heh

[Kmart4life]

I heard on my local morning news that Walmart will be spending billions to give its employees raises. Its about time because they deserve them!

[XISMZERO]

I'd like to begin by saying I mean no ire or anything personal towards Zayre2,

I worked at Wal-Mart in 2003 and they paid satisfyingly well for minimum wage at the time (and they even gave out "Sunday premium" all day which is time and a half). They promise wage increase by 90 days or next evaluation; I've worked other places that don't do that. I also worked with some real slackers there who were probably making more than I was as a cashier, and as everyone knows behind customer service, cashier is the most intense job at the store.

Let me tell you, the last thing some of those lazy department heads needed was a wage increase. At the end of the night, we as the cashiers were the ones who returned all their crap to their departments because all they did was putz around all day (which is what many department heads did at my store).

Wages should be given an increase the old-fashioned way: by merit. The only good a mass wage increase will do is a good PR tactic seeing how much negative press they get. The problem is that won't necessarily happen because management rarely sees anyone as an individual so they don't care if you're better because it's often tainted by political correctness pressure.

I can't prove it, but I've applied to many minimum wage box stores and have seen utter trash working there. How'd they get the job? By wearing latex sheets on their heads? Wearing pants showing underwear exposed?

Let me also conclude by saying if you don't like what you're getting paid at W-M, you have every right as an American to find a better job. Appearently, many people like working there as they've always got a workforce. Complaining about how much Wal-Mart doesn't pay you isn't getting you anywhere. Sick of hearing all this anti-Wal-Mart business about what they're NOT giving employees.

Lastly, when I was asked to leave (because I was seasonal) (in the middle of my shift), I was canned two days after Christmas when they realized they didn't need me anymore. Since there's many levels of management there, the coward manager at the top (a women whose only goal in focus was sales like many of the twits at the top) had a subordinate ask me to leave. The poor woman was on the brink of tears because she felt so saddened. She was a good women too, had a sense of humanity and like most who do, felt ill to can an employee.

Wal-Mart wasn't a bad place to work. Certainly I had my problems with some of the jerk managers but aside I met a lot of great regular people there of all ages and I don't regret having worked there today.

[dmx10101]

My parents both worked at Wal-Mart at one time and didn't like it and against my better judgment I decided to try and work there too. I worked for Wal-Mart for 8 months in '04/'05. I hated it. I was hired in the Toys dept. and was there through Christmas- the worst dept. for that and then after Christmas I moved to electronics. When I was hired they started me at $6.70hr and when I quit I believe I was making $7.50hr and that's because I got a .40 raise for my 90 days and a .40 raise for moving to electronics. I worked my behind off for that measly pay. when I was in Toys during christmas I was the main associate that did stuff, then when I got moved to electronics I got even more over-worked. Spending all day takng 100 pound 32" CRT tvs and tryin to squeeze them into two door compact cars by myself in the cold and rain, all the while the old lady watches me so I won't damage her car, when it was my back that was getting damaged. They called me in on my days off, would change or cut my hours unexpectedly or give me some weird shift or work me every weekend. The management yelled at me over the phone for calling out of work for a couple days because I had a accident with my car and I was stranded in another state. They told me I'd better find a train or plane to get there because I needed to be at work. Anther thing that bothered me was when they hire you they tell you that for your 90 days you get either get a .40 or .55 raise. .55 being that you did above and beyond work. Well for my first 90 days I worked harder than I ever had in my life and even my dept. manager said they'd never seen the dept. look that good, yet I still only got the standard .40 raise. I was so frustrated, and I talked to several people and nobody had gotten the .55 one. Anther thing was that they never told me when I could sign up for my benefits and when I thought it was time to sign up, I asked them and they told me- oh no the time for you to sign up for them has already past, you have to wait 8 month for open enrollment to sign up for them now. They also told me that I was hired too late to receive a yearly bonus, even to receive a partial one, so I never got a bonus my whole time I was there. They talked me into signing up to get money taken out of my check each week for stock and now that stock I got has lost a lot of its value because the price has gone down so much from when I started working there. The discount is crap- no sale or clearance, or food- just 10% on regular price general merch. The reason I quit was because I was working at Winn-Dixie part time and they offered me at dept. manager position for $10 hr and I quickly accepted. So I told Wal-Mart that, and the plan was that I would stay at Wal-Mart part time and work Winn-Dixie full time and they told me- no you have to quit because thats competition even though I had being working at Winn-Dixie part time since I got hired at Wal-Mart and told them that I was working there when I was hired and they said that was ok. but then they changed their tune on me and told me to just quit. or they told me that I could apply for the open dairy dept. manager position they had at Wal-Mart like everyone else and hope that I get it and it gave a .50 raise. I thought Gee thats the thanks I get for all my hard work there. Needless to say, I told them go take a hike and promtly quit.

Let me clarify by saying there were a few things I did like there- I did like several of the associates I worked with and to this day I still visit and talk with some of them. I liked the shopping convieance of the store and I liked working with electronics, just not the redicilas manual labor they had me do.

[Kmart4life]

Actually I understood the news wrong they are giving all associates bonuses.

[NJxxJon]

orked at a cvs for 4 years. started low and went to 7.33 and hour. All I had to do is do 1 hour photo and ring. Wasnt the best and wasnt the worst. Didnt have to switch departments or sell anything. Im betting the benefits were the same as wallo too.

[Caldor1999]

still i woulde never work for them

[DandaAmesman]

I watched an interesting show called "Bull S***T" hosted by Penn & Teller (the magican guys) about Wal-Mart haterd. I found it very interesting. . .

The show was very well done- without bias on either side.

http://tv-links.co.uk/link.do/1/1919/2719/18364/29587

WARNING! The show has VERY strong language (including the one that rythms with Chuck). Please don't watch if you offened by swearing