wages, offer better health care, and give better pension programs.”
Corporate Culture
” I feel that Wal-Mart is in desperate need of a union…”
When I started as an overnight stocker I began having problems almost right away. The overnight Assistant Manager, constantly claims that I don’t do my job well, and that I’m not making my case count. Those claims are ridiculous, as is the case count.
Their computers system tells them how many cases I have, and how many hours it should take me to complete my job. However the case count on the computer is wrong, and I’ve even had a manager admit this to my face. All stockers are to put out 52 cases per hour. I’ve often counted my own cases manually to check them, and don’t see how he can say I’m not making case count.
I feel that Wal-Mart is in desperate need of a union, yet it is so anti-union that people are afraid to even talk about it.
-Anonymous
Wages
I am Ashamed to Work at Wal-Mart
I think our management team is so lazy that they don’t want to make the schedules themselves. If they don’t want to make the schedules, let the department managers handle it. These managers understand their employees and can make the necessary adjustments. Right now, every time I leave work, I am so pissed off. Even though I’m glad to have a job, I am ashamed to work at Wal-Mart.
- Anonymous
Scheduling
Health care is unaffordable at Wal-Mart
“My wife works for Ball Corporation and makes three times more than I do and she only has to pay a fraction for comparable insurance. With over two million associates, half of them in the U.S., they should be able to afford a much better plan than what they do now. For this reason, I’ll stick with my wife’s insurance.”
- Anonymous
Health Care
Hard Work. No Reward.
I am an employee of Walmart and my store is the number two store in Southern California yet we are cutting hours and good hard working employees. This morning one of these hard workers got fired for going over his fifth hour by one minute. One minute! I have been absent due to illness to myself and my son. I have had Dr.‘s notes but Walmart would not excuse the days so I am now on a D day. One more call out or screw up and I’m fired. I work my butt off every night but they don’t care it’s not enough for them. My managers favorite saying is “make it happen.” Make it happen? Or what? They told us in a meeting that they will be letting people go for productivity. Now the whole store is freaked out because if they slow down they can lose their job. More than half of the overnight crew is applying for other jobs with better companies. We all pray that we can get out of Walmart before they fire us. I’ve never been fired from a job before and would hate to have that on my job history!
Full-time promise is a big time let down…
I was hired in July 2008 and was told I was hired as full time, which is what I told them I wanted. I was also told I would receive a raise after my probation period was over. Two other employees that were hired within a month of me were also told the same thing. Well, when our probation periods were up we did not receive a raise AND we were all told that we were permanent part-time. When I questioned the manager who did my review as to why I was not getting permanent full-time, he said that no one at Wal-mart starts out full time. I would not have taken the job had I known that I was not going to be full time as promised when I did the interview. Also, all of our hours have been cut as of this week.
The store manager decided that part-time employees can not have more than 33 hours per week. Even though I was only part-time, I was averaging 38-40 because my area was always short-handed. No more of that. So, now I will be losing close to $200 a month thanks to the lack of hours. So, in my area, we work our butts off and are always short-handed but they will not give us extra hours. Management never says “thank you” for a job well done. They just expect us to work shorthanded and get the job done. We are not allowed to have any overtime BUT are expected to stay till the job is done. There are several times when I have closed my area by myself. Yet, there should have been 3 people to close. I stayed past my shift each time and then was expected to take longer dinner hours to kill the extra time.
Management does not care about the fact that we do our work and can’t even make enough money to cover living expenses. And if we complain about lack of hours or bad working conditions, they tell us that we are lucky to have a job and that if we don’t like it then we don’t have to be there. Employees are not valued. We are told that we can be replaced. They now that with the way the economy is, they have many more people that are stupid enough to work for them and put up with their crap. The new assistant manager of my area promised me that I would have 38 to 38 1/2 hours per week. he also promised me that I would not have to work any more day shifts. He also kept telling us that he was hiring more people for the evening shift and that we would not have to keep working short-handed.
All of those promises have turned out to be false. I have learned that management will say whatever it takes to get us to “hang in there” and keep showing up for work. hate my job but I have 2 kids and a soon-to-be-ex that doesn’t pay child support. Wal-Mart should be ashamed at the way they treat their employees!
Scheduling
Wages
