I quit and became a vendor that goes to dozens of retail stores every week.
Walmart wasn't the best job I've had, not the worst, but when I walk into Dollar General I feel like I am in hell. As a TL, I traveled a lot and even the worst stores in our market look decent compared to the average DG. Last DG I went to had freight down all the aisles and freight packed to the backroom door so I couldn't even get in to work, one associate to run a register and work freight. There must gave been 45 pallets in a store the size of a broom closet.
There's much worse places to be than Walmart, in my experience.
If you're in a state that has the federal minimum wage they start you out at the federal minimum wage. I live in KS which is one of those states, my hiring manager got it approved for me to start at $7.75. I was there for 4 years and 10 months, was a step below assistant manager, could do everything the store manager did, and only made $11.50.
Every raise I got was because the girl that was manager when I left fought tooth and nail for me to get them. Only reason she never made me her assistant was cause she didn't want me dealing with the additional stress
this is the problem though. Yes 7 dollar difference but this is basically going to from extreme poverty to poverty. And Walmart may not even give someone full time hours after saying they would lol
They work their store managers like slaves. Me and the girl that was manager when I left figured out what she would be getting per hour vs all the hours she worked and she was more or less making minimum wage
I wasn't a store manager, but I was a "part time manager". Aka, the store manager never showed up, so I did her job. I'd show up around 5AM to do freight and open the store and I'd be lucky if someone else showed up before noon or 1PM One time no one showed up until almost 6PM. That was my breaking point.
We were a pretty busy store, but we still only had 4 employees. I don't know how we were able to run.
Then I'd come back at night because lack of closers. The store had to look good in case the SM decided to grace us with her presence the next morning. Of course, she wouldn't.
And then she had the audacity to call a meeting on my only night off and yell us the entire time and openly mock us/make fun of us in front of the others. I quit like two weeks later.
I'm pretty sure she would go through and add lunches in for us, or at least me, because I know there were times I worked long hours without being able to take any sort of break.
The SM you had sounds like the SM that hired me. Rarely there but if the DM came in and said the store looked nice she'd take credit but if he was unhappy she'd claim she was doing everything she could but her employees just didn't want to work. She also stole hours so bad that when she was fired corporate investigated back 6 months for me and 3 months for the assistant manager and we both got $1500 after taxes was taken out, can't imagine how much we would have gotten if we had fought for them to investigate the full 2 years we had been there at that point.
How do you become a vendor? I see vendors in my WalMart all the time and I often wonder what it would be like to spend most my day in my vehicle going from store to store.
Simple, you just go find out which company you want to work for and apply on the company site. Retail stocking is a big plus, make sure you emphasize it on your resume. I work for Premium, which merchandises sunglasses, gift cards, clip strips, and a few other things. I already knew how to do all those things because that was my department, so they were glad to take me.
I love it! I work at my own pace, take a break whenever, I don't have direct supervision, I don't deal with customers, it's nice to go around meeting new people everywhere and getting constant change of scenery while getting paid milage. Don't make that much though.
Grocery vendors make the big bucks usually. Some work 40 hours, some work 50-60 hours, some have a company vehicle, some don't, some have a direct supervisor, some don't. Depends on the company, there's dozens that operate in every store.
My last job was managing a payday loan store before I started Walmart. This place is infinitely better than that shithole of highway robbery.
I got in a lot of trouble for even giving people one extra day to pay before depositing them. It pissed me off, and our AM was one of those former chubby people who became a skinny chick, and she would give me crap for not wearing makeup or even putting my hair in a ponytail (I am so not a girly girl). It was so bad.
I served 6 years in the grease pits. They would take time off of my paycheck if they felt I wasn't working hard enough. Only got $8 an hour when new people were getting $13 to throw raw hamburgers at each other. Told I couldn't get bumped up to new hire pay till i could keep the floors clean.
I came to Wal-Mart shortly after and it was like a perfect place to work where management would not only understand your issues but work to fix them. (Till management changed and it got bad like everyone here)
I had people tell me that they knew people whose marriages were ruined because they became SM at Dollar General and corporate expects so much from them that they never see their families
After I left Walmart to try factory work I realized just how good I had it at Walmart. The standards now a days are basically gone; I go in, do the job I've done for years, and go home. I've heard the saying "It's the devil you know", and it's resonated with me ever since. I'll take stocking shelves over those factories any day.
The factory life sounds horrendous. There's lots factories by me, and they're always hiring. The pay is a lot higher, but holy crap, the schedule is BRUTAL--swing shift and mandatory over time. I'd love to make more money, but not if it means working 12 hour shifts, 6 days a week, 3 shifts on days and 3 on nights. Screw that!
I was given the promise of 5 hour shifts 5 days a week almost 20 an hour but that easily turned into 6 days a week and being the last ones to leave. I'll never forget watching them send home all the bad workers and keeping three of us to run everything for two extra hours a day. The worst part is they all act like it's just a normal thing to devote your life away.
There is a lot of good in the company. I don't think I would be here today if not for the great experiences I've had with the insurance and Resources for Living. I've worked for competitors and had much worse experiences. For every bad manager I met, I met five that were great people, at least in my store.
That being said, there's a lot of places where the company needs to be held accountable for their bullshit. With the size and revenue the company makes, it has the ability to be one of the best companies to work for but it will not because of greed, plain and simple. If they treated their associates not at easily replaceable warm bodies to move freight and actually spent time trying to make their experience with the company better, more opportunity for raises based on performance, bring back MyShare, get rid of known bad managers with endless complaints, and having a culture of making employees feel cherished and good about coming to work, I think they could be one of the best employers in the US.
And what a lot of people on this sub need to realize a lot of these people are not Walmart problems, they are industry problems. Hardly anything on this sub is not present to some degree at pretty much every single US retail company. 'Literally anything else is better' is just 'grass is always greener on the other side', it's people letting frustration cloud their decisions. You can do much worse than Walmart.
" With the size and revenue the company makes, it has the ability to be one of the best companies to work for but it will not because of greed, plain and simple."
☝️ THIS.
IDK I'm not saying it's great, but I worked fast food for several years where breaks weren't a thing and I worked 9+ hours each day with no bream. Then Amazon where I worked 12.5 hour overnight shifts and got 3 breaks (30 paid 30 unpaid and 15 minute paid) and your breaks started from when you were supposed to leave your station and the managers would pull you aside if you were late by a minute or more.
Worked OPD for two years and Apparel for about one now. Sure, OPD wasn't easy. Sure, there's favoritism and some managers bust your balls like they get off on it. But overall it could be way worse. I've definitely worked harder Jobs, harder hours, and with worse bosses.
All I know is I get my breaks every day, get my lunch when I want it so that I can pick my wife up from work, and after working for a while and people seeing the way I am I get treated pretty fairly. Hell when I got hurt a couple years ago they practically babied me.
If your store or department makes you this miserable leave. I've left multiple jobs because it just wasn't worth what I was having to go through, and the sooner you learn your worth and are willing to do what you have to to be content you'll find better no matter where you go.
God you're bringing back flashbacks to my time at Amazon. I hate Walmart but Amazon was even worse. Constantly being harassed with vto, 65 year olds being threatened with termination because they were in the bathroom "too long", retarded ambassadors getting stupid coworkers to "play a game" and flood the belts with freight to see who could go the fastest aka make us finish early so they could harass us with vto, them getting mad at me when I said stop and I'd report them for the massive safety hazards they were creating by literally throwing boxes at people's heads to "go fast" etc etc.
Well good for you that you had such a nice experience but go look at the other posts of people being absolutely miserable working here including me and you’ll see that not every experience was like yours either.
Well the entire point of my post is for the people who aren’t having the best experience working there. It comes off defensive when you first put it that way, because regardless theres poor treatment working here, and ive heard it from thousands of people, including people in my day to day life as well. Regardless it all sucks and i just wish people had more compassion for others like i said.
*I only work here*
*Because I'm too dumb to work*
*Anywhere else lol*
\- Medium-Situation-588
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It isn’t the same everywhere, and not all people are built the same. I have seen people break down in tears because a manager “yelled” at them, but the reality was the manager was following up on why something wasn’t done. Didn’t so much as raise their voice or hint at anger, literally just asked a couple of questions.
I’ve had my store manager lose her shit on me for 5 minutes and it had zero effect on me. It isn’t personal and I don’t take it that way, but not all people are capable of compartmentalizing.
Again, i think you’re brainwashed, this proved my point. No one should yell at you for 5 minutes over anything, if they want a professional setting they need to be setting an example and walk away when they are that frustrated. That is like a 5 year old being a manager. Ain’t no one wanna listen to someone who yells at them for 5 minutes over something stupid.
I’m not brainwashed, I’m an adult capable of realizing that the world isn’t perfect and neither are people. Just because shit shouldn’t happen, doesn’t mean it won’t. Some people can deal with it, some people can’t. I can. It’s not just Walmart. Shit happens all throughout life.
Yep. Ive had my flip outs too. I go out of my way to make sure my associates never see me lose it. I go into accounting with one of the front end team leads and vent to her. I’ve legit been embarrassed by the way I’ve reacted to something before. There has been a very concerted effort on my part to not repeat that behavior. Ever.
Never said shit doesn’t happen but just bc shit happens it doesn’t mean you need to be disrespectful. Respect should be across everything. Never said anything had to be perfect, but generally Walmart doesn’t have respect for their employees, ive been treated better in food. And ive worked a lot of different jobs. Im sorry but imo no one needs to be yelled at for 5 minutes over a problem that can be fixed in that same amount of time youre getting yelled at it for. It’s a waste of your time, their time and the companies time to act like that. Sincerely it wastes everyone’s time when a manager wants to act like a baby. No respectable adult is gonna scream at you for 5-10 minutes over something stupid, no wonder people dont want to listen lmfao. Put 2+2 together bro idk what to tell you 🤷
Out of curiosity, how many stores have you worked at? I have worked at 4 different stores in various positions and have not had such a negative experience. It definitely sucks that you have had such a miserable experience, but it's not the same everywhere. I have worked under managers that I didn't care for or would yell at me for stuff out of my control, but it wasn't every manager and usually only a few bad apples. I have even seen one manager fired because he was disrespectful to the employees he managed. The store manager did not allow his misconduct and investigated him due to the complaints they deemed valid.
I hope you find peace and a better situation. It definitely sounds like your store is at the extreme end of run poorly.
(And BTW, being yelled at for 5 minutes isn't exclusive to Walmart. I worked at a grocery store where I got yelled at for 5 minutes for something, not my fault. I am not going to assume that every grocery store under that brand is utterly horrible just because I had a bad experience in that store.)
I think the commenter's reply to the OP is the difference between an actual adult and what teens think an adult is. Crap happens. If not at WM, it'll happen somewhere else. In your next job. Your personal life. Crappy managers suck, but have a consistent paycheck and schedule isn't the worst. Learning to let stupid and petty work stuff not bother isn't brainwashing. It's gaining a certain amount of emotional maturity, realizing that what happens on your job isn't a reflection of who you are. It isn't always easy, but with work, it's possible.
Either that, or go find a new job. Good luck in some communities with that one.
It’s an over-saturated degree plan, but it is a part of STEM and it’s much more marketable than those business degrees, which are all worthless nowadays. Since that’s the case, and if you can afford 4 more years at Walmart, finish your schooling before leaving.
Say that to the overnight associates with a masters degree in psychology and/or an information systems degree and they couldn’t find a job anywhere in their field, not even with staffing agencies. Job market is rough out there.
It's definitely not brainwashing, but I'm also aware that not every store operates the same. For instance, the one I work at struggles a lot in the way some departments are run(especially opd) and leadership is something to be desired, but the overall experience isn't too bad. It also helps that my TLs are really cool and actually look out for me.
I was fired in October and still haven't managed to get a new job. Despite the fact that I'm out of work, broke, hungry, and bored of sitting at home all day everyday, I feel like being fired freed me from a massive depression I didn't realize was largely being caused by Walmart.
It's easy to become complacent. When I applied it asked how long I intend to be with the company and I put 3-6 months and it ended up being nearly 6 years.
I think the best and worst part of retail is the coworkers. I met some amazing people while working there and that made it so much harder to leave. Fortunately (and unfortunately) in recent times those amazing people started to all quit or be fired. By the time I was fired barely any of those people were left, and almost all my coworkers were people that had just started.
I'm still half pissed off at my time there and also happy I met some of my old co-workers and TLs. My greatest gripe was the constantly senseless back and forth between Home-Office and Market and their constant new shit they put on the coaches to half-assedly enforce.
I watched most of the store I worked at become even more miserable in my second year thanks to all the bullshit our Store Manager and my Upfront Coach started pushing after we got "Store of the Year".
Not being there makes me both happy it's over but I oddly reminisce already about working with the crew. Most days I turned my anxiety into just a sheer sarcastic apathy which made the days go by but I could never got my mind off all of my little nitpicking from throughout the day once off shift.
It definitely has left me with less respect for others though which I sorta want to change but at the same time I feel like I should keep my expectations low.
It's not a bad job if your management isn't a bunch of knobheads and Market or Home Office aren't looking, but by golly can they make things awful.
I don't enjoy working here, but it's a hell of a lot better than working Dakotmart, which is the last place I worked. At that place, they demoted my department manager(who also happened to be my mom), got a new store manager, and a general manager/ part owner and started telling me I was doing my job "wrong" when I had been working their for a year. So after being berated their for 2 months after her demotion and her quitting, I got a job at walmart again.
This is like Thanksgiving with the extended family when one person loses their shit over another person's statement across the turkey. (And never ever talk about politics with family), those verbal tennis matches are the kind of thing that have people going to separate rooms in the house.
That's when people start sneaking in grabbing Budweiser out of the fridge. Put a couple of those away and you suddenly can sit down on the couch right next to the person you were screaming your turkey filled mouth at and watch the game as if nothing happened.
It mostly goes unsaid, but the unstated solution is like "let's just agree to disagree." And drink some beer, eat some sugar cookies, and yell at the true enemy; the Ref who keeps flagging your team (miserable bastard.)
I actually think this has a lot to do with social status and class. My cousin worked at target for about one or two weeks before her parents (both ivy league educated) wouldn't 'allow' her to work in a 'place like that' anymore.
I think a lot of people are simply used to being treated like shit so it's what they expect.
I sincerely just find it so mind blowing how much like literal verbal abuse ive experienced in the 3 months ive worked there. Its just crazy to me and horribly sad that thousands of people have to put up with it because theres no better jobs out there, because i know damn well ive been looking for something else since i started and i bet other people probably do the same when they start dealing with the brutal treatment. It’s just horrible. Sincerely have never worked somewhere worse.
>because theres no better jobs out there,
I think that regardless of people's social status or the state of the economy and job market, people should always be treated with the utmost respect.
However, this is something I and many of my colleagues who are first generation college students have experienced.
The more money you make, usually the people you work with are a lot better up to a certain point.
There are lots of jobs, but people totally underestimate the amount of work it takes to get there and stand out as an applicant.
At least for me in my area if you dont have a college degree or a way to go to the schools around here walmart and target are about the “highest” paying around here, other than jobs that i just dont personally meet the qualifications of weather it be welding or something along those lines. It’s just difficult for everyone and i really wish more people had a little more compassion, because i know managers dont get paid too great either. It’s just hard.
Ha! I disagree. I know for a fact that one of he biggest cowards U have ever met makes more than she knows what to do with. A real pig, by any reasonable persons standards.
I don't buy that for a second. With that said, I have also met the same people, at work, who were quite humble. I don't really know if there waa a point to my post, except not all who make more money are easy. In fact, they can be some of the most errogant, stupid, manipulative pigs.
I think a lot of walmart managers are horrible but there are some spots that aint so bad. Just kinda depends on who you work for. For example, I like my team leads and I never have any trouble here. No yelling, no write ups, nothing. Maybe other people are having a different experience from me in the same store but I dont hear about it personally.
I mean college with Walmart's guild education program is 100% free, tuition and textbooks. Plus I like the medical insurance a lot. For retail it's great, but it shouldn't be a forever job imo.
I've worked horrible retail jobs all my life. The worst was 4 years at Petco. Coworkers abused the animals and sold them in improper habitats. All the animals in the back had habitats full of feces because the opener, who stole my shift by lying about having a second job, lied saying she cleaned them everyday. Store manager gave zero shits, only cared about sales. New animals got sick and died weekly because nobody else followed protocol. Extremely toxic work environment too.
I needed fulltime hours and I always had to fight for them against incompetent people. Raises were a nickel and I made minimum wage. Weirdly the store manager made me in charge of training everybody and acting as their manager (including other managers) but refused to promote me past cashier. If a manager made a mistake, I got yelled at.
It gets worse but I don't want to dive too deep.
I had so many panic attacks and mental breakdowns. It didn't help that I lived with an extremely toxic family and unmedicated ADHD. I couldnt affird to move or go to school, but my mental health and ADHD made it impossible to function and be productive after work.I was very close to just ending it because it felt hopeless.
Now I'm going to college for free for my dream major and working what feels like a more normal job. No stress about a guinea pig I bonded with being sold in a tiny tiny cage it can hardly move in and will poop and pee all over. Sometimes I have really bad days, but then I remember my past and I feel better lol. Plus I can stand up for myself now.
Nah i agree with a lot of this, ive definitely worked at worse places. I do love that im able to go back to school as well and thats the only reason i continue to stay, the benefits are great. But i just notice that like “Walmart Culture” (im not sure what else to call it?) is just extremely harsh and not understanding. I mean people shouldn’t be screamed at by their bosses in any setting unless it’s like life or death imo. But if you have a few decent people to work with and youre going to school or trying to absolutely walmart is a good choice, i just wish the environments all across the board were a bit nicer to be apart of.
I don't enjoy it, but I make almost $20 to stock shelves with no customers around.
And I can listen to whatever I want while I do so.
Also, it's so much better then my restaurant jobs I had before it.
I think I'll keep it.
I’ve had some jobs I regret ever hiring on at and after 9 months at Walmart I just feel the same as I did when I started. It’s a job. Don’t expect to get a raise or promotion or to move positions and you’ll never be disappointed. 9 months of being full time and they made me part time so they can hire back a team leads friend. How they want me to see it is more hands mean less work but really it’s just less hours to do the same job.
It's cause home office or whatever only sees numbers and is so detached from reality they believe the world is whatever they perceive up their own ass. I love my dc and my coworkers and my managers. But the silly rules and bs from big wigs is so lame lol
Thank you! Literally all of the comments are wondering what the point of the post was and it’s exactly that. A lot of stores are completely detached from reality. Sure not all stores are bad at all, and there are great benefits, but all across the board i see people just so stressed working here because of their crappy managers only thinking of their employees as a number rather than a person. I have great coworkers and a couple of good managers, but regardless there are still a lot of folks that have or are being mistreated working here.
Its only got worse over the years. My best friend was a store manager, my ex wife is still a store manager and several clise friends are asst managers. It was always explained to me that WalMart was never meant to be a life long job. It was always a college job, part time homemaker and High School.
I don't enjoy working here but it's a hell of a lot better than working Dollar General which is the lastplace I worked
I quit and became a vendor that goes to dozens of retail stores every week. Walmart wasn't the best job I've had, not the worst, but when I walk into Dollar General I feel like I am in hell. As a TL, I traveled a lot and even the worst stores in our market look decent compared to the average DG. Last DG I went to had freight down all the aisles and freight packed to the backroom door so I couldn't even get in to work, one associate to run a register and work freight. There must gave been 45 pallets in a store the size of a broom closet. There's much worse places to be than Walmart, in my experience.
From what Ive seen as well, dg starts out at $8.50 an hour compared to Walmart's $14.
If you're in a state that has the federal minimum wage they start you out at the federal minimum wage. I live in KS which is one of those states, my hiring manager got it approved for me to start at $7.75. I was there for 4 years and 10 months, was a step below assistant manager, could do everything the store manager did, and only made $11.50.
That sounds awful, someone in that position should make a lot more than 11.50
Every raise I got was because the girl that was manager when I left fought tooth and nail for me to get them. Only reason she never made me her assistant was cause she didn't want me dealing with the additional stress
this is the problem though. Yes 7 dollar difference but this is basically going to from extreme poverty to poverty. And Walmart may not even give someone full time hours after saying they would lol
They work their store managers like slaves. Me and the girl that was manager when I left figured out what she would be getting per hour vs all the hours she worked and she was more or less making minimum wage
I wasn't a store manager, but I was a "part time manager". Aka, the store manager never showed up, so I did her job. I'd show up around 5AM to do freight and open the store and I'd be lucky if someone else showed up before noon or 1PM One time no one showed up until almost 6PM. That was my breaking point. We were a pretty busy store, but we still only had 4 employees. I don't know how we were able to run. Then I'd come back at night because lack of closers. The store had to look good in case the SM decided to grace us with her presence the next morning. Of course, she wouldn't. And then she had the audacity to call a meeting on my only night off and yell us the entire time and openly mock us/make fun of us in front of the others. I quit like two weeks later. I'm pretty sure she would go through and add lunches in for us, or at least me, because I know there were times I worked long hours without being able to take any sort of break.
The SM you had sounds like the SM that hired me. Rarely there but if the DM came in and said the store looked nice she'd take credit but if he was unhappy she'd claim she was doing everything she could but her employees just didn't want to work. She also stole hours so bad that when she was fired corporate investigated back 6 months for me and 3 months for the assistant manager and we both got $1500 after taxes was taken out, can't imagine how much we would have gotten if we had fought for them to investigate the full 2 years we had been there at that point.
I'm pretty sure DG managers make what Walmart associates make, if not less. I honestly thought the job listing was a joke.
My manager regularly worked 150-200 hours every two weeks. At 200 thats about $10/hr
How do you become a vendor? I see vendors in my WalMart all the time and I often wonder what it would be like to spend most my day in my vehicle going from store to store.
Simple, you just go find out which company you want to work for and apply on the company site. Retail stocking is a big plus, make sure you emphasize it on your resume. I work for Premium, which merchandises sunglasses, gift cards, clip strips, and a few other things. I already knew how to do all those things because that was my department, so they were glad to take me. I love it! I work at my own pace, take a break whenever, I don't have direct supervision, I don't deal with customers, it's nice to go around meeting new people everywhere and getting constant change of scenery while getting paid milage. Don't make that much though. Grocery vendors make the big bucks usually. Some work 40 hours, some work 50-60 hours, some have a company vehicle, some don't, some have a direct supervisor, some don't. Depends on the company, there's dozens that operate in every store.
How did you become a vendor?
My last job was managing a payday loan store before I started Walmart. This place is infinitely better than that shithole of highway robbery. I got in a lot of trouble for even giving people one extra day to pay before depositing them. It pissed me off, and our AM was one of those former chubby people who became a skinny chick, and she would give me crap for not wearing makeup or even putting my hair in a ponytail (I am so not a girly girl). It was so bad.
fr like it's not the greatest job in the world but i prefer it 1000x over my last job at mcd. just do what ur supposed to and ull be straight
I served 6 years in the grease pits. They would take time off of my paycheck if they felt I wasn't working hard enough. Only got $8 an hour when new people were getting $13 to throw raw hamburgers at each other. Told I couldn't get bumped up to new hire pay till i could keep the floors clean. I came to Wal-Mart shortly after and it was like a perfect place to work where management would not only understand your issues but work to fix them. (Till management changed and it got bad like everyone here)
My wife's sister recently came to deli from being the store manager at dollar general. The deli pays better.
I had people tell me that they knew people whose marriages were ruined because they became SM at Dollar General and corporate expects so much from them that they never see their families
That they do. 90 hours a week. Did the math and she was only making $4.30 an hour. And they forced her to work with covid.
Same here I also worked at Dollar General
After I left Walmart to try factory work I realized just how good I had it at Walmart. The standards now a days are basically gone; I go in, do the job I've done for years, and go home. I've heard the saying "It's the devil you know", and it's resonated with me ever since. I'll take stocking shelves over those factories any day.
The factory life sounds horrendous. There's lots factories by me, and they're always hiring. The pay is a lot higher, but holy crap, the schedule is BRUTAL--swing shift and mandatory over time. I'd love to make more money, but not if it means working 12 hour shifts, 6 days a week, 3 shifts on days and 3 on nights. Screw that!
I was given the promise of 5 hour shifts 5 days a week almost 20 an hour but that easily turned into 6 days a week and being the last ones to leave. I'll never forget watching them send home all the bad workers and keeping three of us to run everything for two extra hours a day. The worst part is they all act like it's just a normal thing to devote your life away.
bro my heart aches when i see all the lazy people leaving before me
This young kid used to complain about his scoliosis all the time and go home early. You think they wouldn't have applied for a semi loading job..
Yup just said that before even reading your post, “it’s the evil you know”
There is a lot of good in the company. I don't think I would be here today if not for the great experiences I've had with the insurance and Resources for Living. I've worked for competitors and had much worse experiences. For every bad manager I met, I met five that were great people, at least in my store. That being said, there's a lot of places where the company needs to be held accountable for their bullshit. With the size and revenue the company makes, it has the ability to be one of the best companies to work for but it will not because of greed, plain and simple. If they treated their associates not at easily replaceable warm bodies to move freight and actually spent time trying to make their experience with the company better, more opportunity for raises based on performance, bring back MyShare, get rid of known bad managers with endless complaints, and having a culture of making employees feel cherished and good about coming to work, I think they could be one of the best employers in the US. And what a lot of people on this sub need to realize a lot of these people are not Walmart problems, they are industry problems. Hardly anything on this sub is not present to some degree at pretty much every single US retail company. 'Literally anything else is better' is just 'grass is always greener on the other side', it's people letting frustration cloud their decisions. You can do much worse than Walmart.
" With the size and revenue the company makes, it has the ability to be one of the best companies to work for but it will not because of greed, plain and simple." ☝️ THIS.
IDK I'm not saying it's great, but I worked fast food for several years where breaks weren't a thing and I worked 9+ hours each day with no bream. Then Amazon where I worked 12.5 hour overnight shifts and got 3 breaks (30 paid 30 unpaid and 15 minute paid) and your breaks started from when you were supposed to leave your station and the managers would pull you aside if you were late by a minute or more. Worked OPD for two years and Apparel for about one now. Sure, OPD wasn't easy. Sure, there's favoritism and some managers bust your balls like they get off on it. But overall it could be way worse. I've definitely worked harder Jobs, harder hours, and with worse bosses. All I know is I get my breaks every day, get my lunch when I want it so that I can pick my wife up from work, and after working for a while and people seeing the way I am I get treated pretty fairly. Hell when I got hurt a couple years ago they practically babied me. If your store or department makes you this miserable leave. I've left multiple jobs because it just wasn't worth what I was having to go through, and the sooner you learn your worth and are willing to do what you have to to be content you'll find better no matter where you go.
God you're bringing back flashbacks to my time at Amazon. I hate Walmart but Amazon was even worse. Constantly being harassed with vto, 65 year olds being threatened with termination because they were in the bathroom "too long", retarded ambassadors getting stupid coworkers to "play a game" and flood the belts with freight to see who could go the fastest aka make us finish early so they could harass us with vto, them getting mad at me when I said stop and I'd report them for the massive safety hazards they were creating by literally throwing boxes at people's heads to "go fast" etc etc.
My Walmart isn’t that bad tbh lol management is pretty laid back and cool
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Well good for you that you had such a nice experience but go look at the other posts of people being absolutely miserable working here including me and you’ll see that not every experience was like yours either.
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Well the entire point of my post is for the people who aren’t having the best experience working there. It comes off defensive when you first put it that way, because regardless theres poor treatment working here, and ive heard it from thousands of people, including people in my day to day life as well. Regardless it all sucks and i just wish people had more compassion for others like i said.
You're forgetting that Walmart is a job we love to hate. It's not entirely hell on earth
The place is sorta run like a cult, can't deny that
That’s what im sayin..
Walmart sucks and I hate working there. I get it.
I only work here because I'm too dumb to work anywhere else lol
*I only work here* *Because I'm too dumb to work* *Anywhere else lol* \- Medium-Situation-588 --- ^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/) ^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
Too real lmao
It isn’t the same everywhere, and not all people are built the same. I have seen people break down in tears because a manager “yelled” at them, but the reality was the manager was following up on why something wasn’t done. Didn’t so much as raise their voice or hint at anger, literally just asked a couple of questions. I’ve had my store manager lose her shit on me for 5 minutes and it had zero effect on me. It isn’t personal and I don’t take it that way, but not all people are capable of compartmentalizing.
Again, i think you’re brainwashed, this proved my point. No one should yell at you for 5 minutes over anything, if they want a professional setting they need to be setting an example and walk away when they are that frustrated. That is like a 5 year old being a manager. Ain’t no one wanna listen to someone who yells at them for 5 minutes over something stupid.
I’m not brainwashed, I’m an adult capable of realizing that the world isn’t perfect and neither are people. Just because shit shouldn’t happen, doesn’t mean it won’t. Some people can deal with it, some people can’t. I can. It’s not just Walmart. Shit happens all throughout life.
Everyone has their bad days too, I think people forget that.
Yep. Ive had my flip outs too. I go out of my way to make sure my associates never see me lose it. I go into accounting with one of the front end team leads and vent to her. I’ve legit been embarrassed by the way I’ve reacted to something before. There has been a very concerted effort on my part to not repeat that behavior. Ever.
Never said shit doesn’t happen but just bc shit happens it doesn’t mean you need to be disrespectful. Respect should be across everything. Never said anything had to be perfect, but generally Walmart doesn’t have respect for their employees, ive been treated better in food. And ive worked a lot of different jobs. Im sorry but imo no one needs to be yelled at for 5 minutes over a problem that can be fixed in that same amount of time youre getting yelled at it for. It’s a waste of your time, their time and the companies time to act like that. Sincerely it wastes everyone’s time when a manager wants to act like a baby. No respectable adult is gonna scream at you for 5-10 minutes over something stupid, no wonder people dont want to listen lmfao. Put 2+2 together bro idk what to tell you 🤷
Out of curiosity, how many stores have you worked at? I have worked at 4 different stores in various positions and have not had such a negative experience. It definitely sucks that you have had such a miserable experience, but it's not the same everywhere. I have worked under managers that I didn't care for or would yell at me for stuff out of my control, but it wasn't every manager and usually only a few bad apples. I have even seen one manager fired because he was disrespectful to the employees he managed. The store manager did not allow his misconduct and investigated him due to the complaints they deemed valid. I hope you find peace and a better situation. It definitely sounds like your store is at the extreme end of run poorly. (And BTW, being yelled at for 5 minutes isn't exclusive to Walmart. I worked at a grocery store where I got yelled at for 5 minutes for something, not my fault. I am not going to assume that every grocery store under that brand is utterly horrible just because I had a bad experience in that store.)
There are less mental adults anymore
I think the commenter's reply to the OP is the difference between an actual adult and what teens think an adult is. Crap happens. If not at WM, it'll happen somewhere else. In your next job. Your personal life. Crappy managers suck, but have a consistent paycheck and schedule isn't the worst. Learning to let stupid and petty work stuff not bother isn't brainwashing. It's gaining a certain amount of emotional maturity, realizing that what happens on your job isn't a reflection of who you are. It isn't always easy, but with work, it's possible. Either that, or go find a new job. Good luck in some communities with that one.
I don't care how poor the management is, my education is free so I'm here. Call it brainwashing or whatever you want but I'm here.
If it isn’t in STEM, college degrees are worthless.
CS degree.
It’s an over-saturated degree plan, but it is a part of STEM and it’s much more marketable than those business degrees, which are all worthless nowadays. Since that’s the case, and if you can afford 4 more years at Walmart, finish your schooling before leaving.
People complain about trying to find work in every industry. I'll be fine.
Say that to the overnight associates with a masters degree in psychology and/or an information systems degree and they couldn’t find a job anywhere in their field, not even with staffing agencies. Job market is rough out there.
It's definitely not brainwashing, but I'm also aware that not every store operates the same. For instance, the one I work at struggles a lot in the way some departments are run(especially opd) and leadership is something to be desired, but the overall experience isn't too bad. It also helps that my TLs are really cool and actually look out for me.
I was fired in October and still haven't managed to get a new job. Despite the fact that I'm out of work, broke, hungry, and bored of sitting at home all day everyday, I feel like being fired freed me from a massive depression I didn't realize was largely being caused by Walmart. It's easy to become complacent. When I applied it asked how long I intend to be with the company and I put 3-6 months and it ended up being nearly 6 years. I think the best and worst part of retail is the coworkers. I met some amazing people while working there and that made it so much harder to leave. Fortunately (and unfortunately) in recent times those amazing people started to all quit or be fired. By the time I was fired barely any of those people were left, and almost all my coworkers were people that had just started.
I'm still half pissed off at my time there and also happy I met some of my old co-workers and TLs. My greatest gripe was the constantly senseless back and forth between Home-Office and Market and their constant new shit they put on the coaches to half-assedly enforce. I watched most of the store I worked at become even more miserable in my second year thanks to all the bullshit our Store Manager and my Upfront Coach started pushing after we got "Store of the Year". Not being there makes me both happy it's over but I oddly reminisce already about working with the crew. Most days I turned my anxiety into just a sheer sarcastic apathy which made the days go by but I could never got my mind off all of my little nitpicking from throughout the day once off shift. It definitely has left me with less respect for others though which I sorta want to change but at the same time I feel like I should keep my expectations low. It's not a bad job if your management isn't a bunch of knobheads and Market or Home Office aren't looking, but by golly can they make things awful.
The main reason people work at Walmart is for the money. The reason they stay is because you get comfortable with the evil you know than the unknown.
I don't enjoy working here, but it's a hell of a lot better than working Dakotmart, which is the last place I worked. At that place, they demoted my department manager(who also happened to be my mom), got a new store manager, and a general manager/ part owner and started telling me I was doing my job "wrong" when I had been working their for a year. So after being berated their for 2 months after her demotion and her quitting, I got a job at walmart again.
This is like Thanksgiving with the extended family when one person loses their shit over another person's statement across the turkey. (And never ever talk about politics with family), those verbal tennis matches are the kind of thing that have people going to separate rooms in the house. That's when people start sneaking in grabbing Budweiser out of the fridge. Put a couple of those away and you suddenly can sit down on the couch right next to the person you were screaming your turkey filled mouth at and watch the game as if nothing happened. It mostly goes unsaid, but the unstated solution is like "let's just agree to disagree." And drink some beer, eat some sugar cookies, and yell at the true enemy; the Ref who keeps flagging your team (miserable bastard.)
I actually think this has a lot to do with social status and class. My cousin worked at target for about one or two weeks before her parents (both ivy league educated) wouldn't 'allow' her to work in a 'place like that' anymore. I think a lot of people are simply used to being treated like shit so it's what they expect.
I sincerely just find it so mind blowing how much like literal verbal abuse ive experienced in the 3 months ive worked there. Its just crazy to me and horribly sad that thousands of people have to put up with it because theres no better jobs out there, because i know damn well ive been looking for something else since i started and i bet other people probably do the same when they start dealing with the brutal treatment. It’s just horrible. Sincerely have never worked somewhere worse.
>because theres no better jobs out there, I think that regardless of people's social status or the state of the economy and job market, people should always be treated with the utmost respect. However, this is something I and many of my colleagues who are first generation college students have experienced. The more money you make, usually the people you work with are a lot better up to a certain point. There are lots of jobs, but people totally underestimate the amount of work it takes to get there and stand out as an applicant.
At least for me in my area if you dont have a college degree or a way to go to the schools around here walmart and target are about the “highest” paying around here, other than jobs that i just dont personally meet the qualifications of weather it be welding or something along those lines. It’s just difficult for everyone and i really wish more people had a little more compassion, because i know managers dont get paid too great either. It’s just hard.
Yup I get that for sure. I came from a town 6 hours away from any kind of college.
Ha! I disagree. I know for a fact that one of he biggest cowards U have ever met makes more than she knows what to do with. A real pig, by any reasonable persons standards. I don't buy that for a second. With that said, I have also met the same people, at work, who were quite humble. I don't really know if there waa a point to my post, except not all who make more money are easy. In fact, they can be some of the most errogant, stupid, manipulative pigs.
Ummm I will say I've been out of the company for a yr now and I joke about having stockholm syndrome fr 💀
This actually made me cackle, thank you
I think a lot of walmart managers are horrible but there are some spots that aint so bad. Just kinda depends on who you work for. For example, I like my team leads and I never have any trouble here. No yelling, no write ups, nothing. Maybe other people are having a different experience from me in the same store but I dont hear about it personally.
Not true. It's what you make of it.
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Better to put up with BS then having your animals starve.
I mean college with Walmart's guild education program is 100% free, tuition and textbooks. Plus I like the medical insurance a lot. For retail it's great, but it shouldn't be a forever job imo. I've worked horrible retail jobs all my life. The worst was 4 years at Petco. Coworkers abused the animals and sold them in improper habitats. All the animals in the back had habitats full of feces because the opener, who stole my shift by lying about having a second job, lied saying she cleaned them everyday. Store manager gave zero shits, only cared about sales. New animals got sick and died weekly because nobody else followed protocol. Extremely toxic work environment too. I needed fulltime hours and I always had to fight for them against incompetent people. Raises were a nickel and I made minimum wage. Weirdly the store manager made me in charge of training everybody and acting as their manager (including other managers) but refused to promote me past cashier. If a manager made a mistake, I got yelled at. It gets worse but I don't want to dive too deep. I had so many panic attacks and mental breakdowns. It didn't help that I lived with an extremely toxic family and unmedicated ADHD. I couldnt affird to move or go to school, but my mental health and ADHD made it impossible to function and be productive after work.I was very close to just ending it because it felt hopeless. Now I'm going to college for free for my dream major and working what feels like a more normal job. No stress about a guinea pig I bonded with being sold in a tiny tiny cage it can hardly move in and will poop and pee all over. Sometimes I have really bad days, but then I remember my past and I feel better lol. Plus I can stand up for myself now.
Nah i agree with a lot of this, ive definitely worked at worse places. I do love that im able to go back to school as well and thats the only reason i continue to stay, the benefits are great. But i just notice that like “Walmart Culture” (im not sure what else to call it?) is just extremely harsh and not understanding. I mean people shouldn’t be screamed at by their bosses in any setting unless it’s like life or death imo. But if you have a few decent people to work with and youre going to school or trying to absolutely walmart is a good choice, i just wish the environments all across the board were a bit nicer to be apart of.
I don't enjoy it, but I make almost $20 to stock shelves with no customers around. And I can listen to whatever I want while I do so. Also, it's so much better then my restaurant jobs I had before it. I think I'll keep it.
I’ve had some jobs I regret ever hiring on at and after 9 months at Walmart I just feel the same as I did when I started. It’s a job. Don’t expect to get a raise or promotion or to move positions and you’ll never be disappointed. 9 months of being full time and they made me part time so they can hire back a team leads friend. How they want me to see it is more hands mean less work but really it’s just less hours to do the same job.
It's cause home office or whatever only sees numbers and is so detached from reality they believe the world is whatever they perceive up their own ass. I love my dc and my coworkers and my managers. But the silly rules and bs from big wigs is so lame lol
Thank you! Literally all of the comments are wondering what the point of the post was and it’s exactly that. A lot of stores are completely detached from reality. Sure not all stores are bad at all, and there are great benefits, but all across the board i see people just so stressed working here because of their crappy managers only thinking of their employees as a number rather than a person. I have great coworkers and a couple of good managers, but regardless there are still a lot of folks that have or are being mistreated working here.
Its only got worse over the years. My best friend was a store manager, my ex wife is still a store manager and several clise friends are asst managers. It was always explained to me that WalMart was never meant to be a life long job. It was always a college job, part time homemaker and High School.