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“Underpaid, disempowered Wal-Mart employees have a tough time staying chipper these days — and they pass along their misery to the company’s customers.”

So begins the entry for Wal-Mart in Business Management Daily’s list of the five worst companies for customer service. In compiling its list BMD interviewed several sources, including Service Quality Institute president John Tschohl and David VanAmburg, managing director of the American Customer Satisfaction Index. The worst offenders, in order:

1. Bank of America; 2. Comcast; 3. ebay; 4. Wal-Mart; 5. U.S. Airways

So where exactly does Wal-mart come up short?

“Wal-Mart built its business on customer service, but they’re in the sink now,” Tschohl contends. “The stores are ugly, and they attract the people with the least amount of money who are willing to put up with bad service.” Adds David VanAmburg, managing director of the American Customer Satisfaction Index: “They are at the top of our list when it comes to value, but near the bottom when it comes to service.”

The key, of course, is that you would think this problem would have an easy solution. Treating your employees better through better wages, better/more affordable health benefits, consistent scheduling, ending discriminatory practices and pay theft...well, you get the picture...would all lead to a more content work staff. And what happens when you have happy employees? That’s right, happy customers.

“It’s a matter of treating your employees better than anybody else does and offering world-class customer service,” explains a manager of a Les Schwab Store in Concord, Calif. “That is what keeps your business growing.”

That will be something for Wal-Mart to keep in mind as the economy slowly rebounds. As more people return to their previous shopping habits - and more importantly, their previous shopping locals - Wal-Mart could see its sales figures returning to the flat numbers from pre-recession days. Is it really THAT hard to show your employees a little love??

Failing grades: The 5 worst companies for customer service [Business Management Daily]

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This week we’ve continued to hear from workers who are frustrated with their jobs at Wal-Mart. As always, we are amazed by the sheer quantity and variety that we get on a day-to-day basis. Regardless of what the mainstream media and Wal-Mart spokesmen say about the company, you can always come to this website to hear the real stories from the workers who write us.

The following comments - both from employees and non-employees - address expensive health care, wages, unions, food donations, doctor’s notes, and the lack of air conditioning—it was enough to make two workers quit this week.

A.M. from Indiana writes to us about wage discrimination and expensive health care:

In our store you only have a chance at a promotion if you kiss up to the managers. Moreover, the variance in the pay rates for the same job codes ranges about three dollars. Tell me how this is fair! Not to mention the health care issues, how can I afford daily meds for a chronic condition when my premiums are so high and my pay is so low? When I get to the pharmacy, I find that 80 percent of my prescriptions are not covered.

An anonymous worker from Pennsylvania describes an uncomfortable anti-union meeting:

I am disgusted with myself and the way in which my life has turned out since I have been employed with Wal-Mart for five years. I recently became a salaried manager because I needed the money. After four years at Wal-Mart, I had not yet worked my way up to what I had made at my previous job - a fast food franchise. You must understand, I never wanted to work for this company, but the truth is that when you are poor, you have no skills, and you have no college education, it is difficult to find a job that pays well. I expected to be poorly paid for a while. However, I had high expectation for myself and expected to move quickly through the management ranks.

Before starting with the company, I had read lots of anti-Wal-mart propaganda. I knew there were a ridiculously small number of women managers compared to males - especially when I factoring in how many more women work at Wal-Mart. I expected those challenges and I embraced them. Unfortunately, I overcame them without ever doing anything to ensure that no other deserving woman would be held back.

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It’s time for the latest addition of Wal-Mart Watch’s speak out round up. As workers continue to write to us about their experiences with Wal-Mart, we’ll make sure to highlight some of the best submissions of the week. The following comments include a retail industry veteran telling it like it is, the experiences of a disabled employee, the departure from Sam Walton era values, and a dream job gone wrong.

A former employee from New York writes to us anonymously to say that Wal-Mart is one of the worst jobs out there:

“I’m 62 years old with 18 years of produce experience and over 30 years experience in retail. I wanted a part-time job to help pay for the extras my wife and I love. I took a job at hell-mart. In all my years of working in retail, I have never witnessed a company as heartless as Wal-Mart.

The pay is a joke; I was told my starting pay is based on my experience (LOL). I make $8.30 an hour. I was told I would be part-time...24 hours a week. They have no one in the produce department who knows what they are doing so they work me two weeks at 40 hours and then one week of 32 hours. This way they don’t have to make me full time and won’t have to pay for benefits.

When I complain about the number of hours I’m working, they tell me how lucky I am to be working at Wal-Mart. The hours are a joke. Every week is different. You never get the same hours from week to week. It’s impossible to plan anything.

God help you if you get sick. You better come in and work no mater how you feel. If you take a sick day five times in any six-month period, they coach you. This is when they take you behind closed doors and read you the riot act. If you are sick one more day after that, you are fired - for any reason they want. I have seen some very sick people come into work - so sick, they could hardly stand up. Wal-Mart doesn’t care. If they ask to go home, they are told it will count against them if they do. I was told even if your doctor puts you off from work you still have a count against you. There is absolutely no excuse for being sick.

There is a God and I just pray one day that the Walton family pays for the way they treat the people who make them rich. I have only been there for 7 months and I could tell you things you wouldn’t believe, it is unreal the way they treat the employees.”

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It’s time for the latest addition of Wal-Mart Watch’s speak out round up. As workers continue to write to us about their experiences with Wal-Mart, we’ll make sure to highlight some of the best submissions of the week. The following employee comments address layoffs, disrespect for loading dock workers, the plight of seasonal Wal-Mart employees, and inadequate bonuses. 

The wife of a former Wal-Mart worker from Arkansas write to us about the questionable layoffs at the company’s home office:

“I am writing about the 700-800 layoffs that Wal-Mart/Sam’s Club did back in February 2009. I am infuriated with the way the company – who just happened to post record profits this past year – says that economic turmoil forced them to cut jobs. As the wife of one of these employees, I can honestly say that these last 10 weeks have been painful. To see your husband, who worked with the company for over 13 years, struggle to find a job to support his family of seven has been very difficult. I would like to know why Wal-Mart is posting openings at its corporate offices just weeks after the layoffs. Was this their way of getting cheaper people? Why couldn’t they help with job placement for the displaced workers? Now it seems like Wal-Mart is only looking out for the pay of executives and the Walton Family. Sam Walton’s family company has turned to evil greed, and I am sure that he is rolling in his grave...This company needs to be stopped. Why won’t the government penalize companies that post record sales, and then lay off so many dedicated employees? Wal-Mart is only hurting families so that higher up people can collect more compensation. Please help stop WAL-MART!!!”

A Wal-Mart worker from Pennsylvania writes to us anonymously about life on a Wal-Mart loading dock:

“I work unloading trucks at my store, and we are definitely at the bottom of the barrel.  We are severely understaffed, and find ourselves - at least once a week - unloading a large truck with just a few people. Normally, it would take six people a few hours to unload this truck.  We are harassed by managers saying it should be done faster and blatantly insulted by overnight stock employees who do half the work we do and get paid twice as much.  I know why they don’t want us to discuss our pay rates - it would make me sick.  Why are there overnight stockers who make $11 an hour doing next to nothing half the night...when I’m making $8 an hour doing four people’s jobs, often getting two hours of overtime a night (and being chewed out for that as well, I might add.)

I understand the rule in this store; the more you do, the less you make.  Morale is non-existent. I refuse to stand by and watch my fellow coworkers, who work just as hard as I do, be insulted and harassed and treated like garbage by people who are paid more and do less.  Hire more people and quit setting unrealistic expectations of those you have, Wal-Mart.  Or else soon, you won’t have anyone.”

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As workers continue to write to us about their experiences with Wal-Mart, we’ll continue to highlight some of the best submissions of the week. Comments this week address employee dissatisfaction with computerized scheduling as well as calls for Wal-Mart to respect its employee’s “basic human rights.”

Our first story comes from a Wal-Mart worker in California who writes to us anonymously:

“I never believed the horror stories about Wal-Mart’s treatment of their employees until I was hired - with no other job options available - as a cake decorator in 2008. Since my hire date, I have witnessed people fired for making overtime, threatened for speaking about unions, and denied the ability to miss work because of medical disabilities. Wal-Mart discriminates, threatens, and denies employees their basic human rights the minute they clock in. This needs to change. The world’s largest publicly owned corporation needs to change its ways, pay its workers more, appreciate the diversity and intelligence and beauty of its employees and customers, and stop taking advantage of these people.”

A Wal-Mart worker from Texas writes to us anonymously about scheduling:

“My husband works for Walmart. I am raging mad right now because Walmart has a new scheduling policy that will make up a person’s hours randomly. Instead of working his original schedule, my husband is now working at erratic times and can no longer pick up our son from school everyday @ 3:30. In addition, they cut his hours down from 40 to 31. They wanted to cut them down to 19.  I hear about Walmart helping communities around the country, but what about helping their own employees? This is crazy. How do they think people will survive?”

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Lately workers have been telling us that Wal-Mart is using every means possible to cut worker hours, so last week we asked every worker we talk with if it’s happened to them. What we heard back is alarming.

In a weak economy, many businesses are cutting back. But what Wal-Mart’s doing is crossing the line.

We’ve heard from workers who were awarded their yearly raise, only to see their hours cut on the next schedule. We’ve heard of other workers who had their hours cut back just before their health care eligibility, and we’ve heard of older employees who are losing shifts to make way for younger, cheaper workers.

Read these and more at walmartspeakout.com.

From a worker who saw hours cut immediately after a getting a (minimum) yearly raise:

“I got the minimum raise in April during my second-year evaluation… During my evaluation, my assistant manager told me I shouldn’t expect full shifts any longer. They increased my pay, then slashed my hours so that my check is a fraction of what it used to be. The full-time sales associates in my department, other than the department manager, have been cut to 25-35 hours a week instead of 40. Who can make a living working for this company unless you are department manager?”

From a manager:

“Being a dept manager does NOT insure your hours.  We have been “asked” to take an xtra day off here and there and cut hours every other week.  I was thinking about stepping down at one point but found out that even though I am doing more then one person’s job I not only would lose my small raise for taking the dept but would probably lose up to a $1.50 more an hour for stepping down”

From a single mom:

“...If we choose to keep our schedule closed, we will have to drop to part-time or quit. They gave us two weeks to comply. Wal-Mart has signs up everywhere stating they are hiring and offer flexible hours. Not flexible for associates, but flexible for Wal-Mart!!! Now I am faced with trying to find a new job or a new babysitter that will work any hours. I have worked for Wal-Mart for 6 years and they keep taking more and more from us. While the CEO gets a 22 million bonus, we have to cut our hours and work what ever hours they want us to. They have us working 2pm till 11 pm twice a week. How can I find a babysitter for that shift?  In one of our morning meetings, an associate complained about something that was going on in the store and the co-manager told us, “if anyone doesn’t like the way the store is run, come into my office and I will show you how to complain in the unemployment line.” When we talked to our manager about the new schedule, he said “I only get to see my son one day every other week,why should you get anymore time with your kids.” Wal-Mart does not care about their associates.”

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Wal-Mart’s senior counsel, Tom Mars, gave a speech this week on diversity in the company’s legal department. Because Wal-Mart has never had any diversity-related legal issues.

Mars used a “luncheon honoring the winners of the second annual survey of best law firms for women” as a time to showcase Wal-Mart’s gender diversity and commitment to flexible schedules. (The survey also examined the best companies for working mothers, and Wal-Mart didn’t make the list.) The fact that Mars was invited at all seems like an unintentional joke: not only is Wal-Mart currently involved in the largest class action gender discrimination lawsuit in history, but the company’s scheduling policies have also been condemned as bad for working mothers and hard on families.

Mars’ speech reveals a dichotomy within Wal-Mart: store employees and corporate employees are separated by a wide gulf, and different rules, benefits and salaries are applied to each. Women may very well make up a significant part of Wal-Mart’s corporate legal department, as Mars insists, but women working in Wal-Mart’s stores still face discriminatory promotion practices and lower wages than their male counterparts. That’s not something ANY working mother should support.

Law Firms Get Rated on Female Friendliness [New York Times Shifting Careers Blog]

Two weeks ago, on the same day that Lehman filed for bankruptcy protection more than 300 corporate lawyers showed up at the Mandarin Hotel in New York City for a luncheon honoring the winners of the second annual survey of best law firms for women sponsored by Working Mother Magazine and Flex-Time Lawyers. The high attendance in the face of such economic turmoil suggested that work/life issues and the promotion of female lawyers has genuinely become a pressing business issue for the legal industry.

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In a press release distributed this morning, Wal-Mart has announced that it is “once again driving unnecessary health care costs out of the system and passing the savings along to its customers through the pharmacy aisles.”

How is it doing it this time? By offering exclusive-to-Wal-Mart diabetes management products for $9 each at all Wal-Mart pharmacies nationwide. That, might I say, is quite excellent actually. I myself don’t have - and don’t have immediate family members who have - diabetes. But I’ve known and worked with people who do, and one thing an individual with diabetes shouldn’t have to worry about is the cost of testing and treatment supplies, which I could imagine can get quite expensive.

No, the problem with this story isn’t in what Wal-Mart is announcing. It is, instead, the way in which Wal-Mart has treated its own employees who have diabetes. Helping the masses might seem a little nicer if the company treated its own diabetic employees with slightly more compassion and understanding.

The gold standard of what I’m talking about is the story of Stephen Orr. Orr worked as a pharmacist at a Nebraska Wal-Mart. Orr has Type 1 diabetes, a condition in which the body does not produce insulin, a hormone needed to convert sugar, starches and other food into the energy needed for daily life. As a result, Orr must administer insulin to himself several times each day. For a while, management allowed him to, you know, do the things he needed to do over the course of a day to stay alive...like actually take a lunch break. Eventually though, business and customer traffic forced Wal-Mart - instead of hiring an additional pharmacist - to inform Orr he could no longer take a break to eat and rest. In fact, he was told to eat behind the pharmacy counter if and when store traffic slowed. If you can’t guess what happened, I’ll tell you - Orr’s blood glucose levels dropped severely on multiple occasions, causing him to experience symptoms of hypoglycemia, which can include dizziness or lightheadedness, confusion, difficulty speaking, and feeling anxious or weak. Wal-Mart still refused to accommodate him, and his manager eventually fired him, explicitly telling him it was because of his diabetes.

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Wal-Mart’s customer service is notoriously bad: chronic understaffing, low wages, high turnover and ever-shifting work schedules mean employees are unhappy and unlikely to perform well. So it’s no surprise that Wal-Mart winds up “among the worst” on AOL’s list of favorite grocery stores.

30 Most and Least Favorite Grocery Stores [Wallet Pop]

The absolute worst place hands down is Wal-mart! Now, normally, we don’t shop there—however, my husband needed something that he couldn’t find anywhere else, so ... in we went ... and out we walked! We had about 3 items that we were carrying and they had 3 registers open with about 20 customers in each line. They were not even bothering to try to open up any other lanes. We gave the merchandise to one of the employees and told her we will NOT wait in these lines.

UPDATE: Almost as interesting, if not more so, are the comments. Wallet Pop readers weigh in on Wal-Mart, after the jump.

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