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cheerful_exgirlfriendHamilton Nolan
2/06/14 5:09pm
As a former Target manager I also want to point out that the part time workers needing open availability means it is nearly impossible for them to work two jobs since schedules change weekly.

I was often instructed to not work someone for as many hours if they did not have 100% availability (which includes working overnight). When I might protest and say "But Jill is a great cashier, she just can't work Sundays because she cares for her mom that day" my store manager would remind me that weekend work is just part of retail so even though Jill could work all other days and was flexible we just couldn't accommodate her.

After Christmas, when Target was also trying to play fiscal year-end catch-up, we'd have to cut hours, sometimes employees would come in for a shift only to be told they weren't needed. A few wise employees got a hold of the law in California, which requires employers to pay a minimum of 3 hours if employees are scheduled, so then we were told to just schedule everyone to 3 hour shifts and hope some would stay for 6 or 8 hours if we needed them.
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  acmeindustriescheerful_exgirlfriend
  2/06/14 5:12pm
  Seems like it would also be impossible to arrange childcare.
  
  Of the many fucked up things that retail workers have to deal with, the open availability thing is especially shitty.
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  cheerful_exgirlfriendacmeindustries
  2/06/14 5:17pm
  Yep. I'd often see favored employees get a special schedule and when I'd question it I'd be told things like "Todd coaches his son's baseball team" and I'd say well that's lovely but firstly the team doesn't play all day long so he could work after and secondly why can't Maria, Jill and Sue have evenings off then to be with their kids??
  
  We had lots of employees who needed to work two jobs and management would always give them flack about not having "open availability" and they loved using any moment you weren't available as an excuse to give you a smaller raise.
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WallyW0rldHamilton Nolan
2/06/14 5:04pm
Pay Cap: Walmart use to keep giving you raises no matter your hourly rate. They now have caps based on position held. I have many associates who have not received a raise in nearly nine years.

who in gods name works the same job for 9 years without a pay increase?!?! With 9 years of experience doing anything you can do better than that. Shit I'd leave after 2 years of no pay increase. Who is holding these people hostage?
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  zombiepandaWallyW0rld
  2/06/14 5:10pm
  "It's the economy, stupid."
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  WallyW0rldzombiepanda
  2/06/14 5:13pm
  I don't know where you are from but I could find a $9 job in my city in about 2 hours.
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ArkHamilton Nolan
2/06/14 5:02pm
Wow. Pretty stark evidence of how much worse people's daily lives in the workforce have gotten over the last 20 years.
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  Hamilton NolanArk
  2/06/14 5:27pm
  Indeed. And if you continued the story back another decade, the trend would run the exact same way.
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  Dear ZeusArk
  2/06/14 5:39pm
  And people still think with a 90s mentality on this stuff...
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keeplosingburnersHamilton Nolan
2/06/14 5:10pm
"This company is being managed by the quarter. We have executives who have no vested interest in Walmart."

To me, this paragraph is really the most interesting nugget in the e-mail. How long can this sort of shoddy leadership possibly be sustainable, even in a company as big and powerful as Wal-Mart?

I've never heard much of anything about Wal-Mart being in any sort of precarious financial position, but if what this e-mail says is true, would it really surprise anyone if these executives, and the ones who've left the company over the last 15 to 20 years, have been gradually setting up the company for a massive collapse?

It's no wonder they fight so hard against any government attempt to improve workers' conditions. Because it sure sounds like their model is truly predicated on putting short-sighted cost-cutting above everything else, and that does not seem terribly sustainable if the government ever takes a step towards improving working conditions. If this sort of behavior and mentality permeate the upper levels of management, does anyone really think there's an actual long-term business plan being implemented here?

Nor would it surprise me if these execs have set themselves up for a nice, big permanent windfall after they leave the company.

How lovely it would be to see the whole house of cards collapse, in part because the bigwigs made sure to keep their own payouts in place at their employees' expense.
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  corpgreedkeeplosingburners
  2/06/14 5:16pm
  I'm assuming this isn't just Walmart as IBM seems to be run this way as well now. I'd be surprised if all major companies who only need to make numbers for investors are working in the current economic environment.
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  keeplosingburnerscorpgreed
  2/06/14 5:24pm
  That seems like a safe bet, probably for a great many of the largest corporations.
  
  Everyone was shocked when Enron fell apart. Same with Bear Stearns. It's not like there isn't a precedent here. Bad, short-sighted, amoral people will eventually poison any institution to death from within if it doesn't take active steps to defend itself.
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ObliteratiHamilton Nolan
2/06/14 5:29pm
My son works at Walmart after school. This is what the GM unloading dock looked like a few days ago, and that's before they actually started unloading that days trucks. Additionally there were two full semi trailers stuffed with crap sitting in the back parking lot, waiting - for days - to be unloaded.

It's been like this every day for weeks, according to him. They've cut everyone's hours so far back there's no one left to stock the shelves. If you walk around the store there's nobody there except salaried managers trying to do twelve different things at once.

Every shelf in the store is empty, and they got a million dollars worth of merchandise sitting on pallets in the back, collecting dust, because they're too cheap to pay some minimum wage drones to put it out.

Such a bullshit company.
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  cheerful_exgirlfriendObliterati
  2/06/14 5:35pm
  Then in two weeks they will have a District manager visit scheduled and they will burn a million payroll hours making the store look good and then hen the visit is over the cycle will repeat.
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  FuzzyCholocheerful_exgirlfriend
  2/06/14 5:59pm
  I can't tell you how much I can relate to that. Suddenly I got an extra 4 hours staying overnight to pick up the store so that the district manager is pleased. Very inconvenient.
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DiscoInfernoSupressionSystemHamilton Nolan
2/06/14 5:22pm
The demand for open availability is ubiquitous among low-wage employers.

It eliminates a worker's ability to actually get a second job / take classes to open doors to new career paths.

Something that is completely ignored by the people harping on about how "You're not supposed to live on minimum wage! / Get yerself educated!"
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  butter-wrapped suedeDiscoInfernoSupressionSystem
  2/06/14 5:51pm
  Yes, I've seen this with single moms trying to navigate child care and working at fast food restaurants. :(
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  roaaaarDiscoInfernoSupressionSystem
  2/06/14 7:00pm
  exactly. you think these people wouldn't kill for the ability to become educated in order to escape retail hell? it blows my mind that people think 'just get educated' is as easily done as said. be a poor student, sure, but you still need things like food and shelter.
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ZaleyaKaneHamilton Nolan
2/06/14 5:42pm
Shop Costco. Shop Wallgreens. Shop places with Unions and places that reward their employee's hard work and promote from within. For corporations like this nothing will ever matter but their bottom line. That their workers need food stamps to live? Irrelevant. That a person who works for a company for 10 years gives better service than a 2 month temp hire? Irrelevant.

The 1% are not shopping at Walmart. The ability to reward business who treat their workers well is completely within our grasp. I know it is tempting when you have $20 to spend to do so at a place where things are the cheapest (as someone with $20 to spend I definitely understand). But ultimately the difference comes out of our own pockets. It is our taxes that go to subsidizing places like Wal-Mart.

No one will ever stand up for the working poor, or those trying to work. There is neither money nor power in it. People can only stand up for themselves. The eight hour work day and minimum wage did not spontaneously come into existence. People fought and died for those minor luxuries.
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  BuddyZaleyaKane
  5/17/14 1:16am
  It's retail, there is nothing skilled about the work. It is not a career save the very few that can adapt to become management. It is not business responsibility to provide a lifestyle for their workers. Unions are only in it for themselves. See Hostess. Walgreens is fixing to move it's headquarters overseas to avoid the high taxes in America. If a person doesn't like their company they can get another job. They are not forced to work there.
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  ZaleyaKaneBuddy
  5/17/14 3:18am
  I had a long list of why this comment was painfully ignorant, and generally cruel and dismissive to the many people who are worked incredibly hard and receive little in return. And how, actually, a living wage is owed to people who work. And how affording food isn't a "lifestyle"- it is life. And how if you think reducing labor laws to be like a 3rd world country is good for anybody, you must be touched in the head.
  
  But then I realized I don't give a shit about what you think. It was very freeing. Thank you.
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BrtStlndHamilton Nolan
2/06/14 5:08pm
The overall impression I get from this is that they don't want hourly people to work for them. They make the situation so awful that it's nearly impossible to maintain for any significant length of time.

Walmart's ideal employee would work there for exactly 12 months at $8.00/hr and then quit so they can bring in fresh meat. If they don't quit, they'll do their best to make them quit or get fired as soon as possible.
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  ObliteratiBrtStlnd
  2/06/14 5:43pm
  Close.
  
  What they really want are nothing but temp workers. Minimum wage, no raises, zero benefits, forever. They can just keep rotating them in and out until they can replace everybody with robots.
  
  It's a terrible long-term strategy, but what the fuck do the bigwigs care? In five years they'll have cashed out and be sitting on a beach in Monaco.
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  Harold SkimpoleBrtStlnd
  2/06/14 5:44pm
  Its surprising that their workers haven't started a sabotage campaign against the company. They could use a type of price-tagging like the settlers in the West Bank.
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toothpetardHamilton Nolan
2/06/14 4:55pm

Right downtown next to the Kroger store

Is where my hardware store once stood
They're both gone now
Along with the rest of downtown
All the windows are boarded over with wood

We survived the arrival of the K-mart
And the Pamida that had come before
But not even they had the strength
To withstand the attack of that
Fucking Walmart store

Sam Walton promised prosperity and every-day low prices
When he brought his store to town
He only delivered unemployment
As one by one all the other stores shut down

Soon I was forced to swallow my pride
And take the only job I could score
For 28 hours a week at minimum wage
I'm the greeter out at
The Walmart store

Sam Walton has singlehandedly sounded the deathknell
For small towns across America
I learned my lesson and I'm here to tell you:
You can't trust a man from Arkansas No, you can't trust a man from Arkansas
Don't trust any man from Arkansas!!
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Dominic DominoHamilton Nolan
2/06/14 5:40pm
Corporations try to make lots of money. The average retail job is no picnic, financial or otherwise. None of this is news. Slightly off-topic, but I do note that according to the Foundation's website, "in 2012, Walmart and the Walmart Foundation gave more than $1 billion in cash and in-kind contributions around the world." This is at least worth considering in this discussion of how evil and terrible and rapacious the company supposedly is. Can we get some information on the charitable activities of Gawker.com?
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  fastd63Dominic Domino
  2/06/14 6:11pm
  Yes,because we're all too stupid to figure out that while they cut employ pay and benefits,they're taking that savings and using it to make tax deductible,pro PR donations.
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  no1onthecornerDominic Domino
  2/06/14 7:48pm
  Charity starts at home. The corporate overlords at Walmart get rich by stiffing their employees left and right and creating a class of low-wage workers that tax payers subsidize. So they gave away a bunch of money around the world? Good for them. But have they stopped relying on sweatshop labor to make their crappy merchandise? No. Have they started paying their employees close to a living wage or at least give them a reasonable schedule so they could secure a second job? Fuck no. Have they probably written off that billion dollars on their 2013 taxes? OF COURSE. Also, in-kind contributions from a corporation like Walmart is probably their clearance, bargain-bin garbage that they dumped around the world even though no one was asking for it. Fuck them and fuck anyone who thinks this company does any good other than line the pockets of their shareholders and Sam Walton's drunk and drug-addicted spawn.
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