Working at Walmart Has Made Me Hate People

I've worked a few customer service jobs before working at Walmart, and I always thought that people exaggerated about how crappy people really are. Over the last year I've learned just how much people really can suck. They're stupid, inconsiderate, and just outright rude. Below is a list of just a few things that customers have done to make me hate them:

• Parents have yelled at me because the toy they "needed" the day before their child's birthday was out of stock in every store in our market. 
• Parents have walked right by me and neglected to inform me that their child just vomited down three of my aisles. 
• Teenagers have taken displays down from high-rise shelves for the sole purpose of destroying them. 
• Kids have played kickball in my department while I was on break and knocked merchandise all over the floors of every single aisle in my department.
• Customers have yelled at me because another associate from a different store gave them inaccurate information about my on-hand quantities. 
• Parents frequently drop their kids off in my department to entertain them while they do their grocery shopping. For some kids this isn't a problem because the kids are well-mannered and respectful. However, in most cases the kids think that it's a free-for-all and throw toys at each other and make a huge mess. 

I understand that working with the public usually has its down sides, but I feel like at when you're working at Walmart these down sides and unfortunate occurrences are multiplied. I will say though, that working in retail has made me a more conscience shopper. I always make sure to put things back where they belong. 

Being a more conscience shopper has its negative sides too though. This weekend I was out shopping with my parents and in more than one store they noticed me picking merchandise up off of the floor and placing it back nicely on the shelves. I didn't even realize that I was doing it; it has become second nature to tidy aisles up a bit while I'm in them. 

Walmart said to Raise Minimum Wage in April

Many Walmart Associates have been fighting for higher wages since around Black Friday in 2014. This morning one of my coworkers shared an article from Blue National Review and it appears that these associates' hard work has paid off. The article says Walmart has announced that it will be raising its minimum wage in the U.S. facilities from $7.25 to $9. This would appear to be good news, but for associates like me it leaves room for some skepticism.

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Currently job titles are associated with a pay level ranging from one to seven; the more difficult your job, the higher your level. Each level is a $0.20/hr base-rate increase. On top of an associate's base-rate annual raises can be added. Each year associates are evaluated by the assistant manager over their area. If the associate receives a below average evaluation, he or she will not receive a raise. If the associate receives an average evaluation he/she receives a $0.40 raise. In some rare cases associates receive an above average evaluation and receive a $0.60 raise. For a hand-full of associates that have been with the company for 10+ years the annual bonus adds up to be quite a lot.

The Walton family isn't a family that has given me much faith though. They have a history of screwing over associates so they can have a greater benefit. For example, during the first quarter of each year, stores are told that they must cut labor costs so severely that many part-time associates go from working 32 hours each week to as low as 12 hours a week. I understand that Q1 has a tendency to be a slow time for retail companies, but many of Walmart's competitors don't cut labor costs nearly that much. I have a strong feeling that with these new company-wide raises are actually just a PR scheme that will get the media off of Walmart's back for a while. I wouldn't be at all shocked if the company did away with annual evaluation raises, cut the level pay differential, did away with quarterly bonuses, or cut insurance benefits in order to prevent the Walton's from "losing" too much money.

With that said, I could be wrong, the raise in minimum pay could actually be a good thing. It might not just be a PR scheme. The Walton's may have actually realized that forcing associates into federal assistance programs when they're the richest family in the world is highly unethical. Who knows? I guess time will tell.

I'm not your damn babysitter

Parent's often think that it's acceptable to dump their children off in the Toys department to entertain the kids while they go do their shopping. NEWS FLASH: I'm not a damn babysitter; in fact, I actually despise the children that belong to Walmart shoppers. Normal children are fine, but typically (not always, but 90% of the time) Walmart shoppers lack some serious parenting skills.

Image courtesy of Pinterest.

If I were a babysitter, I'd be charging at least $12/hr rather than struggling to survive off of $8/hr. I don't get paid enough to deal with your snot-nosed little brats running through my department ruining my freshly zoned aisles.

People often think I'm exaggerating when I tell them horror stories of kids that I've had to deal with-- I'm not. The other night I had a group of 3 kids ranging in age from 5 to 9 that ran down one of my aisles throwing Barbie dolls at each other. I was up at the service desk and when I returned (I was gone a total of maybe 5 minutes) they had completely destroyed the department. There were at least 30 barbies on the floor; some of the dolls were actually broken and no longer able to be sold. I can't imagine what their home must look like if their parents let them go around throwing crap at each other there too.

That's about it for this rant. Thanks for reading!