Walmart Greeter Punched By Customer Gets Fired

WESH-TV ^ | 1/8/2010 | Staff

[VeniVidiVici]

Greeter Terminated For 'Gross Misconduct'

PALM BAY, Fla. --
A Walmart greeter who was shown on video getting punched by a customer has been fired.

Ed Bauman, 69, said the act of defending himself cost him his job.

Bauman went into Walmart hoping to get back to work for the first time since police said he was punched by a customer. Instead, Bauman said he was fired. His termination notice called the incident an act of "gross misconduct" and accused Bauman of fighting with a customer.

"They told me I did a good job of defending myself," said Bauman. "Then they turned around and fired me. I guess they just wanted me to stand there and get beaten."

[ARepublicanForAllReasons]

I hope the greeter wins the suit.

Yes, and gets a big enough settlement that he can retire in style.

I myself have applied for work at WalMart, and if offered a job, I will take it because times are tough. Except for being a greeter. I decided against that when I applied. I don't smile well. Rather work the night shift sorting chicken parts or taking inventory.

[max americana]

I’m not sure about the gross miconduct argument but a jury of 12 will have a hard time accepting that defense vs the employee who has every right to defend himself, and that video will be evidence.

[SuperLuminal]

Anybody who ever met old Sam will know that he is spinning in his grave...

[Mila]

"He followed a customer to his car to get his tag number. That is against Walmart policy and is grounds for termination."

How outrageous! In other words ostensibly any customer can, for any supposed reason, take out their bad attitude on a hapless senior citizen greeter and get away with it? Unbelievable! What if the greeter had fallen during this attack and broken a limb, would Walmart be liable for his medical bills? I wonder.

[Mila]

I see in the article where is says the customer was charged. At least Mr.Bauman has that small satisfaction. I’m hoping that he is offered his job back and then he will have some control.

[DemforBush]

A few random thoughts:

-As another poster pointed out, the greeter probably put his job in jeopardy the moment he stepped outside of the store. Most companies would rather write off a bit of merchandise than risk liability, and it’s probably in Wal-Mart’s employee policy as well. Why they didn’t state that as the reason for his termination, and instead sacked him for legitimately defending himself, doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.

-There’s probably a fair amount of CYA going on here. Firing Bauman gives them a little cover if the other guy starts talking discrimination. The whole “we acted quickly to rectify a situation, in keeping with our values as a company, blah, blah, blah” (I used to work in HR, forgive me if I am wee bit cynical).

-Bauman is one tough old timer. The other guy looks to be half his age, but he hung in there with him.

-I don’t know what Bauman’s chances are with a lawsuit, but I’d like to see him collect something for his trouble. Getting fired for not wanting to get your butt whipped is a pretty rough deal.

[goat granny]

The only good thing about a low paying job, (at least in the past) was you picked up and left if they were shi*heads...Did it several times......but wasn’t the major bread winner in the family

[pnut22]

I hope he gets his job back, too. I work there, though, and I just don’t see it happening. There was a time when employees were treated like human beings. These days they are just numbers. That applies to the lowest paid door greeter and the highest paid store manager.

[dennisw]

you nailed it! and if you want to see a matriarchy that is getting stronger and stronger go visit our courts

[Soul of the South]

Same with suppliers. In Sam’s day Walmart’s buyers were tough negotiators but once the deal was done, it was a deal. Unlike department stores who struck a deal and then played games with chargebacks, delayed payments and after the fact requests for allowances. In those days you could make a handshake agreement and expect them to adhere to it as long as the supplier delivered. In those days buyers had a tremendous amount of power, were decisive, and most were good merchants who knew how to drive sales.

I no longer sell to the company (by choice) but I’m told by people who do it is a different ball game. Buyers no longer have decision making power, they are administrators who do what they are told. The people higher up are indecisive and avoid commitment. It sounds to me as though the company has lost its entrepreneurial drive and is becoming bureaucratic. Likely the store managers no longer have the freedom they once had and will fire employees to be “safe”.

[maxwellsmart_agent]

When a business does something like fire a man who was trying to do what is right for them, it puts in question what their view of the customer security realy means to them. Until they rectify this one, I think I will go to Kmart again.

[maxwellsmart_agent]

When a business does something like fire a man who was trying to do what is right for them, it puts in question what their view of the customer security realy means to them. Until they rectify this one, I think I will go to Kmart again.

[joe fonebone]

"In those days you could make a handshake agreement and expect them to adhere to it "
To this day I live by the handshake. If a vendor or customer does not, I will not deal with them. I have dropped several subcontract houses from my bid list for this. Most companies do business this way ( the ones run by the older people ) and to my surprise, a great deal of the younger generation are believing in the handshake once again.....there is hope!!!!

[Capt_Hank]

Here is the local story and a video of the event. From the look of things, I would place the Walmart employee in the wrong.

http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2009/dec/30/walmart-greeter-beating-palm-bay-was-self-defense-/

[wiggen]

I suspect they adore bad press. It really helps productivity when employees feel the company has their back. This can hurt more ways than one.

[Screaming_Gerbil]

Here is the local story and a video of the event. From the look of things, I would place the Walmart employee in the wrong.

http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2009/dec/30/walmart-greeter-beating-palm-bay-was-self-defense-/

From the looks of that video to me, the Wal-Mart employee did go up to the guy and grab him.

The Wal-Mart employee was probably trying to prevent what he thought was the guy taking something out of the store without paying for it, but that was still a no-no.

[TLEIBY308]

I turned down a job as door greeter at Wal Mart.They told me I cant wear my 1911 colt 45.

[Mike Acker]

why would ya wear that? them 1911a1 are terrible clunkers

[over3Owithabrain]

So is Walmart policy you can walk into their store, take what you want and walk out and they won't try to stop you in any way? I'm not being sarcastic I really want to know what their procedure is for theft.

IMO this is all about the race of the thief.

[freebilly]

What you didn’t see was the surveillance tape from outside the store, the one that shows the customer running up to the security guard and ripping the clipboard out of his hands. The guard was taking his clipboard back in the clip you linked to....