Posted on 11/13/2011 11:06:23 AM PST by eccentric
Around the country, night workers at Walmart stores are being told to come in five hours early ON Thanksgiving. After having work until 7am that morning, they must get whatever sleep they can and then reutrn to work at 5pm for a 12 hour shift. How much time does this leave for them to spend the holiday with their family?
Walmart wants to call their employees associates. No, they are just workers.
Gonna be long-winded (sorry) to the three who commented, in an attempt to get my point across.
Early in my single working years I was pretty shiftless and found my niche as a tramp printer, bouncing all over the country and working mostly on country weeklies out in the boonies. If I didn’t like a situation, I bailed. Always had a job if I was willing to move. In later years I was a contract programmer and was insulated from the usual crap management laid on their permanent employees. Maybe that’s why my W-M experience was a dash of cold water in the face when I got reintroduced to that game.
I was retired for 10 years when I started working for beer money at W-M, immediately noticed management’s attitude when it came to handling unskilled people, and saw the same Bottom-Line-Is-God and Take-It-Or-Leave-It attitude carried to extremes. I could take a more ambivalent view of what went on as I could always quit, and eventually did, not over their policies, but due to an interest in another area. Funny thing, management tried to talk me out of it. (See post #459)
OK, I understand, business is not a charity and you are owed nothing. The store I worked at was in a basically one-industry town (Casino - not Vegas). EVERYBODY was cutting back and jobs are non-existent, period, even five years later. IMO, management saw that and went beyond the expected tight-ship approach. From what others tell me, it’s like that all over Nevada.
More than once when people complained to me, I at first told them the same thing - “go elsewhere”. Many times they couldn’t - medical condition of their spouse or family member, underwater house, etc. Stuff I thought was not a wimp-out. Supervisors soon found the weak ones and would go out of their way to jerk them around with constant threats of termination, take-it-or-leave-it abrupt shift or hour changes or just a plain nasty overbearing attitude - always with the “Lotta people want your job.” mantra that you see here on this board. That’s exactly what I heard from those who went through the ‘29 Depression.
“Walmart employees should be willing to give it their all or quit.”
That goes for any company. However, after 60 years in the work force I have repeatedly seen employees give it their all and get kicked in the teeth for it as soon as management saw that they could save a buck by doing so. It’s much worse today and management has slipped back into their 1930s mindset - not just because business it tight (understandably), but because they CAN.
>[people trapped] “Not so much. Most folks can find work elsewhere, just not as good.”
Small comfort. Go from being trapped in one crappy job to being trapped in a lower-paying crappy job. My point is, in my area, there aren’t even crappy jobs, and it’s from that viewpoint that I’m talking about. There’s plenty of other small towns like that throughout America.
>Many were “trapped” prior to the advent of unions.
Trapped doesn’t need quotes - I’ve seen too many valid instances. I wasn’t making an argument for or against unions, so I don’t know what you’re getting at.
>Are you advocating something that inquiring minds desire to know?
Again, dunno what you’re getting at. I was just commenting about the Dickensian mindset many businesses have returned to when they didn’t need to.
> Do you restrict your purchase of union only or non-union establishments?
That’s foolish. I really don’t care one way or the other. In this case, I don’t patronize THAT particular store because I saw how they treated their people. Other stores perhaps have more enlightened (i.e. competent) management.
My point is, in my area, there aren’t even crappy jobs, ...So? In that case, grin and bear it or move.
take a pill. See if it makes you smarter. You’re a freaking idiot
This schedule is only for a limited time.
During monthly "Local Salty Nation (LSN)" exercises, I spent a week arriving at the base armory at about 5 PM to arm up and stand at Guard Mount and then get posted to the base perimeter. I was relived some time after 7 AM. That's when I would clean my weapon, turn it in and drive home to my off base quarters. During that week I'd get about 6 hours of sleep per day. I did this one week out of each month for a year. You are whining about someone else having a rough, split shift for one holiday.
Quit you're whining!
How in the world can you compare retail workers to the military?!?!
You’re right. Retailers can walk off the job without getting court martialed.
> My point is, in my area, there aren’t even crappy jobs, ...
>>So? In that case, grin and bear it or move.
Evidently your reading comprehension skills need some improvement. I never said I was trapped by a crappy job.
You smug characters remind me of those dolls that had a pull tab on the back and would always come out with a mindless one-liner. “Grin and bear it or move” is one like that. I have worked with people who were trapped in an area because of a bedridden parent or a cancer-stricken spouse. Some people CANNOT just move. You make these clueless statements because life has never kicked you in the teeth as it has these people and you can afford to make these flip statements.
You make these clueless statements because life has never kicked you in the teeth as it has these people and you can afford to make these flip statements.Wrong. We make them because WE HAVE BEEN THERE, we know. Whining is not ever gonna make you stronger.
How in the world can you compare retail workers to the military?!?!Yeah, really. Retail workers get at least minimum wage.
This year is different ON Black Thursday.
Been there, done that. In fact, we had a motto in the Army: “You can’t fire me. Slaves have to be sold.” Which is why I find it hard to understand any comparison between the sacrifical service of our military to selling big screen tv’s at bargain prices just so someone can play “Gears of War” ONE day earlier.
Most retail managers are working 16 hours on Black Thursday, too. They don’t like it either. It’s the corporate bosses that made these decisions, not those who are working their way up the ladder.
move to where the jobs are - - - that sounds just as cold and callous as saying 'get educated and get a better job.'
Please provide proof that Walmart is making someone work a 16 hour shift.
as in? I never claimed a 16 hour shift. I stated that stockers were working 8 hours, 10 hours off, and the back for 12 hours. A CSM is scheduled 8 hours, 7 hours off, and then back for another 8 hour shift. I doubt if the managers will be going home at all on what is suppose to be a holiday.
Thankfully, we still have enough free speech to ask a company to treat thier employees better. And you have the right to call us names for pointing this out.
Those hours are girlie hour. Never has a workforce had it so well, and still modern day wussies find cause to complain.
Perhaps they should be happy to be working at Wal Mart. I remember Christmas AND Thanksgiving of 2008. I worked a 12 hour shift BOTH days. I was thankful that we had no “incoming” alarms on those days. I was also thankful that we had no casualties on either day. Of course we were not paid overtime and received no bonuses. We did get a rather nice meal though. My best gift was the camaraderie with my fellow Soldiers. We all missed our families but we were lucky to be with our “other family” both days.
Evil wicked WalMart fed their employees Thanksgiving dinner with all the fixings today. How do I know this? Well, my mother is hospitalized following a nasty fall yesterday, and I just returned home from shopping at WalMart for unexpected trip. We're driving across the state to bring Thanksgiving dinner to her since they can't make it here as planned. The cashier told us all about the wonderful meal WalMart provided for them. She was very thankful.
Thank you WalMart for being open today. Gas station too!
Im a freakin idiot? Thats real classy.....
You're welcome (though we no longer have the gas staions in Kansas).
I love being open on Thanksgiving and in previous years, the blitz on Friday morning was great. I DO like my job.
I would like to see the bottom line for our Walnart this year. Any profit we made from sales at 10 pm and midnight was eaten up by scheduling too many people on hours that they weren't needed: night crew was told to come in 5 hours early and day crew then had to work over night --- but when the sale rush ended at 1 am, most workers did NOTHING for the next four hours.
While you are moaning and groaning about your WalMart schedule, we drove 3.5 hours across the state to spend the day at the hospital with my mother after she fell and broke her back. My mother is in a lot of pain.
On the other hand, eccentric, you are a pain and a whiner. In your reptilian brain, the whole world revolves around you. Go eat some bugs.
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