That's been known to happen, during coat drives and collection of pet supplies for the local shelter. When district managers have reason to think it's happened, they tend to dump everything out of the collection bin and return anything that doesn't have a receipt taped to it to the shelves. So, yeah, don't do that.
As a Walmart employee, I find myself a bit bemused by how shocked and appalled people are by this. I guess it really is a Walmart culture thing. We frequently have "help an associate in need" potluck dinners, where we are expected to provide both the food and the cooking (off the clock), plus the five dollars a plate to eat the food. Usually the money does go to the associate(s) in need, though one of our store managers used the Associate Relations fund to take his district bosses out to dinner and the like.
Including anything where the receipt fell off, with all loose receipts discarded, and certain receipts loosened if the manager in question wants some extra points on some "verified loss prevention" metric, right?
And, we find it appalling because it is truly appalling how the richest company on the planet not only steals from their employees, customers, and communities, but demands that you thank them for it.
Yep, even stuff from other stores that we don't even carry. I seem to remember it hitting the news, years ago, when all the toys collected for Toys for Tots got put back on the shelves, a few weeks before Christmas.
To be clear, I understand why people find it appalling--they find it appalling because it's appalling. I guess I'm just, you know, used to it. Numbed. Or perhaps the word I'm looking for is "indoctrinated".
sets up a culture where employees are expected to spend
their own money on food,
their unpaid time on cooking,
their own money (again) on the food they might not even want
(and why am I guessing that this dinner does not happen at a time that is convenient to everyone "invited", and issues of diet restrictions are not always throughly addressed)
then WalMart doesn't even make sure the quasi-donations in question actually go to the people who are supposedly meant to be getting the money...
Here, buddy, I've been making life rough for your coworker, take an hour out of your non-work time and give me seven bucks, I'll make suuuuure it gets to them. Well, most of it. Probably. You wouldn't want to disappoint expectations, would you?
The time for the dinners is always set at noonish, on Thursdays (also known as pay-day). Diet restrictions? Definitely not addressed. My former mother outlaw (gay marriage not being legal in this state, she couldn't be an in-law) is a celiac, and she basically had to make whatever she wanted to eat and share with the other woman in the store known to have a gluten allergy.
To be fair, our dinners have never been to help someone who's struggling just because of poverty. They're done to raise money for people with monster medical expenses, or who lost everything in a house fire, that sort of thing. Which is why people are generally pretty generous with their time and expenses, as long as they know what the need is. It is, at least, voluntary. While there is some social pressure to participate, there aren't any repercussions if you don't.
And also to be fair, dipping the Associate Relations till is a termination offense for a manager (even a manager with monster medical expenses, for whom the fund-raising dinner was specifically intended, as it turns out). On the other hand, the Christmas party also gets paid for out of Associate Relations, so it's sometimes hard to tell if you're helping out Frank with his dialysis bills, or buying an upgrade from round steak to sirloin for people willing to spend a significant portion of a near-Christmas evening at Walmart.
[Edit] I suppose I should add, the reason the outrage surprises me a bit, is that we consider these things as associates helping associates, because we know damn well nobody else will, rather than viewing it as Walmart shitting on us. We really are indoctrinated in Walmart culture. Have you ever seen a Walmart meeting, with everybody doing the Walmart cheer at the end?
Those things are employees helping each other *because the company is shitting on you so hard that this is necessary*.
The concept of NEEDING a food drive for employees of a megacorporation is the shocking part, as is the company's decision to arrange "other, equally underpaid employees experience hardship to help you while the company does NOTHING" efforts instead of, y'know, paying well enough that their employees don't require canned food drives to eat.
We are, again, discussing one of the most profitable companies on the planet. Who will move heaven and earth avoid paying their employees a fair price, including things that cost them large amounts of profit, because the idea of paying a fair and honest wage would cost them more than weathering the lawsuits from illegally-fired stolen-from employees does.
I don't disagree about the evils of Walmart, believe me.
Having put in 14 years, and putting 18% into my 401k in hopes of being able to retire at 85 instead of dying while greeting doors, I cleared just under $23,000 last year. I got a 50 cent raise last year because of my extraordinary commitment to safety and customer service, but since I haven't done anything above and beyond that this year, I will probably get a 30 cent raise for meeting the expectations I set last year by going beyond expectations. That's if I don't get docked for my unsafe behavior this year, what with tripping on the clothing racks that almost entirely fill our back hallway near the fire exit, giving myself a concussion and a knee that's probably going to be gimpy for life. They have never in my time there had a cost of living raise, although they talked about it when I was first hired.
Our store complained to the city council and got a new fire inspector canned because he called us out for our cluttered fire corridors, blocked exits, and expired extinguishers. OSHA calls us before they do inspections, so we can pass them. The health inspector hasn't come around in years. Each time our in-house inspector, Kay Chemical, sends around a new inspector, he or she finds a dozen violations, but none of them are ever corrected, and the inspectors quickly learn not to bother pointing them out. The deli hasn't had a working nozzle on their cleaning hose in 17 months, and often goes days without dish soap. I'm ashamed to admit I can count the number of times I've bleached the cutting boards in the meat department this year on my hands--but I've been warned about wasting time cleaning when I could be stocking, or unloading trucks, and (as my boss reminds me) it's not like we still cut meat. Once, we put a little boy in the hospital because he had a reaction to the sugar substitute in the sugar-free cookies the bakery gave away, without notifying anybody, when they ran out of the usual ones. The rocket carts the stockers have to use have caused injuries ranging from cut or pinched fingers up to bleeding head wounds; the ones with top decks that often unexpectedly crash down from up-position to flat-position have warnings written on them in magic marker to let you know they bite.
I hate working at Walmart just slightly less than I hate being unemployed.
So, yes, I get the contempt for Walmart. It's just the trigger that seems odd to me.
I've lost the link, but I remember seeing an article outline how domestic abusers manipulate their victims, and how the techniques apply equally to managers manipulating their workers at bad companies. Things like making your victim feel to blame for what happens to them, for instance. Also like domestic violence, sticking it out in the face off all the stress and insults and harm can become a point of pride, as if being able to take the abuse is a strength, or a super-power that only a select few have.
...that's, uhm, because I, uhm, had trouble actually wait what the fuck now?
Trust me, the contempt (disgust) (horror) is not actually less as regards all those things. It is probably greater, in fact. I just had no concrete idea, you know?
Nobody does. It's how the company gets away with stuff. Honestly, how many companies get away with stuff. The Kroger grocery store I worked at before Walmart would wash the rotten chickens from their meat department in bleach and then fry them up to serve in the deli. Horrible things happen when nobody's watching, and when you've got the deep pockets of a big corporation, you can make pretty sure that nobody's watching. Also, yay for anonymity. I could be--would be--fired for what I've shared here. Which is why you don't see these stories shared more often, I think.
As a tangent, that "Thursday is payday" thing... Does Walmart still do physical paydays? If yes, what happens if you cannot show up that day; can you just pick it up on Friday?
I have never seen a Walmart meeting. I am okay with that.
(I am trying to put a better read on this "To be fair, it's always either for extreme circumstances or steak for a party." I'm tired and spacey and sick, so I'm having trouble doing it.)
I was only pointing out that our fundraisers are for extreme circumstances (and parties) to respond to this: "Here, buddy, I've been making life rough for your coworker, take an hour out of your non-work time and give me seven bucks, I'll make suuuuure it gets to them." That is, indeed, exactly what's going on with the Thanksgiving food drive, but I can't pin the blame on Walmart for the hardships addressed by the associate in need dinners I am personally familiar with.
Payday is now electronic only. You can't get a physical check even if you want to. (Which is kind of a problem, if you don't bother to print out your paystubs and you lose your job. At that point, you'll need your last few paystubs to apply for unemployment, and will not be able to get into the system to get them, nor will you find anyone who can help you when you call the home office.) When they still gave paychecks, they would give you your paycheck Wednesday evening if you couldn't be there Thursday, otherwise it would be held until you came in for it. You sometimes had to wait a while if you wanted it on the weekend, when the personnel office was locked and management was busy.
Walmart meetings close with the Walmart cheer, which is call and response, with a steady clapped beat. It's probably supposed to be like cheerleading. It even starts with 'Gimme a W!' But in practice, it seems kind of...cult-like. And Walmart, run the way a Walmart is supposed to run, has three meetings a day, covering every shift.
I've managed to avoid meetings for years, so I know they changed it when they got rid of the "-" in Wal-mart (in the cheer, it was 'Gimme a squigglie!' and the response required of the group was a fairly ridiculous shake of the hips in an abbreviated form of the twist), but I don't know how much it changed. I remember the original closed with 'Who's number one?' "Walmart!" 'Who's number one?' "WALMART!" 'Who's really number one?' "The customers! ALWAYS!" Punctuated at the end with a sound not unlike the military's "Hu-ah!" Which as I type it doesn't really sound all that off, I admit, but we had meetings out on the sales floor, and customers never failed to stare at us as if we might come after them with axes when the meeting broke.
Sorry you're not feeling well. Get better soon, if that's an option for you and you don't have other plans. :)
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(no subject)
Date: 2013-11-19 07:25 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-11-19 08:11 pm (UTC)-- Steve definitely does NOT advocate this; it's probably not worth the legal fees.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-11-19 09:43 pm (UTC)Employees are being asked to buy food to donate to themselves.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-11-20 06:04 am (UTC)As a Walmart employee, I find myself a bit bemused by how shocked and appalled people are by this. I guess it really is a Walmart culture thing. We frequently have "help an associate in need" potluck dinners, where we are expected to provide both the food and the cooking (off the clock), plus the five dollars a plate to eat the food. Usually the money does go to the associate(s) in need, though one of our store managers used the Associate Relations fund to take his district bosses out to dinner and the like.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-11-20 02:12 pm (UTC)And, we find it appalling because it is truly appalling how the richest company on the planet not only steals from their employees, customers, and communities, but demands that you thank them for it.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-11-20 05:44 pm (UTC)To be clear, I understand why people find it appalling--they find it appalling because it's appalling. I guess I'm just, you know, used to it. Numbed. Or perhaps the word I'm looking for is "indoctrinated".
(no subject)
Date: 2013-11-20 03:39 pm (UTC)WalMart
Here, buddy, I've been making life rough for your coworker, take an hour out of your non-work time and give me seven bucks, I'll make suuuuure it gets to them. Well, most of it. Probably. You wouldn't want to disappoint expectations, would you?
And you're surprised people are appalled?
(no subject)
Date: 2013-11-20 06:13 pm (UTC)To be fair, our dinners have never been to help someone who's struggling just because of poverty. They're done to raise money for people with monster medical expenses, or who lost everything in a house fire, that sort of thing. Which is why people are generally pretty generous with their time and expenses, as long as they know what the need is. It is, at least, voluntary. While there is some social pressure to participate, there aren't any repercussions if you don't.
And also to be fair, dipping the Associate Relations till is a termination offense for a manager (even a manager with monster medical expenses, for whom the fund-raising dinner was specifically intended, as it turns out). On the other hand, the Christmas party also gets paid for out of Associate Relations, so it's sometimes hard to tell if you're helping out Frank with his dialysis bills, or buying an upgrade from round steak to sirloin for people willing to spend a significant portion of a near-Christmas evening at Walmart.
[Edit] I suppose I should add, the reason the outrage surprises me a bit, is that we consider these things as associates helping associates, because we know damn well nobody else will, rather than viewing it as Walmart shitting on us. We really are indoctrinated in Walmart culture. Have you ever seen a Walmart meeting, with everybody doing the Walmart cheer at the end?
(no subject)
Date: 2013-11-20 06:58 pm (UTC)The concept of NEEDING a food drive for employees of a megacorporation is the shocking part, as is the company's decision to arrange "other, equally underpaid employees experience hardship to help you while the company does NOTHING" efforts instead of, y'know, paying well enough that their employees don't require canned food drives to eat.
We are, again, discussing one of the most profitable companies on the planet. Who will move heaven and earth avoid paying their employees a fair price, including things that cost them large amounts of profit, because the idea of paying a fair and honest wage would cost them more than weathering the lawsuits from illegally-fired stolen-from employees does.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-11-21 06:32 am (UTC)Having put in 14 years, and putting 18% into my 401k in hopes of being able to retire at 85 instead of dying while greeting doors, I cleared just under $23,000 last year. I got a 50 cent raise last year because of my extraordinary commitment to safety and customer service, but since I haven't done anything above and beyond that this year, I will probably get a 30 cent raise for meeting the expectations I set last year by going beyond expectations. That's if I don't get docked for my unsafe behavior this year, what with tripping on the clothing racks that almost entirely fill our back hallway near the fire exit, giving myself a concussion and a knee that's probably going to be gimpy for life. They have never in my time there had a cost of living raise, although they talked about it when I was first hired.
Our store complained to the city council and got a new fire inspector canned because he called us out for our cluttered fire corridors, blocked exits, and expired extinguishers. OSHA calls us before they do inspections, so we can pass them. The health inspector hasn't come around in years. Each time our in-house inspector, Kay Chemical, sends around a new inspector, he or she finds a dozen violations, but none of them are ever corrected, and the inspectors quickly learn not to bother pointing them out. The deli hasn't had a working nozzle on their cleaning hose in 17 months, and often goes days without dish soap. I'm ashamed to admit I can count the number of times I've bleached the cutting boards in the meat department this year on my hands--but I've been warned about wasting time cleaning when I could be stocking, or unloading trucks, and (as my boss reminds me) it's not like we still cut meat. Once, we put a little boy in the hospital because he had a reaction to the sugar substitute in the sugar-free cookies the bakery gave away, without notifying anybody, when they ran out of the usual ones. The rocket carts the stockers have to use have caused injuries ranging from cut or pinched fingers up to bleeding head wounds; the ones with top decks that often unexpectedly crash down from up-position to flat-position have warnings written on them in magic marker to let you know they bite.
I hate working at Walmart just slightly less than I hate being unemployed.
So, yes, I get the contempt for Walmart. It's just the trigger that seems odd to me.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-11-21 02:09 pm (UTC)Well, that's just a shit-cherry on top of dung sundae, isn't it.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-11-21 04:41 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-11-21 04:45 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-11-21 05:53 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-11-22 04:22 am (UTC)Also: Burning down a wal-mart is a public service, I am just saying.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-11-21 11:46 pm (UTC)...that's, uhm, because I, uhm, had trouble actually wait what the fuck now?
Trust me, the contempt (disgust) (horror) is not actually less as regards all those things. It is probably greater, in fact. I just had no concrete idea, you know?
(no subject)
Date: 2013-11-22 07:11 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-11-21 11:50 pm (UTC)I have never seen a Walmart meeting. I am okay with that.
(I am trying to put a better read on this "To be fair, it's always either for extreme circumstances or steak for a party." I'm tired and spacey and sick, so I'm having trouble doing it.)
Am so sorry "nobody else will".
(no subject)
Date: 2013-11-22 07:04 am (UTC)Payday is now electronic only. You can't get a physical check even if you want to. (Which is kind of a problem, if you don't bother to print out your paystubs and you lose your job. At that point, you'll need your last few paystubs to apply for unemployment, and will not be able to get into the system to get them, nor will you find anyone who can help you when you call the home office.) When they still gave paychecks, they would give you your paycheck Wednesday evening if you couldn't be there Thursday, otherwise it would be held until you came in for it. You sometimes had to wait a while if you wanted it on the weekend, when the personnel office was locked and management was busy.
Walmart meetings close with the Walmart cheer, which is call and response, with a steady clapped beat. It's probably supposed to be like cheerleading. It even starts with 'Gimme a W!' But in practice, it seems kind of...cult-like. And Walmart, run the way a Walmart is supposed to run, has three meetings a day, covering every shift.
I've managed to avoid meetings for years, so I know they changed it when they got rid of the "-" in Wal-mart (in the cheer, it was 'Gimme a squigglie!' and the response required of the group was a fairly ridiculous shake of the hips in an abbreviated form of the twist), but I don't know how much it changed. I remember the original closed with 'Who's number one?' "Walmart!" 'Who's number one?' "WALMART!" 'Who's really number one?' "The customers! ALWAYS!" Punctuated at the end with a sound not unlike the military's "Hu-ah!" Which as I type it doesn't really sound all that off, I admit, but we had meetings out on the sales floor, and customers never failed to stare at us as if we might come after them with axes when the meeting broke.
Sorry you're not feeling well. Get better soon, if that's an option for you and you don't have other plans. :)
(no subject)
Date: 2013-11-19 11:43 pm (UTC)(Includes the line "and even pay less in wage than the cost of food and rent").
(no subject)
Date: 2013-11-20 05:58 pm (UTC)