Wal-Mart Implements New Employee Leave Policy

I am Glad Wal Mart is not a Religion
If they were a Church and you missed 3 times you would go to Hell.  It is ok if you work for Wal Mart it is Hell on Earth.

As a priviouse wal-mart employee I was forced to quit under the new absentie policy before it went into effect. As a widowed mother of 5 I have been penalized for the past 3 years for that. And under the new policy 1 of my children is a special needs child ( majoir heart problems and surguris)I have leave forms filed with the company by her primary and cardo doctors. I was informed by my store manager” if it is not a legel and verified emergancy it would be counted as a unexcused” I also had the leave forms from 5 years ago thrown in my face when my husband and mother died from cancer. I was not even allowed the time off with that leave to attened my mothers funeral. I was threatened to sighn the coaching or my job. The other thing that people whom still work for walmart is that if you know you are not going to be able to clock in without a manager swip your badge anyway. It is your proff that you were there on time and you had to wait for the override. With out that proof you can and will be fired for unexcused (for every 3 tardies = 1 unexcused)I did not know this till after the fact.They like to leave that part out. I guess when sam walton died his outlook for his employees did to it is not a family comes first for walmart inless it is walmart family.

At Wal-Mart even if you are sick and have income protection available (ie Sick pay) any days missed is still considered an unexcused absence.  Sick pay is only payed if you take one day without any pay and have no vacation or personal time available.

Almost ALL abcences are unexcused. Always the first day is. And sometimes even with a Drs. note.

I am glad to see this policy in effect. I work with several who just don’t show up to work and make it difficult for us all.
If you are sick and have 3 days or more off, you are able to use the Family medical leave act. I have used it and was off 2 months.I am still employed with Wal*Mart.
If I were an employer, I would not want to hire those who continually don’t feel like coming to work, when you know they are off to a game or other pursuit.

I think a few people have brought this on. Some who don’t want to work only when they feel like it. It makes it hard for everyone. I don’t think everyone should get disciplined for a few. I do think Sam Walton probably has turn more than once in his grave. The way the company treats its employees isn’t the way he intented. I never met Sam, But people who have said he was for the employees. Now it is for the Walton family. We are working to make them money. I am sorry if we get sick. But it is going to happen. I don’t think Walmart should dictate such harsh rules.

The new attendance policy is ridiculous.  Basically you have to first call a centralized hotline in Bentonville and receive a code (and there are only ten reasons why you are allowed to call in sick) and then you have to speak to a manager at your particular store and give them the code and the manager can still ask you why you are calling in (I’m not sure if they can override that decision, either).  NO absence is excused (unless requested three weeks in advance) even with a Doctor’s note (which used to excuse you and I believe could qualify you for a paid sick day).  Basically it counts against you as absenteeism, even with a Doctor’s excuse.  The only excused absences are days requested three weeks in advance which would be personal or vacation time, bereavement, jury duty, and medical leave (basically if you are going to be sick more than one day than you better take medical leave or you might not have a job because of it).  For some reason during the meeting when we were being informed of this I had an almost uncontrollable urge to give a Fascist salute in response to the policy (or some other inappropriate hand gesture that would have communicated my true feelings).  This is not the way to get rid of employees that are just showing up whenever they feel like it (and I know what people are talking about when they mention that because I’ve worked with plenty of people like that).  If the person has not good or legitimate reason for constantly calling off than they should be coached/written up and then terminated - period.  This new policy is beyond absurd, is unfair and overkill.

This policy is not designed to “weed out” unhealthy workers.  What people don’t understand is that if you DO get sick, say with the flu, you can apply for the Family Medical Leave Act and STILL take sick time that you may have accrued, so you can still be paid for your time missed.  Also, these people who are complaining about scheduling Dr. Appointments, well your schedules are printed 3 weeks in advance, so you know when you will be off, so why not schedule appointments then?  I know I’m tired of picking up the slack of the deadbeats, so this policy will weed those out, not people who really work.

they reduce My Treatment from for 7 day at the Hospital for My Blood Clot on My left leg from Wal Mart file I use to work

In addition, the new policy formalizes penalties for employees who fail to get their absences authorized or don’t bother to call. Among them: Any employee with more than three unauthorized absences in a six-month span will be disciplined, and those with seven will be fired

Since my earlier post was censored (for making sense?), riddle me this anti-WalMarters: How many unauthorized absences should you get before you are terminated? This policy says 6 in six months. What do YOU think is “fair”? 10?50? 500? unlimited?

The actual policy itself actually hasn’t changed very much.  The number of allowed absences is the same. This is merely a way to actually enforce it. Workers will no longer be able to skip work once a week just because they don’t want to come in.

On the other hand, it prevents associates from getting screwed when a manager forgets to document that they called in.  Calling the number provides undisputable proof.

Finally - and someone correct me if I’m wrong - when you take three consecutive days off for illness, that counts as one absence.  So, in theory, you can miss 18 days in six months without being fired.  Sounds fair to me.  How many more do you need?

Anonymous - Yes, good attendance is a required policy for most employers, and rightfully so. But their policies regarding attendance have to be realistic as well. As far as your issue concerning Dr. appointments and schedules; most people don’t know 3 weeks in advance that their going to be sick on a certain day. The day they get sick and decide to call in, is or should be the day they seak out their doctor for assistance. The national attendance rate (call-ins) is at, or around 5%. So that would give you something to go by, in terms of call-ins. It’s sounds like Wal-Mart’s policy may be alot lower than this, making it an unrealistic policy in itself.

the actual policy became effective on oct 19,1998. and if you are someone that comes to work and is on time then you shouldn’t have a problem with this or any policy. furthermore if you are so sick that it requires you to be out for several days each and every week then maybe you should apply for the fmla so that you can get your or your family situation der control. cause someone has to pick up the slack when you call in every week and that’s not fair for those of us that come in ontime every day scheduled. so iguess my point is if associates wouldn’t have abused the system so badly and mgmt was doing their job consistently then wal-mart wouldn’t have gone to this extreme for our attendance to have to be tracked so closely.

All I can say is if I get sick I guess I’ll just try and go into work and then if I get sicker at work they will have to send me home what then?  and if by chance I don’t make it because I had a car accident because they don’t want me to stay out I guess I can or someone can always try and file a lawsuit and maybe I or who ever files a lawsuit get enough to live on after they fire me

me-

Thank you. If what you say is correct, then my comment about three consecutive days is also correct.

a worker in thibodaux asked to go home .she was not feeling well the manager told her no . he said she needs to stay til 1pm when someone will be in to take her place. she stayed til 1pm whnt home and passed away she was 44yo and has 3 kids.

The attendence policy that wal mart is know ENFORCING is the same attendence policy they have been using for the last 5 years!! The new way will be consistently be applied the same in all stores. The old way allowed associates to have 6 un excused absenses in a 6 month rolling period. The revised policy allows 7. Hypothetically-3 consecutive absenses would equal 1 unexcused absense. So that would mean a person could miss 7 different times 3 consecutive days. This would equal 21 missed work days in a 6 month rolling period! Who should be allowed to keep their job if they missed 21 days in 6 months for no reason? After 6 months everyone resets to 0. If you have a coaching it carries over into new 6 month rolling period but your absenses reset to 0. I think this is far more leaneant than any other employer. Learn to work within the rules of your employer people! Have your store manager explain it better to you. You do have protections in this new policy for severe illnesses and care for severly ill family members.

POWER TO THE PEOPLE,

“As far as your issue concerning Dr. appointments and schedules; most people don’t know 3 weeks in advance that their going to be sick on a certain day.”

When I was a supervisor at my last job, I had to deal with this same thing.  People would take off and use the ‘I was sick” excuse, (a number of times, these ‘sick’ people were seen at parties, etc., by other shift workers).  Under this Wal-Mart policy, as with ours, one unexcused absence, did not cause a problem.  Only after a third unexcused absence, was the person given a verbal warning.  The problem, is not with the first or second absence, it is with continued absences.  Like Anonymous said, “your schedules are printed 3 weeks in advance, so you know when you will be off, so why not schedule appointments then?”, and as most people sometimes get sick on their days off, that would be no problem. 

Another thing that always got me, was when a mother, said that they had to take their child to the doctor at 3:30PM, (we started at 4:30PM), but they took the whole day off.  If they had come in, say at 6:30PM, it would have been a late (3 lates = 1 absence), instead of an absence, but, they took off the whole day, why?  I had one guy, who took off 1 day a week (either a Monday or Friday) and either he was sick or his wife or child was sick.  Then he wondered why he was being disciplined.  Then, what was really funny, when someone else would call-in, all he would do all night, was complain about how he had to cover for that persons work.

There are very valid reasons for these policies, because people (who cry about being poor), don’t want to work every day.  By the way, we had 1 guy who had 15 years perfect attendance and another woman with 9 years, and I myself had 5 years, when I retired.  It’s all a matter of scheduling, using sick days, vacation time, FLMA, and making appointments before or after work, if you want to avoid diciplinary action.

i went from a healthie dd employee to a unhealthie walmart employee who has shakeing problems that wont get better 2yrs ago i took a2montth leave of abcence to help my sister take ccare my mom who was terminally ill and died from then on life at walmart was so bad iwould call in just to get away i allwayss swore the day i walked was the day they fired me but igave up and quit people say how good they were to me and i get crazy ive been gone frome there 9months after and all because working for them for14yrs

Someone wrote:

“How many more do you need?”

Yet another question to which we will never get a straight answer, I fear. Recently I posted in response to somebody who asserted that WalMart made “obscene” profits. I asked “if 3% is obscene, what would be reasonable? The only answer I got was Ken’s usual nonsense about how 3% shows that WalMart is incompetant. Huh?

Bob - If these employees called in sick, and then were seen at a party, did you not ask to see a doctor’s excuse? If not, why? Scheduling a doctors appointment in advance for a preventive measure is one thing. But expecting an employee to schedule a doctors appointment in advance for a sudden illness is another. There is a difference.

POWER-

Check out my posts above. Also read me’s and Brenden’s (I think he’s off a little, but if not the policy is more generous than I am giving it credit.). No one is saying they can’t get sick.

If someone dies in your immediate family you are allowed three days of bereavement when YOU CHOOSE TOO.  It’s like that for all Associates no matter how long you worked there. If it’s a not an immediate family member you are given whatever day off you need to attend the funeral.  The reason it’s like that is because if it’s someone in your immediate family they give you a few days to prepare everything since it may be your responsibility, if the person is not in your immediate family, your only role should be to attend the funeral.  All those writers who say they were not allowed to take a day off because their sad husband dies are liars.

The reason the first day is considered unexcused is to protect from Associates just calling in sick to have a day off whenever they wanted.  Let me tell you something, if this policy was around when I started working as an adult at my previous jobs, I wouldn’t have called out as much.

I don’t expect people to know three weeks in advance if they are going to be sick, however I do expect associates to use common sense when making a doctors appointment. Here is an example of not using common sense: Associate Adam was not feeling well on Monday while at work and he has Tuesday off.  But instead of making a doctors appointment for Tuesday, his day off, he calls in sick on Wednesday and says he is going to the doctor. It’s situations like that, that are frustrating. Obviously all situations aren’t the same, but you people get my point.  I am realistic and understand that sometimes someone just may not feel well or their kid is sick and they need to leave early or call in, but why should that be excused? If Associate Judy calls in sick on Monday because of her child, yeah Monday is unexcused, but Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday are excused because it was all from one event.  She won’t get penalized for each consecutive day because it’s one whole occurrence. Now if she calls in sick on Monday, then Thursday, then Sunday, that would be three unexcused because it was not consecutive.  People this is what needs to be done so Associates don’t take advantage of the situation.

I love the example one of you gave of the Associate who asked if she could leave early and died after an Assistant told them no. Let me tell you something, that’s a load of Bull. If an Associate tells me they are not feeling well and wants to go home, yeah, my first thought after I find out what’s wrong is to ask if they can stay until the next Associate arrive, but if they say no they can’t wait, then I simply let them know that this will be unexcused and to punch out and feel better.  Are you Wal-Mart haters going to tell me that if it was your business, you wouldn’t at least ask if they could wait before you let them go?

Then the comment about this policy is way to get rid of elderly Associates because they get sick more is so hilarious and ridiculous, I don’t have a response for it.

When a person is hired as an Associate at Wal-Mart, they are asked, just like at any other employer, if there are any pre-existing medical conditions that may affect their work.  They have the write at that moment in time to say, “My daughter is ill and sees the doctor twice a week” or “My mother lives by herself and suffers from severe arthritis so sometime I have to go to her house and take care of her” or “I have liver disease so I have to get blood work done three days a week.” This doesn’t mean they won’t get the job.  This is so we know ahead of time that issues may arise and therefore we can work with their schedule.

The biggest change in this attendance policy is the phone number the Associates need to call and you know what, it’s a great idea.  It’s great because as an Assistant, I am supposed to enter into the computer a reason why all my Associates missed a day, came in late, or left early, but I don’t remember every situation so I would always put Manager Excused Absence for everybody.  People knew the Managers were doing this because we had so many other things to do that we wouldn’t remember so they took advantage of this.  Now the policy that has always been there will finally be enforced and maybe we will have enough Associates in the store that we won’t need to try and call people in or have long lines at the registers or no Sales Associates to help in the departments.  They gave the attendance tracking task to an outside agency to help us keep track of attendance issues so what’s wrong with that?

If you ran your own business that relied on your Associates being there to make you successful, what would your Attendance Policy be? How many absences before you discipline your associates?  What would you consider to be an unexcused absence since you think that any absence should be excused?  Please help us understand your thinking.

Wal Mart Rules:

The Book of Wal Mart Rules is now as big as the state of Virginia.
Yep because they don’t know where, how or why they have to hire more people to explain the rules. You can’t see the book but they say the rules are in the book.  They say we have nothing to do with the book but you must go by the book.  The Poor Store Managers and Assistant Managers don’t have time to do their jobs so now Wal Mart is going to have someone to do their jobs for them.  How many stores and how many call offs will you even be able to reach the 800 telephone number or will you get a busy signal.  Is there any guarantee this will work.  I think not because they can’t hire people fast enough to replace the ones they are going to be terminating.  Wal Mart Please, could we have more Substance and Less Profile.  Speaking about profile the new attendance policy is a profiling and tracking system which is illegal.  Now if you are a minority group you would have a basis for a law suit for profiling when a associate calls in because they are sick or a family member is sick or they might have car trouble or weather related problem.  But Wally has an answer they cand do what they do best stick it to you.  They will put you down as un-excused and not everyone is sick for 3 days but Wal Mart makes you want to take the time off so you can get to use your sick time unless the Manager or Co Manger deny your sick and refuse to pay you.  Wally is promoting the spread of disease by encouraging sick employees to come and and spread germs.  Yes if you have perfect attendance and a brown nose you will climb the ladder in Wal Mart.  Other have before you. 
Do you think a change of CEO’s or new rules would be easier to understand if they treated their Associates with a little kindness!  Because they have poor leadership and bad Management that treat the employees like crap the rules are a hard thing to follow.  There is no room for understanding.  Yet they continue to have a Love for China, because 7 of 10 items they sell come from China. 
How long before the New Associate Policy will be to import Associates from China to Work in the USA that would save them some money but then they would have to hire translators so they could wait on th customers?
Think about it. 
Holiding bace Elmo’s so they can have bragging rights.  They like to toot their own horns at Wal Mart.

Susan Chambers has finally gotten her point across get rid of the long term associates, the infirm, the sick, the elederly and she will do her dance, Could Susan Chabers be thinking she is ready to Run Wal Mart?

Toot Toot!!

CAN WE ALL SAY UNION!!!! ITS TIME!!! WE ARE THE EMPLOYEES AND THE 2 TO 3 PERCENT OF THE CUSTOMER BASE . SO IT S ALLRIGHT WITH WALMART TO HAVE A UNION IN CHINA AS FOR ME IM TAKING MY WALMART DOLLARS TO K--MART PISS ON THE 10 PERCENT THEY TAKE 10 PERCENT OUT OF MY ASS STOCKING SHELVES NIGHTLY BECAUSE THERE TO TO CHEAP TO HIRE MORE HELP

POWER TO THE PEOPLE,

“If these employees called in sick, and then were seen at a party, did you not ask to see a doctor’s excuse?”

Under our policy, a doctors excuse was not required unless you were off for 3 days in a row.  Why, you may ask?  Because people complained that they couldn’t always get in to see the doctor on that day off, or they weren’t sick enough to require seeing a doctor, they just had the FLU.

“But expecting an employee to schedule a doctors appointment in advance for a sudden illness is another”

As most absences probably come from having the flu, what is the urgency in making a doctor’s appointment?  In the case of a real emergency, most people go to the ER, no appointment needed there.

Assistant Manager D,

“Then the comment about this policy is a way to get rid of elderly Associates because they get sick more is so hilarious and ridiculous, I don’t have a response for it.”

I would bet, that elderly Associates, probably have the best attendence records.  It is a fallicy that older people get sick more than anyone else.

agami,

“The Book of Wal Mart Rules is now as big as the state of Virginia.”

The reason for ALL rules everywhere, not just at Wal-Mart, is because there are people who try to get away with things that hurt the entity making the rule.  When I started renting out my apartments, I had about 5 rules, now, after 15 years of renting them out, I have about 30 rules, guess why?

The funniest thing, I noticed as a supervisor, was that the people who missed the most days, were the same people who complained the most about not making enough money and not being able to pay their bills.  What I always said, was, “Maybe if they came to work more often, they would have enough money” and most of my ‘good’ employees agreed with me!!  These policies only hurt employees that are trying to take advantage of the system.

“Yes if you have perfect attendance and a brown nose you will climb the ladder in Wal Mart.”

Here you have it again, if you obey the rules, come to work regularly and do your job without complaining all the time, guess what, YOU ARE A BROWN NOSER and that’s why you get ahead.  So, I guess that if you goof off, complain alot, say “That’s not my job” miss work a lot, and take 30 minutes for that 15 minute break, you are ONE OF THE BETTER, PICKED ON PEOPLE, who for some reason can’t get ahead, because you are not a BROWN NOSER and the manager is against you.

I have read this blog for some time now and have bit my tongue on a lot of articles and what was said but I think I just bit it off with this one.  So, I’ll post.

“Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has enacted a new attendance policy that penalizes workers for multiple unexcused absences and requires them to call an 800 number whenever they get sick, changes critics say are part of a bigger effort to nudge out unhealthy and long-tenured employees.” Oh no!!!  You mean we HAVE to come to work?  Let’s get together and bring on a HUGE lawsuit!  lol

Wal-Mart has ALWAYS had these policies.  I’m sure you can get an old policy for proof.  As a matter of fact, let us make that policy bigger on the upper right hand side and let us see how bad this REALLY is.  Let us not forget to mention in the article that we have ALWAYS had these policies but they were not being enforced.  I know I missed days because I took sickation.  That is what we called using our sick time when we wanted a day off with pay.  ;o) But I could do that.  I was liked.  It didn’t matter.  Someone that was not liked would have been canned at the 4th absent.  THAT is what this calling the 1-800 # is about.  Accountability was not happening which caused an excessive amount of call ins which caused workers that came in doing and extra load.  That was company wide.  It has NOTHING to do with the tenured.  You also need to point out in the article that 7 days is termination.  That may not seem like a lot but let me give you an example of an absent.  You have the flu.  You call in and say you need 3 days off for it.  That is one absent.  If you need more time, you can do a leave of absence for the time you need.  That is STILL one absence.  Say you go back to work for a couple of days and relapse.  You call in for that same sickness and that STILL counts as your one unexcused absense.  So you just probably missed about 2 weeks and that is one unexcused absence.  And do you know how many hundreds of ailments are covered under the Intermittent leave, which is excused?  In La, I could be pregnant and with a Dr’s note be excused for morning sickness.  There are a lot of other points you “forgot” to mention but I’ll stop there.  Ummmm...and I wonder what company is more lenient than WM.  I would REALLY like to know.
I am not all that pro WM like I used to be but come on.  You guys are getting pretty pathetic.  It’s really hard to take the anti-WM movement seriously anymore.  And this is from a WM employee that can’t take her sickation anymore.  :(

Michelle-

I’ve read on a few employee forums that Wal-Mart is counting an associate tardy if he or she leaves more than ten minutes early. Can you confirm this? Also, if this is the case, have they explained what they will do for those who are told to leave early to cut overtime? Thanks in advance.

Someone in USA wrote:  “Wal-Mart is counting an associate tardy if he or she leaves more than ten minutes early.”

If you are 11 minutes late or leave 11 minutes early, you are tardy.

Someone in USA wrote: “Also, if this is the case, have they explained what they will do for those who are told to leave early to cut overtime?”

In a situation where a manager needs you to not work your shift, he will put it in as a “business need”.  That is the same as an approval.  Here are a few examples.  Say I have to work over because I HAVE to finish this important project.  The manager will type in “business need”.  Say he tells me to leave on Thursday early to cut my overtime.  He puts it in as a “business need”.  Say the schedule is up for the next 3 weeks but week 40 comes up and sales are down and we need to cut payrole.  Everyone who leaves will be typed in as a “business need”.  ALL of that will be approved.

Michelle-

Thank you. That’s how I expected it to work, but I didn’t want to say something without being completely certain.

i stopped reading about half way through, forgive me, but for all the people who are saying “well if you have the flu you can apply for the family medical leave act”:

personally, when i have had a temperature of 104, with an aching body, chills, head pains, and random fluids dripping from my body, i was fairly unmotivated to go anywhere or do anything.

yes, people should be help accountable for their actions, but this system merley states that walmart does not have faith in the competence of its managers to get the job done.
(lack of proper training, perhaps?  poor hiring choices?  managers that just don’t care enough themselves?)

it’s kind of like when people discipline their children in a store by saying “you dont want the lady to yell at you...”
a good parent would have enough control over their child to say don’t do this or I will yell at you, not (or someone else will).

“yes, people should be help accountable for their actions, but this system merley states that walmart does not have faith in the competence of its managers to get the job done.
(lack of proper training, perhaps?  poor hiring choices?  managers that just don’t care enough themselves?) “

WalMart has really been left with little choice other than to standardize and centralize every HR issue that they can. Look for more of this in the future. Every time a manager does something wrong, WalMart ends up with a class action suit dropped in their lap.  (Dancing up courthouse steps, singing) “I’m a plaintiff, you’re a plaintiff, she’s a plaintiff, we’re a plaintiff, wouldn’t you like to be a plaintiff too?!”

on the tardy issue. Yes it is “supposd to be put in as Business needs” But what is it supposed to go in when you need a manager to override you to clock in early?And you have to stand and wait for a manager to apper. Whichis in some cases 10 -20 minutes? Why is that counted against the employee as “ SHOWING UP LATE FOR WORK”? And when it is explained to the store managerhe informes you you are a lier becouse #1 managers don’t take that long and #2 you didn’t swip the badge first as your proof as to being on time. (which was not told to employees till it was to late )

audrey-

If you cannot time in without management’s approval, then you are not scheduled, right? Then the computer will not count you tardy. Correct?

Someone in USA wrote: “If you cannot time in without management’s approval, then you are not scheduled, right? Then the computer will not count you tardy. Correct?”

Give this man a cookie! :)

Mags wrote:  “Every time a manager does something wrong, WalMart ends up with a class action suit dropped in their lap.”

Have you guys noticed when HO tries to “fix” what bad managers do, WM still gets blasted for it?  Come on people!  Make up your minds!  What do you want?

I just have to say this. I have been at wal-mart many years. I have never missed a day except the one I was in the hospital suffering an anaphalactic reaction and almost died. I have never missed for one reason and one reason only-I CANNOT AFFORD TO! I go to work sick, with toothache, with a head-ache and even with the flu. I work my butt off. If I miss a day, I cannot pay a bill. I cannot afford to go to the doctors cause I cannot afford the deductable and I do pay dearly for the insurance because if something major did happen to me, I have no money and no family to help me out. I personally see both pro’s and cons. First, it will stop people calling in for frivolous reasons. That is a pro! But then again, there are people who feel that since it is a point anyway, better to take 3 days than one. That is a con! I do understand that the managers are too busy figuring out how to cut hours to keep there profit up to remember why someone called in. I do however believe that this policy is designed to weed out people who need to be off work frequently, ie. someone whos wife or husband needs cancer treatments once or twice a week and they have to drive them and care for them during that time. I hear people say they should take a leave to look after them till they recover or die. I however could not do that and neither can many others! We need the money people! At my store, they are beginning to talk Union and it is getting louder. We all used to be happy with our jobs. Now there is not enough coverage to ever get the job done, the customers are neglected, get irate and take it out on us, and the managers need to reread “A handshake with Sam”. Take care of the customer, the associates are our best customers and frankly, we all need to take a jar of vaseline to work every day cause nowadays the associates seem to get screwed an a daily basis. Oh by the way, I loved my job when I had the time to do it, now *I just get farther and farther behind. God I miss Sam.

Actually, The Bad managers are doing exactly what Bentonville wants them to do. And I have personally made an associate who worked through breaks for fear she would get in trouble if she did not get her work done, take her breaks. They don’t come out and say work through your break, but if you cannot get your job done you are in big trouble! The pressure is applied from the top down, Managers are pressured to keep labor and costs down, they pass it to the assistants, who pass it to the dept managers, who pass it to the associates. The general message is get it done, or we will get someone else to do it. And 2 part timers with no benefits are cheaper than one full timer who has lots of vacation time and sick pay built up.

All you people who complain about this policy are the ones this policy was made for.

Mac in Arkansas wrote: “I have personally made an associate who worked through breaks for fear she would get in trouble if she did not get her work done, take her breaks. They don’t come out and say work through your break, but if you cannot get your job done you are in big trouble!”

That is because you had weak associates.  That is what you “bad” managers are counting on.  Your type KNOWS the thought process of the average associate and you use it.  Certain managers that tried that at the store’s in my district are gone.  They should have “got to know their associates”.  If what you are saying about Bentonville wanting you to do that is true, then we’d still have those managers.  Maybe you and the likes of you need a more sneaky tactic for those of us with balls to speak out.  Good luck with that, though.

To Q in Bentonville***

The reasn the policy was created is because of people like you.  The Amish people believe in God and Family and Life.  We know Mr. SAM, would have listened and thing would be a lot different today if he ran the Company.  But just like way the stores have become an outlet of Chinese products and half witted managers the quality that made Walmart is now a thing of the past.  When you hear store managers say we have the open door but never listen to what is going on all they want is to get a bonus and to make their big salaries.  We suffer.  In the past one could get results by calling home office, but if you call now you get a Bubba that says you must call the Market manager, and he will take car of things.  Yea, wrong, they all come from the same piece of Chinese cloth and it is that way all the way up the chain until you get back to Bubba.  If you use this policy you are considered a complainer. Walmart should allow for flex hours and these people they hired have family members who may need them some would like to go to Church, not all people eat sleep live and die for just Walmart.  The people who have given years of service deserve some consideration.  So Q, you think a persone with 15 years of service is a slacker? Tell us big Bubba what have you done for the company or the Associates?  You have a big mouth and a big attitude to yell at us so prove you mean what you say.  With the rules set forth if you applied them to school children no one would ever graduate because if the missed 3 times you would just kick them out.  If you ran Walmart and there was a hurricane or a fire and they didn’t or couldn’t make it it you would just fire them.  What about Snow emergencies.  They just don’t ever happen.  So Q, if it was the end of the World would you have your associates work up until 1 hour before the end or just tell them you are required to stay and wait on the last customers and to Hell with your family.  Or would the Bubba managers all be there because we know their life is Walmart and family and children and God come second or last as in your Case Last.
Q, don’t be so angry with people who don’t share your sick twisted ideas of what rules are and who they were created for.  Have feelings for all lthe Men and Women who give their hearts and souls every day.  Show feelings for the poor, the sick and the elderly, they need to be treated with dignity.  If it is your thinking they are worthless and deserve no respect is that your idea or the Policy of Walmart, do you speak for Walmart?  Because if you do you have given Walmart a black eye and Americans can send you and Walmart a clear message we are not going to take it anymore.  We can spend our money again at K-mart Target, and Sears.  Thank God in Free Country we do not have to ssupport people ancd companies and be drug through the gutter where you live. 

To everyone Let Q, in Bentonville know how you feel you don’t have to be the gum on the bottom of his shoes.

Agami : I am not a pro walmart by any means but I most point out that there is a clouse saying that weather conditions does fall under the excused absent the only problem with that was and it has happened to me is that if your store or co’s or ast managers do not believe you they can count it as a unexcused. I was snowed in last winter all you good see of my car was 3 inches of the antanna. I had to bring pictures with date and time to prove it becouse colorad springs did not get it that bad. I live almost 30 miles away from my store . I get winds on the plains ( which is where I live at) on a daily basis. What burid me in was snow drifts. The year before I told my car coming home in anouther storm after going in todo a diffrent dept managers job becouse star was due the next day and mods HAD TO BE DONE. When that dept manager stepped down and I aplied for the position First I was told home office did not want a dept manager for that area anymore . I then called betonville. They looked into it after the investigation I was then told I was not a good canidate becouse #1 I was not a team player and #2 I did not know enough about animals. Problems with that is my car is still wreaked and I own and operate a rescue ranch for large animals. So what I am getting at is the new police does excuse weather absents but hopefully it will be better then the old way. We’ll have to wait and see.

BOY I CAN SEE WE HAVE A LOT OF BRAIN WASHED IDIOTS IN MANAGEMENT IN OUR WAL-MART STORES! i WORK IN A SMALL ONE IN OHIO AND CAN SEE THEY WANT US OLD TIMESRS OUT AND THE UNHEALTHY ONES TOO! DON’T TRY TO TELL ME THESE LIES THAT WM DOESN’T. YOU TOOK FROM US AS WE GAVE SO MUCH TO WM OVER THE YEARS TO MAKE IT #1 BUT NOW WE GET IT SHOVED IN OUR REARS CAUSE YOU GOT ALL OUT OF US YOU CAN! WE ARE LEADING TOWARDS A UNION EVERY DAY CUSE WE NEED SOMEONE TO SPEAK FOR US BEFORE YOU KILL ALL OF US!!!

If you don’t like it there, then why don’t you quit?
For all you people who don’t like it there, who is forcing you to stay? If you think it’s so much better everywhere else, then why don’t you go instead of complaining all the time.  These are non-aggresive simple questions that I would like somebody to answer in a way that it doesn’t contradict your anti-Walmart comments.
That’s the part I don’t understand.  People forcing themselves to be someplace they don’t want to be.  If you go to a party and it sucks, do you stay? No you find a better one or go home.  There are plenty of jobs out there so find one.  And since you are complaining so much about Walmart being the worst company this Earth has ever seen, then that must make every other company out there great in comparisson, so LEAVE.
You want to say that there are brainwashed idiots in management. So why are you still there? I know why I am there, becuase I get paid great in comparison to how Target, Best Buy, Home Depot, etc. would pay me to do a much harder job.  There, I said it.  I am not brainwashed. I am not a Walmart lover in any way. I shop at Target and Winco on my days off more than I shop at Walmart. I only shop at Walmart when I am working, because it’s convenient to get things I need while I am there.  Walmart is not perfect in any way or form, but that doesn’t make them 100% bad like you people are portraying them to be. Name one company that has never had issues especially in todays Lawsuit happy America.  The Associates who can’t follow rules are the ones who complain the most and think of every reason to hate Walmart or try and sue them. I don’t like every policy, but I try and follow them without complaining because it’s their company AND I CHOOSE TO WORK THERE.
Can you believe I had an Associate complain to my store manager about me because she broke a nail lifting a box after she got a Manicure the day before. Saying it was my fault because I knew she got the manicure but I made her get the boxes anyway.  She wanted us to reimburse her by comparing it to an Associate who spills something on their pants when they are unloading the truck. For those of you thinking that this was a ridiculous complaint, this is how SOME of you are sounding.

Attendance: Come more than ten minutes late, leave more than ten minutes early, then it is an unexcused tardy or left early. Why is that so hard to follow? Give me a reason that would make attendance violations excusable?  But guess what, the reason you give me will then be used everytime and taken advantage of. How would you defend against that?  Now if an Associate asked me if they can leave early and I see no reason to keep them around, I will let them go and put it as a Managers Approved Left early. IF THEY ASK ME. NOT WHEN THEY MAKE THE DECISION ON THEIR OWN AND LEAVE ME WITH NO COVERAGE. When I go through the attendance tracking for my Associates and I see the tardies and left earlies or absences, I don’t automatically put it as unapproved.  I look at that Associates attedance history to see if there is some kind of trend. If it’s an Associate that has only called in three times in the whole year or only came late 2 times every month, I am cool with that. It’s approved by me. However, when I see an Associate with 17 unapproved absences and 31 tardies, there is a problem that needs to be dealt with. We as managers never followed up and enforced the policies so Associates took advantage of the fact that we didn’t follow up so now it will stop.  I am still waiting for someone to tell me what kind of attendance policy they would have if it was their business since this one is so unfair.
To Ms. Carol, maybe the reason they would try and get rid of some people is because these are the ones that sound like you in your comment and have given up on Walmart. Why would they want people with that type of attitude working there? This is a response to your comment and not to be taken as an insult towards you.

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Ass. Manager D : I am so glad to know that walmart has at least 1 member og Managment in its whole company that thinks of its people first and not HIS/HERS rep and pay off. The people with in walmart that they are most out to get rid of or the ones of us that have figured out we are NOT a warm body to fill a slot but a human being that deservse respect without “ brown nosing”

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Re to SOMEONE : You would think so. But not when your management will say it ever took them anytime to respond to a call that manger is needed at the time clock for a override.

it is getting bad zone ,zone ,zone ,get all buggies empty in fitiing room area work in boys and girls and then “oh by the way no one is in womens and infants so you need to go there and work to.oh, zone and get all the returns done in those departments,and get it all done before ya go home and oh yeah make sure ya check frieght tonite before ya go and see what ya can put out ,and no buggies in the back so hang everything up high, all the rolling racks are full,and to make sure all the fitting rooms are emptied out and all is put up before ya go to lunch,or ya go home and 2 different managers telling ya all these things and stoppin what ya are doing and get signage done before ya go home and call for a zone check before ya go home and did ya get all the departments done because were gonna check!and gee that was just yesterday need i go on

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I think it is a very unfair Idea. If they are doing this to get rid of people then they need to get a list of all the people who abuse the system by not calling or calling in constantly and let them go, I hope someone puts a nasty law suit on Walmart if some dies because they come in sick. I think Walmart is very unfair to their employees. They would not want the same thing done to them if they were sick.

I am not going to restate all the pros and cons of the new policy. They have been repeated to many times already :). Wal-mart employees need union representation. It is that simple. They are not going to listen to us unless we organize and the chances of 1 million plus people organizing without a union is highly unlikely. Actually I was anti-union before a came to work at WM, but after seeing how they treat their employees like an object instead of real people I must say the idea of unionizing is very appealing. Many ask me: Why don’t you just find another job if you don’t like it there? Well I am not going to tell you it is the only job around here, that would be idiotic. I believe it is not only the right, but the duty of every American citizen to help create change that will benefit everyone. I will not quit walmart, if they want me out they will have to fire me. I am making it my responsibility to spread the word to my co-workers and slowly but surely we will have union representation so we may be treated humainly by one of the largest retailers in the world. I believe the American spirit has lost something over the years, but we can wake it up again. This is not about a battle for our jobs but an all out war against a bloated oppressor and our 1.3 million man army can make a difference!

as far as the policy goes . We just buried a employee today whom died from a heart attack on monday getting ready for work. Doctor told him to cut back on hours. Wal-mart store said no part time hours avlible. Take a unpaid LOA. He couldn’t afford it. Figured he would stick it out alittle longer till they could cut back his hours. Do you think that store management team cared. No. RIP Cowboy.

If these new policies are so great and wonderful then how come the people making the rules do not have to follow them? Why don’t they have the same policy for the home office workers, warehouse workers, management? Do you not realize Walmart that you cannot run you stores without us? Who is going to be there to help our customers? Do you think that 20 members of management can run the whole show? I’d love to see that!!! I do not call in sick and am never late so you can’t say that the only reason I’m voicing my opinion is because I’m an abuser. But I will tell you right now that if my aunt or uncle dies I am going to their funeral, it will be unexcused and you can just go ahead and ding me! If the roads are icy and dangerous and the national weather service has not closed the roads yet...GO AHEAD AND DING ME!!! I’m sure those of you who wrote these rules and those of you who do not have to follow them think that I am being totally unreasonable or you would tell me that managment can code it in to be excused. Sorry I don’t believe you. For those of you who have to cut hours and think that management will code it in as a buisness relation be very careful! Just take a longer lunch to cut your hours, then they can’t touch you! If you are done with your work and could leave early to save the payroll...why....appearently they would rather pay us to stay and milk the clock! Makes no sense to me but it’s their game and we can always find different ways of playing games! It’s really sad that it has come down to this! I used to defend Walmart....not any more! I have given alot to our store for well over 10 years....I’d tell you how long but I’m afraid of retaliation!

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