I was like a lot of young people with no option. I believed Walmart would be okay, they pay above minimum wage and have all these policies and all. 2.5 years later I'm very glad I no longer work there.
Whether or not you are a person at Walmart depends on who your management team is. If you got fortunate to work for people with souls, you will be treated like a person most of the time. Most of the time. However that can be said for most jobs at large corporations. Run of the mill things like having your hard work going unnoticed unless you constantly pester managers after every task you complete or getting the stink eye if your break happens to go a minute over 15 minutes. Thing is, you wont know if your management team is a good one until you work there long enough to know how things are supposed to work. If you notice things run smooth and your job is dull and boring, you have a good team as there are no problems. If you ask for days off within the time limit (21+ days in advance) for a reason other than simply wanting days off and you get them with little to know questions, again good team. However in that endeavor, I wish you luck.
Because you could end up getting work at a Walmart that has a horrible management team as I did when I transferred to Moline, Illinois. I worked at my other store for 2.3 of those 2.5 years and I knew how things worked (as in how to get a job done and how it's supposed to be) and first red flag was walking into the backroom with the entire steel full of unworked merchandise and different managers picking at me on my first day asking me to come in for a longer time than I applied for (part time but working me on average fulltime hours a few weeks). I knew right away this was going to suck.
So after getting the lowdown from some of the hourly management (NOT salaried, huge difference) I learned this was normal for this store. Empty shelves with items jammed into part of the steel completely inaccessible and having to lie to customers about whether an item was instock or not because it would take half an hour (not exaggerating) to get safely within policy. My schedule fluctuated wildly, simply because I had no restrictions on when I couldn't work and the system randomly generates a schedule based off that. At this store, I would work a 7am 8 hour shift, next day work another 8 hour shift till 11pm, having to come in the next morning at 7am (until they realized I would refuse to work a shift where I couldn't even get 8 hours of sleep, including drive home and eating, bathing, and being a human being with responsibilities. After that type of scheduling, I would be scheduled at 8am instead. Then another morning shift, then two closing, then days off salt and peppered in there, then randomly having a 4 hour shift (ruins a day off) from 8pm till midnight or so. Wanna take a guess at what my sleep schedule and my metabolism was like? The first didn't exist and the other didn't know wtf was going on. I went to bed not tired, woke up depressed, and often imagined what it would be like just driving off into a tree. Not imagining actual suicide, just a release from having to go through it.
I became cold and distant from those I loved. I was for once ashamed to admit where I worked and what kind of treatment I tolerated for the sake of survival with no bankable skills at the time. I would be hauled from one side of the store to another, doing a job that I would be paid more was I an actual associate in that area (save money!) and every time I offered a suggestion on how something could better be done, the ass. manager would simply say "Ok" then repeat themselves. All the while a poster behind them had Sam Walton encouraging management to listen to associates for we are the "best" source for ideas. Propaganda. A dead man telling us one thing and living people unqualified to lead others treating us like resources, cattle to plow a field, instead of humans. One manager even went into the system, took the days an associate already got approved off for vacation and rejected it. Why? Because the system did not randomly generate a schedule where another associate could cover those shifts. That's right, a terrible human being rejected an older woman's request for time off that already got approved by another manager because finding replacements would require work for managers (LIVE BETTER!!). The woman was distraught and it took fellow associates going to another manager and saying they worked it out so they could cover the shifts. What kind of human being would do such a thing!? Someone who knows that the associate has no choice but to work there and had to do it or be fired.
My experience in this area? I asked for 3 days off to take a loved one to very important doctor's appointments with a cardiologist and oncologist. I put it in the system 2 weeks before the minimum deadline. I went to management -twice- and was told they would get to it "right away." The schedule came out for the week containing those days that I requested off for good reason. I was scheduled. The manager didn't even take the time to reject them in the system. They just ignored it as when I checked it it still said "pending" instead of "rejected." That was the day I realized I would never be noticed there, no matter how hard I worked or how much I spoke up. Ass. Managers there would think of themselves and only of themselves, and every associate who was competent was competition for their positions and we were treated as such.
If you have a choice, and some talent, avoid Walmart like the plague. You wont make salaried management, which is the actual management. Zone managers and Department Managers are pretty much powerless and have little influence over anything beyond their own department. Ass.istant managers are the low tiered salaried management who actually can command your obedience or else. They wouldn't be managers of the store manager did not approve of this behavior. So you can judge the store manager by the company he keeps, literally. If you have no choice, then please don't lose your humanity. It's a bitch to get back as I'm slowly learning.
Right now I have $425 withheld/deducted from my final paycheck, mysteriously called "Final Pay" I have on my fridge my last paycheck from Walmart for a grand total of: 27 cents. I am not going to cash this check. I'm going to frame it to remind myself how much I am worth, despite what Walmart wants to convince me and all other associates how much they are worth.
