One interesting aspect of starting to work at Walmart is the training. There are two types of training: One that you receive on the floor while you're doing the job and the other is Computer-Based Learning (CBL) modules.
As I mentioned before, there were a few things missing from my training that I later learned were wrong. In a perfect world, I would have taken the CBLs first and then started my floor training. However, Black Friday was a little more than a week away, so they needed all the new cashiers up to speed. They'd probably had experiences with some employees taking longer than expected on the CBLs. I counted about ten that I had to do. At the end of each one, you had to take a test. If you didn't pass the test, you had to start the CBL over and take the test again. It wouldn't surprise me to find out that there were a number of new employees who would fail the CBLs on purpose so they could delay their floor training as long as possible.
The CBLs often included video clips of what things should be like on the job. In addition to the modules on how to be a cashier, they showed you how to work the sales floor, zone, be the door greeter, etc. There were also the legally-required safety and sexual harassment videos.
The funny thing about the videos is that they rarely showed things taking place with any customers around. If you weren't familiar with shopping at Walmart and watched these videos first, you would get the idea that nothing really happens in the stores except the employees interacting with each other. It looked like everyone was able to go about their business without frequent interruptions by customers.
Reality was never like that. Our store opened up at 7am every day. There were always around 30 people waiting outside at that time to come inside the store. This meant that once the doors opened, the customers already outnumbered the sales floor and cashier associates. If you were working the floor, there was going to be a customer looking for you. And as a cashier, you would be surprised at how quickly you could wind up with lines at your register.
There were other times that the videos did not reflect reality. In a cashiering video You were instructed to take the merchandise from the belt, one at a time, in the order it was presented to you. You were not to reach back on the belt to get other items. This was a safety issue. It could cause strain and repetitive motion syndrome. However, you were also instructed to put the merchandise in the bags in a certain order. You had to put the larger box items on the sides and then fill the middle with smaller items. However, you almost NEVER got the merchandise in this order and you'd have to switch back and forth between bags. Maybe they should have gotten the customers to take the CBLs so they know what order to put their stuff on the belt.
I remember getting scolded by a CBL that trained me how to enter currency. The total came to $10.26. It was a $10, a quarter and a penny. I was instructed to touch the buttons to complete the transaction. I manually entered in 1026 and "Cash." The next screen came back: "WRONG!" I was supposed to hit the "Cash" button because it was exact change. I didn't put in an incorrect response. It would have worked either way. Can you imagine checking out, giving exact change and hearing the register yell, "WRONG" at the cashier?
The sexual harassment module was amusing. I've never been subjected to sexual harassment at work and I would hope that no woman ever thought I was behaving in a harassing manner. But the examples they gave in the videos were so blatant, it made me wonder what the world used to be like before there were laws in place to try to prevent that. If anything, the modules sort of indicated that you needed to be subtle if you were going to engage in that type of thing. And there was only one example of same-gender harassment. They said that back massages were not allowed anywhere in the store. The image they showed was of one woman massaging another. But the photo didn't look like anyone was being forced to give or receive the massage as a form of harassment.
There was a module about inappropriate behavior that dealt with being sensitive to diversity and cultures. It was informative, but included a segment on telling jokes in the workplace. The example they showed was of some telling a lawyer joke. You were then asked if the joke was inappropriate. If you answered yes, you got a screen that said, "Let's not get carried away. It is okay to make fun of a profession." I thought, "Great, that means I can make Assistant Manager and Store Manager jokes." (But I never did that.)
Some modules didn't properly train you. There was a fishing license module you had to take if you worked in the Sporting Goods department. There were a lot of details. The only problem was that there was so much to know, I couldn't retain what I learned. The only way I learned how to sell licenses was by actually doing it a few times.
They would update the modules from time to time and I would HAVE to take them. (This stunk. We were required to do these modules, but we were also so busy in the store that it was always inconvenient to take time off the floor to do them.) A new module showed a typical day in the life of a cashier. You would see everything from the cashier's perspective, including interactions with the Customer Service Manager and customers. You had to make a series of choices in certain scenarios. If you made the correct choice, you would continue. If not, you'd get a strike. Three strikes and you had to do the module over. I remember one scenario in which a woman was buying groceries and mentioned that she was going to be paying with food stamps. Then she motioned toward a toy she'd placed on a belt, indicating that her daughter was going to love it. If you chose the option "Inform the customer that food stamps can't be used to buy the toy," you'd wind up with the woman getting on your case. "I KNOW THAT! HOW DARE YOU!" (I don't remember what the other options were, probably one to ring up without making any comments.) But I have to wonder why the woman would bring up the food stamps and then talk about the toy in the same breath.
Another choice you had to make came after the CSM told you to take your break. A woman walks up, says she's got only one item and asks you to ring it up. The correct choice was to go ahead and ring her up. But just as you're starting the transaction, a customer nearby slips and falls. You're then given options on how to take action. From my view, even though you made the correct choice in ringing up just "one more item," making that choice resulted in you having to deal with an injured customer. Even worse is that you're not going to be able to ring up that customer because you're tending to the injured one. It was Walmart's version of the Kobayashi Maru.
But in the end, me working at Walmart turned out to be a no-win situation anyway.
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