Free at last (... and unemployed)

[Warren Dew]

In any case, Wal-Mart is a Marxist welfare junky, greedily gobbling down fat welfare checks every hour of every day - and without them Wal-Mart could not survive.

If you have welfare, plenty of people will be happy to take advantage of the money. That's just the way welfare works.

[Seth]

You should talk to Roger Barr, pc. He's the guy that got sacked by Walmart for being an unashamed atheist.

Let's see...by "unashamed atheist" I'm going to have to assume that means he was a militant anti-theist who proselytized his religion (of non-theism) at work and shoved his beliefs in the face of his employer as a way to stir the shit because the Walton family is a religious one, and he got fired for being a religious bully and a PITA for the management who couldn't keep his yap shut about religion, or the faults thereof, when he was drawing a paycheck. Sounds like he got what he deserved.

(snip)

...Recently the same store has started hiring temps and cutting everyone else hours. I think it is in order to cut the bonus/benefits/etc: temps don't get them,

And guess who is to blame for that...Obama. The Republicans tried to tell the Democrats that this is exactly what would happen when the employer mandate was put in place, but the useful idiots in the Democrat party didn't listen, and now the chickens are coming home to roost and Obama's approval rating is below 45%.

cut other hours to keep payroll the same, but those who do get bonuses get less due to less time.

Which is to say they cut costs during a recession where gross income has dropped. Meh.

An associate who works in the shop injured his knee several months ago and filed workers comp. He won his claim, but will likely be fired a short time afterward.

If he is, and he can show that it was retaliation for the comp claim, he's won the golden EEOC ticket to a comfortable retirement. Of course if he fucks up and doesn't do his job, they have a perfect right to fire him.

This happened before with someone in the garden center due to an item stored improperly on an upper shelf, and he was also fired shortly after his workers comp claim (the item stored there was not his fault).

[/quote]

Then he should make an EEOC claim. Unless of course there's more to the story than you're telling us.

[Seth]

"Gross misconduct", eh? From a company that pays so little that many of it's employees need food stamps and other government assistance? Pot, meet kettle. This is like Joseph Goebbels firing someone for lying.

Hey, the people who work there are mostly glad to have a job, and nobody's forcing them to work there. They can always go find another job. WalMart owes them what their labor is worth, which is what they willingly accept for doing the work, and not a penny more.

Lazy and malcontented employees are the bane of any retail store, and it sounds like this is another case of burnout.

I'd be damned pissed too if some arrogant prick of a cashier gave me shit about unloading my cart or gave me attitude about taking my money. That's their job and if they can't do it with a smile and a hearty "thank you for your business sir" they should just quit...or be fired for gross misconduct. Malcontents and rude, lazy employees do more damage to any retail establishment's bottom line than anything, including shoplifting and theft, because if I get shitty service somewhere I'm a) never going back there; and b) according to polls I'm going to tell an average of TWELVE other people not to go there either.

If that happens 10 times a day that's a lot of potential revenue the company will never see, which means it won't have money to pay its staff, which means EVERYBODY gets fired. I'd kick someone like that's ass if I was merely another employee because he's making me and the company look bad and that affects MY ability to earn a living.

You pay peanuts, you get monkeys.

And when the monkeys don't do the job they get peanuts for they get fired and replaced with hungrier monkeys.

And what's this thing about unloading the customer's cart? That's not something I've heard of here. How does the cashier unload their cart? Do they have to come around from behind the register and do it? Is it actually expected of them, or are some shoppers just lazy? I'm trying to imagine how this works and could be expected without coming away thinking that these customers are just downright lazy.

Customers get to be downright lazy because they are always right. First rule of business. The second rule of business is "If the customer is wrong, see rule one."

[Seth]

Me too rEv. Are their hands painted on? Do they not have moving register belts? Or are they just not capable, and can't be trusted not to smash the jars, spill the milk, and squash the bread?

In the automotive department, which is where PC worked, there is no belt. It's a service desk because it's not intended as a checkout lane for large purchases of items, it's intended as a service desk for auto repairs. People go there because of the lines at the registers because there is usually no line in the service department. Stepping around the end of the desk to lift a heavy item (like a battery) is no burden and is a service that customers have every right to expect, particularly if that's what the employee handbook says an employee is supposed to do.

I've had exactly that kind of surly service at the auto desk when trying to buy a battery. I selected the one I wanted and loaded it in the cart myself, went to the desk and stood there waiting for the clerk to come around and shoot the SKU with his reader so I didn't have to lift the battery out again. He gave me attitude when I stood there and didn't move to make HIS life easier and eventually came out from behind the desk, picked the battery out of the cart and SLAMMED it down on the counter in a most careless, dangerous and obviously rude manner.

So I sympathize with the customer, not the surly, disgruntled employee.

[Collector1337]

I avoid buying anything other than ammo at wally world. They usually make you pay for it in sporting goods so no waiting.

If they make you wait around in sporting goods before help comes, just rifle through the register cabinets they often leave unlocked and hide ammo inside.

Yelling obscenities about how ridiculous it is that ammo is locked behind glass also brings someone with a key sooner rather than later.

[Jason]

I bought one thing at Walmart in the last.. decade maybe. An SD card a few months ago. They were on a ridiculous anti-theft rack which defied reason because the package for the small single SD card was about 7 inches wide by 10 inches high. They were tethered by a fairly strong plastic band that threatened to topple the entire rack when I tried to rip one off by brute force. So I got my pocket knife out of my pocket, sliced the plastic band, and started to make my way to the front checkouts when I was intercepted by a distraught woman in a bright blue vest. She informed me that I needed to ask for assistance if I wanted to purchase a product on an anti-theft rack. My way was faster.

[Seth]

I bought one thing at Walmart in the last.. decade maybe. An SD card a few months ago. They were on a ridiculous anti-theft rack which defied reason because the package for the small single SD card was about 7 inches wide by 10 inches high.

And which requires a razor-sharp Katana to cut open....

They were tethered by a fairly strong plastic band that threatened to topple the entire rack when I tried to rip one off by brute force. So I got my pocket knife out of my pocket, sliced the plastic band, and started to make my way to the front checkouts when I was intercepted by a distraught woman in a bright blue vest. She informed me that I needed to ask for assistance if I wanted to purchase a product on an anti-theft rack. My way was faster.

Had the same experience trying to buy a FitBit wristband. The rack has that magnetic lock that keeps you from taking the package off the rack, and the item is wrapped in one of those sensor pod spiders that goes around the rod the package is on so you can't remove it from the rack OR cut it free without triggering the theft alarm...which I thought about doing after 20 minutes of pushing the "push this button and someone will respond within 60 seconds" device on the photo counter. I bitched mightly to the manager at checkout, asking him how he expected to sell any cameras or anything else that's secured in that department if nobody is assigned to be there to at least get the package free for the customer. He just shrugged and didn't say anything.

I would have cut the spider except that it might be considered criminal mischief to do so because it damages a not-cheap anti-theft pod. I should have just walked out, particularly considering that the FitBit bracelet is just a glorified high-tech pedometer that uses acceleration sensor to calculate "steps" and a questionable on-line program to calculate how many "calories" you've burned. Plus, it uses an unusual charging frame rather than having a standard micro USB port, and I misplaced the charger almost immediately and it took me a week to find it, and when I did, it refused to charge the little pod that's the actual device.

I want to acquire one of those little magnet thingies that employees use to unlock the clasp on the display, not so I can steal anything, but so I don't have to wait around for someone to come and unlock it for me. But they are probably defined as "burglary tools" and getting caught with one would likely be a prima facie case of intent to shoplift...

[Cormac]

"Gross misconduct", eh? From a company that pays so little that many of it's employees need food stamps and other government assistance? Pot, meet kettle. This is like Joseph Goebbels firing someone for lying.

Hey, the people who work there are mostly glad to have a job, and nobody's forcing them to work there. They can always go find another job. WalMart owes them what their labor is worth, which is what they willingly accept for doing the work, and not a penny more.

Lazy and malcontented employees are the bane of any retail store, and it sounds like this is another case of burnout.

I'd be damned pissed too if some arrogant prick of a cashier gave me shit about unloading my cart or gave me attitude about taking my money. That's their job and if they can't do it with a smile and a hearty "thank you for your business sir" they should just quit...or be fired for gross misconduct. Malcontents and rude, lazy employees do more damage to any retail establishment's bottom line than anything, including shoplifting and theft, because if I get shitty service somewhere I'm a) never going back there; and b) according to polls I'm going to tell an average of TWELVE other people not to go there either.

If that happens 10 times a day that's a lot of potential revenue the company will never see, which means it won't have money to pay its staff, which means EVERYBODY gets fired. I'd kick someone like that's ass if I was merely another employee because he's making me and the company look bad and that affects MY ability to earn a living.

You pay peanuts, you get monkeys.

And when the monkeys don't do the job they get peanuts for they get fired and replaced with hungrier monkeys.

And what's this thing about unloading the customer's cart? That's not something I've heard of here. How does the cashier unload their cart? Do they have to come around from behind the register and do it? Is it actually expected of them, or are some shoppers just lazy? I'm trying to imagine how this works and could be expected without coming away thinking that these customers are just downright lazy.

Customers get to be downright lazy because they are always right. First rule of business. The second rule of business is "If the customer is wrong, see rule one."

It is one of those "rules of business" that real business people have to snap out of the heads of workers if you want a successful, sustainable, profitable business.

What matters is the product or service you want to seek, and understanding precisely the limit of service provided before you start to lose money. Businesses often overservice "special" customers to the extent that they damage their business.

In this case, if I were managing that store, the only people who would get help unloading and loading their basket at the checkout would be the elderly and the infirm. I'd be paying those guys to offer significant value add through their knowledge and advice, and the sale of small volumes of goods, not as a shortcut to exit.

If that caused a customer to stamp off in a emper, well, that is their problem.

[Seth]

It is one of those "rules of business" that real business people have to snap out of the heads of workers if you want a successful, sustainable, profitable business.

What matters is the product or service you want to seek, and understanding precisely the limit of service provided before you start to lose money. Businesses often overservice "special" customers to the extent that they damage their business.

In this case, if I were managing that store, the only people who would get help unloading and loading their basket at the checkout would be the elderly and the infirm. I'd be paying those guys to offer significant value add through their knowledge and advice, and the sale of small volumes of goods, not as a shortcut to exit.

If that caused a customer to stamp off in a emper, well, that is their problem.

May I ask how many retail businesses you've started and run successfully?

[Trinity]

I worked in a shop once alongside the owner who was fantastic. I experienced sexual harrassment from delivery men and many rude customers. My boss supported me totally because she valued my knowledge and friendly demeanor. Her opinion was she'd rather lose the few arsehole customers than me.

[Seth]

I worked in a shop once alongside the owner who was fantastic. I experienced sexual harrassment from delivery men and many rude customers. My boss supported me totally because she valued my knowledge and friendly demeanor. Her opinion was she'd rather lose the few arsehole customers than me.

Is she still in business? Why don't you work for her still?

[Trinity]

I worked in a shop once alongside the owner who was fantastic. I experienced sexual harrassment from delivery men and many rude customers. My boss supported me totally because she valued my knowledge and friendly demeanor. Her opinion was she'd rather lose the few arsehole customers than me.

Is she still in business? Why don't you work for her still?

She's retired now but her business was very successful; she sold it on when she retired. I left voluntarily because I wanted a change of scene.

[pErvinalia]

"Gross misconduct", eh? From a company that pays so little that many of it's employees need food stamps and other government assistance? Pot, meet kettle. This is like Joseph Goebbels firing someone for lying.

Hey, the people who work there are mostly glad to have a job, and nobody's forcing them to work there. They can always go find another job. WalMart owes them what their labor is worth, which is what they willingly accept for doing the work, and not a penny more.

Lazy and malcontented employees are the bane of any retail store, and it sounds like this is another case of burnout.

I'd be damned pissed too if some arrogant prick of a cashier gave me shit about unloading my cart or gave me attitude about taking my money. That's their job and if they can't do it with a smile and a hearty "thank you for your business sir" they should just quit...or be fired for gross misconduct. Malcontents and rude, lazy employees do more damage to any retail establishment's bottom line than anything, including shoplifting and theft, because if I get shitty service somewhere I'm a) never going back there; and b) according to polls I'm going to tell an average of TWELVE other people not to go there either.

If that happens 10 times a day that's a lot of potential revenue the company will never see, which means it won't have money to pay its staff, which means EVERYBODY gets fired. I'd kick someone like that's ass if I was merely another employee because he's making me and the company look bad and that affects MY ability to earn a living.

You pay peanuts, you get monkeys.

And when the monkeys don't do the job they get peanuts for they get fired and replaced with hungrier monkeys.

And they are just as unmotivated as the previous monkeys. Great plan.

And what's this thing about unloading the customer's cart? That's not something I've heard of here. How does the cashier unload their cart? Do they have to come around from behind the register and do it? Is it actually expected of them, or are some shoppers just lazy? I'm trying to imagine how this works and could be expected without coming away thinking that these customers are just downright lazy.

Customers get to be downright lazy because they are always right. First rule of business. The second rule of business is "If the customer is wrong, see rule one."

Fuck 'em. Do they want a blow job as well?

[Hermit]

You should talk to Roger Barr, pc. He's the guy that got sacked by Walmart for being an unashamed atheist.

Let's see...by "unashamed atheist" I'm going to have to assume that means he was a militant anti-theist who proselytized his religion (of non-theism) at work and shoved his beliefs in the face of his employer as a way to stir the shit because the Walton family is a religious one, and he got fired for being a religious bully and a PITA for the management who couldn't keep his yap shut about religion, or the faults thereof, when he was drawing a paycheck. Sounds like he got what he deserved.

Uhm, no. He was fired for some facebook comments he made, and had no connection with his colleagues or the company that he worked for, except for Walmart arrogating the right to sack him for opinions he voiced as a private citizen from the comfort of his home. (Linkie)

[Azathoth]

The mistake a lot of employers make is to treat their employees as commodities rather than assets. If you invest in employees they will be more productive. If you pay them minimum wage and treat them like shit they will devote their energy to finding little ways to fuck up your business because they hate you.