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    wizemanknowsHamilton Nolan
    7/12/13 12:06pm

    I think we can all agree that these are pretty crappy jobs to have. Which other big chain in this industry is treating their employees better? Isn't this just how this whole industry rolls?

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      KittensAndUnicorns_v2_The Uprisingwizemanknows
      7/12/13 12:07pm

      Costco treats their employees well. and the employees themselves love working for Costco. ive never heard a bad costco story.

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      prestocrazymwahahahahawizemanknows
      7/12/13 12:07pm

      Well, you could always contrast this with the Costco model — which is pretty successful, and treats their employees like people.

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    stacyinbeanHamilton Nolan
    7/12/13 12:48pm

    Hamilton, do you know anything about this points system? What the fuck is that about!?

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      Kyle Schlichterstacyinbean
      7/12/13 1:48pm

      "Points" is a pretty common attendance system for hourly workers. Missing a shift but calling to notify your supervisor, one point. Taking off half a shift, half a point. Missing a shift and failing to call in, two points (where I work at least). Point values at my company are higher for peak volume days. Typically you'll roll a point off after a period of perfect attendance (1 point per 30 days at my current job, 1 point per 60 days at Convergys, not sure what Walmart's policy is). Accumulating certain numbers of points triggers certain disciplinary measures (verbal warning, written warning, final warning, termination. At my current job, it's 4 for verbal, 5 written, 6 final, 7 fired. My old job at Convergys was 4 verbal, 7 written, 10 final, 12 fired). Approved absences (paid time off, voluntary, scheduled unpaid time off, floating holiday/vacation days) don't count towards points.

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      stacyinbeanKyle Schlichter
      7/12/13 2:08pm

      Holy shit I need to stop bitching about my job!

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    conductioncovenHamilton Nolan
    7/12/13 12:09pm

    Shop. At. Costco. Infinitely better to their workers, price is about the same, and you don't feel dirty after leaving the store.

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      KinglyCitrusconductioncoven
      7/12/13 12:15pm

      I would, but there's no Costco within 50 miles of me. I do most of my grocery shopping at Smith's, which, at least according to the experience of one friend who works there, is a semi-decent place to work. He says it's menial, but they give him as many hours as he can handle and don't mistreat him. For most other things, I just buy from Amazon or, in a pinch, Target.

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      queenbeezconductioncoven
      7/12/13 1:21pm

      and the hot dogs

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    RoutanClanHamilton Nolan
    7/12/13 12:38pm

    I am a former Wal-Mart employee who was fired by a racist boss. I fought the company through the EEOC and got all the way to the settlement phase. Is there a way I can get my story to you?

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      Hamilton NolanRoutanClan
      7/12/13 12:44pm

      Hamilton@Gawker.com

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      bullridersRoutanClan
      7/12/13 1:04pm

      You better check you Non-disclosure clause. Settlements normally have those in there.

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    KittensAndUnicorns_v2_The UprisingHamilton Nolan
    7/12/13 12:06pm

    its awesome that a whole slew of walmart employees, ( who i would have never made as gawker readers) will now ultimately, be appreciative of this site, and become loyal readers.

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      meatwadfKittensAndUnicorns_v2_The Uprising
      7/12/13 12:19pm

      No offense, but its that sort of snap judgments of people that really get me. I worked at my local store all through college (and a little beyond sadly), and I worked with plenty of people that had doctorates but wally was all they could get because of simply not being able to find a job.

      The stores aren't just populated by the elderly and mouth breathers. Hell, my wife still works at one (where we met), and hates herself every day for having to go in there despite having an English degree. There are a lot of smart but desperate people in those stores.

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      KittensAndUnicorns_v2_The Uprisingmeatwadf
      7/12/13 12:35pm

      of course i believe there are a lot of smart people at Walmart. But..when the Ten states where Walmart is everywhere are located in the midwest and deep south, and when these states tend to not be liberal ( lets call a spade a spade. these states are FILLED with gun totin, bible-loving, gay-hatin', women-hatin',anyone-who's-not-white-hatin', folk. ), its not completely stupid to assume that where Walmart is often located, does not have a strong, liberal, gawker readership.

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    lobstrHamilton Nolan
    7/12/13 12:13pm

    That's nice and all, but you misspelled it "Brithday" ..and why does the chocolate icing depiction of Dora the Explorer more resemble a blurry and intoxicated Janet Reno?

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      cheerful_exgirlfriendlobstr
      7/12/13 12:17pm

      Actual cake from Wal-Mart

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      nomanouslobstr
      7/12/13 12:36pm

      Reno the Big Drink'o.

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    DanCopelandHamilton Nolan
    7/12/13 12:22pm

    You want to support your local economy: Buy local, or shop at a chain that pays well, gives decent hours, and provides benefits for employees. You want to drive it into the ground: shop at Wal-Mart.

    I'd be interested if anyone has a story of Wal-Mart moving into a small town and actually improving the quality of life for the residents there, because so far all I've found is the opposite. They undercut small businesses, driving those companies out of business and then hiring the newly unemployed workers at substandard pay with unreliable hours and no benefits, intentionally keeping employees at limited and unpredictable hours so that they neither qualify for benefits nor have the ability to supplement their Wal-Mart shifts with other jobs. Wal-Mart has, of any company operating in the US, the single biggest percentage of its work force receiving state and federal assistance.

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      showbiz2DanCopeland
      7/12/13 1:04pm

      I have a story. They came into my town, and it was a godsend. Finally a place that had decent prices. There were tons of small businesses, and they had a lock on the town, and they gouged people left and right.

      In one specific case, I needed an electrical panel for my house. Price at Home Depot 60 miles away: $117. Price at local place where the exact same item was on sale and had enough dust on it make it brown: $275. This kind of markup plagued this town for years. The town is relatively poor, and people simply didn't really have the option to drive to the nearest big city with decent prices because it was at least 1.5 hours to get there.

      All the local business were like that, even Hy-Vee. The local businesses SCREAMED trying to stop them. After 2 years, the folks in the town forced the council to let them in.

      You know how many businesses closed? One. 1 out of 70+ businesses. And to be perfectly honest, they guy who ran that business? Complete asshole, who no one liked, and not one tear was shed when he closed up shop. Not one.

      On top of that, Walmart added 200+ jobs to a town that needed them desperately.

      All that being said, I absolutely hate Walmart, and avoid it as much as possible, specifically because of how they treat their workers. But I absolutely admit that they helped this small town, and have only improved the economy here. On top of that, now that we have a large chain store, more businesses are opening up around it.

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      Albite_YouDanCopeland
      7/12/13 1:18pm

      I once had to write an environmental impact document for the proposed construction of a new walmart. Part of the support documents was an economic impact study that very clearly showed how the operation of a walmart in an area directly contributed to the resulting urban blight. Walmart comes in and claims to create jobs and provide affordable goods. The problem is that with that model, they're reducing the overall earnings of the people who live in that community (because they're not paying them livable wages) and reducing the overall spending within the local economy (not only do drastically reduce prices for goods lowering the money spent but the people working at walmart have less money to spend because of their shitty walmart salary). The number didn't lie and there is a definite socioeconomic impact when a walmart comes to town and it's not JUST driving local businesses to shut down. I wish I still had access to that report.

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    Graby SauceHamilton Nolan
    7/12/13 12:13pm

    I've never understood the mentality of corporations that ignore evidence of mismanagement, employment discrimination and other illegal activity, and employee unhappiness. Even if they don't pay workers more, what benefit is it to allow managers to treat employees poorly or to make working conditions so unpleasant that workers have no loyalty for the organization and make good employees want to leave? Perhaps the philosophy is that if workers aren't griping, you haven't cut costs enough somewhere.

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      KaiFromDogtownGraby Sauce
      7/12/13 12:25pm

      I think the philosophy is that they don't have any problems hiring, so they can get away with treating their employees like dogshit.

      As for why the managers tend to treat the employees poorly, you have a point. I'm guessing that has more to do with the fact that people who are actually good managers have little desire to work at Walmart.

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      PreyfarGraby Sauce
      7/12/13 12:46pm

      The main issue is that they only listen to managers and regional directors. Shit flows downhill, not up. The people who should be reporting this don't because it'll make them look bad, risk their jobs. So corporate probably neever hears 99% of the shit that happens. They just hear "everything is good" and "our profits for the month are ______".

      Any other bitching, complaining probably just gets written off as disgruntled/bad employees trying to make the company look bad, etc.

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    omniboreHamilton Nolan
    7/12/13 12:11pm

    Moral superiority time: I lived in a small town where the only department store (no kidding, the ONLY one) was a Walmart. Know what? I still didn't shop there. I got all my toiletries at Walgreen's or King Sooper's (though who knows how problematic those corporations are), and it was easy.

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      XyzzyHamilton Nolan
      7/12/13 12:06pm

      Who searches "gawker.com" on google?

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        Exponential GrapeXyzzy
        7/12/13 12:12pm

        the same people that search for facebook and google on google (answer: a surprising amount of people)

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        XyzzyExponential Grape
        7/12/13 12:13pm

        But how many of those people are reading Gawker?

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