Sunday, October 18, 2009

Why do you shop at Wal-Mart?

I currently am employed by a local Wal-Mart Supercenter and this question has just come to mind, Why do you shop at the wolds largest retail store Wal-Mart?
I have continued to ask my self this over and over and have really no reason as to why I only recycle my paycheck. I have made the decision to stop shopping there and only continue working there until I can find a new job. Right now I do indeed understand that it is no time to be looking for a new job, however, I am so sick and tired of the way they treat me. The way I feel as though I am being rushed to get things done. I asked my supervisor one day why it is if I am not feeling to well, I am "looked down on" so to speak because maybe I dropped my pace. The response I got from her was, "management expects more out of you then they do from the others". This response COMPLETELY sent me through the roof! Why are my expectations so much higher than those that I work with on a daily basis?
On October 4th, I went to work as I do every day after only having 1 day off (YES we are no longer aloud to have a set schedule so we can have 2 days off in a row), it was around 5:30 a.m. and I injured my shoulder. I went in and filed an incident report, and continued to work in extreme pain. I have filed an accident report previously with the company and let me tell you IT IS NO MORE THAN A WORLD OF HELL. So I avoided it as much as possible. Finally on October 10th I just couldn't take it anymore and filed an accident report and have been out of work since then. At this point I feel as though I have done the wrong thing! I feel like I am letting them down. It's just the way they are talking to me and making me feel about the whole situation.
As I had previously stated we are not aloud to have a "set schedule" for they want you to dedicate 100% of your time to them and if they ask you to stay for a couple of hours after your scheduled shift they wont let you keep the time they make you cut it at the end of the week. Anyway, when Wal-Mart hired me on in December 2007 I informed them that I was attending a local community college, I was told "no problem just let us know what you can work and we will work with you on that". Well early fall 2008 I was told that if I don't open my availibility then they will have to cut my hours to part time, I informed them that I was enrolled in school and I made my school schedule around my work schedule. They then told me that I would have my hours cut to around 20 hrs per week. I am not living with my parents, I have all common household bills and I couldn't make it off of just 20 hrs a week. So I was transfered up to the customer service desk where I still had to have my hours cut to 32 per week, but I had no choice I wasn't going to waste all the money that I had just forked out for school (and mind you it was out of my own pocket). Well I took the part time position and lost all of my vacation, sick and personal time that I had accrued in the previous 10 months.
Later on towards the end of winter quarter I was hurting for money so I was looking to get back to a full time position. I was then offered full time, and then again talked about my work schedule to be able to coinside with my school, I was told again that if I can't open my availability then I can't have the full time position. At this point I had no choice, I had to drop out of school.

So again, I ask why do you shop at Wal-Mart?

They won't allow people to better themselves and go to school, I am only 22 years old, my idea of a career is not Wal-Mart. I would like to move on, get out of retail and go to school. I would like to better myself and become someone some day.
They make you work the time that they want and wont work with you if you have a family function! It is totally in-humane to make someone work until 10:30pm and be required to be back the next morning at 5am. that gives you 6 1/2 hrs between shifts. They had once realized that they had done this to me and made me leave an hour early at the end of my shift and told me to come in an hour late so I meet the 8hr between shifts rule, but I wasn't aloud to make up those 2 hours that I missed. Not to mention that we are always asked if week can work longer on a day or 2 out of the week yet at the end of the week we can't keep that overtime. I can't believe this corporate giant is getting away with all of this. I am sure that I am not the only one that they do this to! I just wish that I had the guts to stand up to them and point them out, how fair is this, makes me feel as though they are denying me of my education!