I know that the way I've been writing about Walmart, it would appear that my experience with the company was negative. I should state that my negativity had more to do with my frustration with certain aspects of how business was handled with regard to the employees. I never felt like I was being verbally abused, like I had been at previous jobs. There seemed to be a culture of respect between management and employees that didn't exist in my previous occupations.
So, I'm taking this opportunity to write about some of the good things I felt during the time I worked at the two locations. I should add that these things were true for that period, but some of these may have changed in the 14 years since I last worked there.
1. The employee discount
All the employees received discount cards which would cut 10% off regularly-priced items at the register. They could be used for almost everything in the store, including clothing, electronics, household supplies and non-perishable food items. There was no discount for items placed on clearance, promotional prices or dairy. (And there may have been no discount on tobacco products.) In addition, all the employees could get 20% off one item for Christmas. My final Christmas at Walmart, I was able to get 20% off a widescreen TV. That knocked $120 off the price. I still have that TV (but it's not HDMI compatible).
The bad thing was that this was around the time that I was starting to collect DVDs and I would spend so much of my money on them because I got that discount. It was almost like being a comic book store employee. I understand that before I started working there, the discount was actually reported as income on the W-2. It's a good thing that went away, because I don't know that they pulled enough taxes out of the paycheck to cover that.
One great thing about the discount was that I could use it at ANY Walmart store. So if I went to visit my parents in New Mexico, it was valid there if my Dad wanted to buy some hardware or something. (We weren't supposed to do that if we weren't paying, though. And I'd heard of instances in which someone would let friends and neighbors borrow their discount cards to buy stuff for themselves. I never did that.)
And we got a 20% discount at the McDonald's inside the store. But I have to tell you, the first few weeks I was there, I couldn't even afford that. My work lunches consisted of me making sandwiches using the Spam Turkey and Velveeta cheese that I bought at a discount at the store. (And I could never get those slices thin enough!)
2. We got certain holidays off
We got all day Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter off. In addition, we got off early Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve and July 4th. We also got paid extra for New Year's Day, President's Day, Memorial Day, July 4th and Labor Day.
It looks like Walmart no longer closes for Easter. (At least, the one in the town where I currently live doesn't.) But I'll bet when they did, there were always Department Managers just begging to be let in the store that day. "PLEASE! If I can just have one day in the store without any customers, I can completely straighten up my department!"
3. Supervisors were fairly flexible with the schedule
Now, this only applied when you asked for time off in advance. You pretty much had to count on working both days of the weekend, but if you needed your two days off to be on particular days or if you needed to work a specific shift and get out at a certain time, Supervisors tried to be as accommodating as possible. I remember requesting Labor Day off so I could go out of town and my Supervisor actually gave me all three days of the weekend off.
4. The general feeling of camaraderie among co-workers
For the most part, I got along pretty well with almost everyone who worked at Walmart. (There are a couple of exceptions who I will get to later.) It seemed like almost everyone had come to Walmart out of a sense of desperation and were somewhat pleased to find a work home. Everyone was doing what they could to make the best of it. Several others came to the job after being laid off from their former employers as well. While we all acknowledged that we were making much less than at our previous jobs, we all admitted it was much better than being on unemployment and definitely better than not having any source for income.
5. Promotions within the company were posted
If you were looking to move up the ranks within Walmart, they made it easy to know what positions were available. It was nice to see that they made an effort to promote from within. However, if you were looking to move up, you had to go take a test on the computer. The first time I did this, I got stumped by the first question. It was "Choose the letter that starts a word that means 'fake.'" I stared at the screen for at least 10 minutes trying to think of words that meant "fake." I remember thinking of "bogus," "counterfeit" and "fraud," but none of those letters were choices. I picked some letter at random and moved on. After the test, I realized that the word was "phony." I did not pick "p." I hoped that the test hadn't been timed, because I'm certain I looked like a real idiot spending 10 minutes on the first question and still getting it wrong. Fortunately, the rest of the questions were easier for me to answer. I did get called in for that interview. I didn't get the job, but the next time I had to take that test for another promotion, I was ready.
6. Food for special occasions
Walmart had an employee Christmas party every year. And if you couldn't make the party because you were working, they had a special celebration there at the store with great food and a few presents. (My first year, I got a free round of golf at a nearby golf course. I don't play golf, but I have to admit that was a nice gesture. I wound up giving that as my white elephant at the cashier Secret Santa. I'll bet the recipient couldn't use it, either.) They also had special meals a few other times throughout the year, but nothing as fancy as the Christmas meal.
7. Walmart Radio
The music that was piped in had a wide variety that ranged from the 50s to the present day. It was mostly pop music with some country/western. At night time, they would get a little radical with the mix and you would hear stuff like Ozzy Osbourne's "Crazy Train." And it was always great around the holidays when they would play Christmas music. But probably the best part was during the early morning times, when they featured a live DJ doing shout-outs to all the stores. It kind of made me feel sorry that I didn't get to work every morning to listen to that. I wondered how I could go about getting that job. (I probably would have had to wait several more years. The DJs always seemed to be in their 60s.)
(I should note there was one Christmas season in which the store's PA system shut down. THAT made things SO stressful. I was glad when we got the music back.)
8. Walmart pays by the minute
Some companies (like the one I work for now) pay based on the quarter hour. If your shift begins at 9am and you clock in at 8:53am, it is counted like you clocked in at 9am. If you clock in at 8:52am, it's counted as 8:45am. If your shift ends at 5pm and you clock out at 5:07pm, it counts as 5pm. At 5:08pm, it becomes 5:15pm. It's entirely possible to clock in at 8:53am, clock out at 5:07pm and only get paid for 8 hours (assuming you took a 60-minute lunch). You get nothing extra for that 14 minutes you were on the clock. At Walmart, if you clocked in at 8:59am and out at 5:01pm, you would get overtime pay for those two extra minutes. Clock in a minute late and leave a minute early? You get paid for working 7 hours and 58 minutes.
(However, this created a different set of problems, which I'll get into tomorrow.)
9. Knowing the company wasn't going anywhere
I have to admit that it was nice to be secure in the future of Walmart. After working at Aradiant, I didn't need to work for another company that was starting to find itself phased out because of emerging technology. There would always be a need for people to go out and buy products. Even today, people cannot get everything over the internet. Although it appears that cashiers are being phased out. Even my local Walmart eliminated 2/3 of their check stands in favor of self check-out. I don't know how they're going to handle Black Friday this year with people making major purchases. (However, my next door neighbor, who works there, says Black Friday wasn't really that busy this year because everyone now buys all the good stuff online.)
So this constitutes the things I liked. Tomorrow, it will be the things I didn't like. Somehow, I expect that list to be a lot longer.
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