If It Wasn't For The Customers...

Wal-Mart might not be such a bad place to work if it wasn't for the customers.

I don't know, but I'm pretty sure Wal-Mart customers are more rude and disrespectful than other retail outlet's customers. I know I've never walked into a Target or a Sears or a K-Mart or any other retail store and seen so much evidence of wanton destruction and vandalism as is found throughout every Wal-Mart.

Here's one nightmare customer story:

It was a Friday evening, during the peak shopping hours (After the majority of America's working people get off work, but still early enough that it isn't bed time yet), on the first of the month, which is the day the Welfare and Social Security checks come out. The only time I can imagine that might be a busier time for a Wal-Mart associate would be the first day of the month on a Saturday. Or "Black Friday".

All of my co-workers were either not scheduled to work that day or had "called out", meaning they called in sick, and I was alone. By myself. On the busiest night of the month. I literally had lines of people waiting to ask me where something (usually right next to them or behind them) is, or to ask some equally stupid question.

I'm going to digress here just for a moment because I just reminded myself of probably the stupidest question I ever get, and I get it more often than one can imagine. The question is this:

"Where is the restroom?"

Now, one might say this is not a stupid question, but keep in mind that the restrooms in every Wal-Mart in the world are located in the exact same place. Back wall, middle of the store, in, or next to, the electronics department. When anyone enters my department, the sign for the restrooms is prominently displayed right in front of their eyes. Have they never been in a Wal-Mart in their entire life?

Anyway. So, I'm busier than a one legged man in a butt kicking contest. As I said, I have customers standing in line waiting for help. I am in the middle of going through the time consuming task of selling a contract cell phone to a customer. This process can take as long as as 10-20 minutes when it goes smoothly. If there are problems, I've seen the process go well over an hour.

This customer walks directly up to the counter behind me, without even entering the department, without even a short cursory look around the department, without any attempt at all to ascertain for himself whether we had the product he was looking for at all, and interrupts my interaction with the cell phone customer. To ask me, in a thick Russian accent, if we had some little portable radio. I don't remember his exact words, but I was reasonably sure he was referring to an old-fashioned transistor radio. Wal-Mart hasn't carried anything like that for more than a decade.

I politely said, "No sir, we don't have that item."

To which he replied (and I kid you not), "Is there anyone here who knows that I can ask?"

I admit, under the circumstances, I probably visibly bristled at this blatant insult, as I answered, "Sir. I'm here. I know. And we don't have it." Then, I turned my back on him and resumed helping the legitimate customer.

I don't know where he went after that, but I soon got a strong clue.

About ten minutes after my cell phone customer left, and there was a short lull between customers, one of the assistant managers appeared and informed me there had been a complaint about me. To her credit, she was remarkably understanding for a typical assistant manager in our store. She said she understood that I was by myself and overwhelmed with the crowds of customers, but I must always remember to be nice to them, regardless of how they treat me.

All I could say was:

"I'm doing the best I can."

And that's the truth.

One Grenade...

OK, so what does a school of fish have to do with why I hate working at Wal-Mart?

I work in the wireless phone department. I sell cell phones. In our store, the Wireless phone department, otherwise known as "The Connection Center" is sort of a sub-department of the Electronics department. Both departments are under the same manager.

Incompetent as my Department manager is, she's not the problem. My problem is with my co-workers. In my department, the Connection Center, there are two full time associates and one part time associate. If we are scheduled properly, there should be at least one associate in the wireless kiosk all the time it is open.

I am one full time associate. The other full time associate is a young man who has been employed by Wal-Mart longer than I. He has been a department manager in the past, but isn't one now. Apparently, he likes being a department manager and he fancies himself to be an assistant store manager now, since he rarely spends any time actually in the cell phone department. Instead, he flits all around the store, helping all other departments stock, reset modulars, and whatever else needs to be done.

That, in itself, is not necessarily a bad thing, but it consumes the majority of his time, even when there are no other associates present to man the cell phone kiosk. If no one is working the cell phone desk, no cell phones will be sold.

The other associate, the part time one, actually does more in the wireless department than the other full time associate. But she considers herself more an electronics associate than a wireless associate. Now, we are all required to help out in both departments when needed, but often, when she is needed in the Connection center, she is pre-occupied with "helping" one or more of the electronics associates, even when they are quite capable of doing the job by themself.

Not only that, but she is a chain smoker, and disappears from the department at least once every hour to go outside and smoke. And when I say "disappears", I mean she sneaks away without telling anyone she is leaving the department. That is something that's been expressly forbidden continually by upper management. It is not difficult to simply tell someone you are going to be out of the department for a few minutes, yet she continues to sneak away at least once every hour.

Also, there is something going on between her and a certain other associate. I'm not quite sure the extent of her relationship with this man, but all the associates in the store suspect there is more going on between them than a mere friendship.

Both are unmarried but the scandal has to do with their disparity in age. She is mid-twenties and he has grandchildren almost as old as she. No one can explain why she continues to hang around with this man. She has gone to management about him in the recent past complaining of sexual harassment, and he was warned, but still she buddies up to him in public as if they are lovers. Everyone finds this behavior inexplicable.

But, besides all this, this guy she is so friendly with stinks. Badly. When he walks by, one can smell a horrible odor that follows in his wake. He has been warned multiple times to clean himself up but apparently, he doesn't believe he stinks, or simply refuses to comply. Plus, he is a liar. He tries to explain electronic equipment to customers when he has no clue what he's talking about. he tries to pass himself off as an expert. He's not.

Any other company would have fired this malodorous malefactor long ago, but not my Wal-Mart.

There are a few other associates in the Electronics department I haven't mentioned yet. I have problems with them, as well. Although I like them generally, they have an annoying habit of backstabbing me when they are around the aforementioned other two associates, the smelly old guy and the young chain smoker girl.

They all hang together during working hours and continually talk about me behind my back. They think I don't know, but I've heard them. They accuse me of not working. They accuse me of not helping them enough. They go to our assistant manager and tell him I don't help them. Their complaints against me have cost me real money by affecting the result of my yearly review. Apparently the assistant manager depends on the word of these very unreliable employees over his own observations.

I liken the behavior of these other associates and co-workers to fish swimming in a school. I wish I could get a hold of the video taken by the security cameras iun our department just once. I would fast forward the tape and watch my co-workers flit back and forth en masse just like a school of fish, all reversing directions and turning this way and that way as if they all have one mind.

That's what they do. Walk all around the department all together in a little group, working, helping each other (which is good if they need that much help, but most of the time they don't), and complaining about other associates who actually work.

Meanwhile, I do my job. I don't have the time or inclination to join this group.

One would think this is all I need to be unhappy with my co-workers. But that isn't all. They don't help me, either. While stocking the shelves in the electronics department, when they come across items that belong to the Connection Center, instead of putting them up as they are supposed to do, they simply deposit them on my counter and expect me to put them up whether I am currently busy or not.

Then, every time they get a chance, they run to management to complain that I don't help them.

That, by the way, is a complete and total lie. I help them constantly. When I don't have Connection Center work to do, which is my first priority, I busy myself doing whatever needs to be done in the electronics department. I keep busy all the time. I don't disappear every 10 minutes like they do, and when I have to leave the department I find someone and tell them where I'm going and why. They do not extend me the same courtesy.

This little clique sticks together so closely, it is comical. On observance, I can't help thinking, "One grenade would get you all".

Since no one at Wal-Mart seems to care that these things go on, All of these things are just several more reasons why I hate working at Wal-Mart.

First Post

Unfortunately, I work at Wal-Mart. I do not work at Wal-Mart by choice. No one starts out with the career aspiration of working at Wal-Mart. Like me, most people end up there after they've failed to find any work elsewhere.

Since this is my first post, let me begin by explaining what I intend to use this blog space for:

Every time I get home from a day's work at Wal-Mart, I have a new complaint about my job.

It could be jerk co-workers.

It could be a rude customer.

It could be an incompetent boss.

It could be an asinine corporate policy.

Whenever I get angry or frustrated or fed up with Wal-Mart or some other Wal-Mart related matter, I will create an entry on this blog as a sort of catharsis. Venting my frustrations will, hopefully, ease my stress level.

Now. Today's rant is about store/corporate policy.

Tuesday I was scheduled to work 12 noon to 9PM. That's OK. I don't mind working those hours. When I hired in, I agreed to twenty-four hour availability, all seven days of the week and all holidays. So, the hours I work are never a problem for me.

As a Wal-Mart associate, I am expected to stay on my feet on that hard concrete tiled floor for 8 hours a day. I agreed to that, too. Still no problem.

At 58 years of age, oftentimes walking and standing constantly on that hard floor makes my feet hurt. That is something I've learned to put up with, and truthfully, something I have put up with at many jobs I've had in my lifetime. Usually, when I get home after work, if my feet hurt too much, I take a couple of Aspirin or Ibuprofren and go to bed, and usually, when I awake the next morning, my feet are fine. I've no complaints about that. It goes with the job.

But last Tuesday, things didn't happen as usual. Tuesday, I did nothing out of the ordinary. Tuesday, my left ankle started hurting early in my shift. I thought it was because the weather was changing and arthritis was affecting the ankle I had sprained last December, and I was prepared to grin and bear it.

But it wasn't the ankle I hurt last year. It was the other ankle.

I have no explanation as to why my ankle started hurting. I didn't bang it on anything. I didn't twist it or turn it. I didn't sprain it. It just started hurting, and continued hurting throughout my shift. When I got home Tuesday evening, the pain had spread all the way to my knee. Just as I had done hundreds of times before, I took some over-the-counter pain relief medication and went to bed.

Only this time, the pain was much worse than usual. And worse yet, after tossing and turning all night trying to sleep through the pain, when I awoke, the pain wasn't gone. It was as bad, or possibly even worse than it was the night before. Something wasn't right.

Although I literally never call in sick, I decided to call in sick Wednesday morning a couple of hours before my scheduled starting time. I reasoned if the pain hadn't gone away during the night, it surely wasn't going to go away while I stood and walked around on that hard floor all day.

Today (Thursday) I had the day off anyway, and as I was still in pain, I used my time to visit the doctor and have myself checked out. He suggested I take the weekend off and stay off my feet, and gave me a note to give my bosses explaining that and also that I should be allowed to sit down occasionally during working hours the following week.

I went into the store to pick up a couple of things and to drop off the two notes from my doctor. Imagine my chagrin when I was told by the personnel manager that the company no longer accepts doctor's excuses, and that I would have to call in everyday that I took off. On top of that, she informed me that whatever days I took off were considered unexcused absences. Then she went on to explain that Wal-Mart doesn't allow associates to do "light duty" while recuperating. If I can't fully execute my duties with an injured ankle, I would have to take a (unpaid) leave of absence.

This, in spite of the fact that, during new hire orientation, every new hire is informed that if they have some sort of disability, a "reasonable accommodation" can be made to accommodate their infirmity.

Now, she says, I would have had to be injured in an accident while on the job to qualify for that accommodation.

I didn't know any of these policies were actual Wal-Mart policies, but, after my wife angrily called our lawyer to see if we had any recourse, I learned they are legal, if not legitimate policies.

As I said, I rarely have need to take sick days off. The last time I took sick leave on any job was in 1993, when I had to have surgery to remove a growth from my vocal chords. And I wouldn't have taken even those days off if I hadn't needed my voice to do my job.

So, no accommodation. Unexcused absences that will certainly look good on my work record. However, I could use one day of personal time and two days of sick leave to insure I wouldn't suffer a loss of income during the three days (I am scheduled off Saturday anyway)I have off.

Isn't that nice of them?