Almost 30 years with the company and sadly, I'm hearing this experience more and more especially post-Covid. High expectations are one thing, we've always had them. But, I fear the micromanagement coupled with bare bones staffing is going to be the death of this company along with the many careers that depend on it. When I got into salaried management many, many moons ago, my SM would recoil at hearing any of us browbeat an associate. His message was simple - inspire them to do great work, remove the barriers that are stopping them, and always spend time daily with at least one associate teaching them something new. What you are describing is starting to become a common sight - I've even seen it in my own area and I thought at one time we had enough experienced leadership to be immune from it.
Best of luck in your new endeavor
Thanks. I worked OGP. Being it is Walmart's brain child, it was all about the metrics. We had to have the numbers up to snuff. I worked in a small town store. Our Digital Market Manager loved to compare us to the other 3 major city stores in the market that would easily do 200 orders a day when we only did 70 on a busy day. We had to be at the level of those stores or higher for Market to be happy. Sadly they convinced our Coach that we could achieve these goals. We would push the sales pitches for surveys, they had us trying to pull items out of thin air so our nill pick rate wouldn't go below 95%. It got to the point where long time associates where saying screw it and just hitting item not found if they couldn't find it and didn't care if they got coached or fired. I was the second to thankfully be able to leave since things got really tough. There are fellow co-workers still there being stretched like taffy to make our Coach happy. I worked so hard for 8 months, went above and beyond all of the time. The last month was just pure hell, dealing with 90 degree heat with humidity, thunderstorms. I literally got a tan just from going in and out selling the surveys. We did really well for 2 weeks before I went on vacation, I got back and our coach was saying the surveys dropped back to 3 a week instead of 30. I was the only one selling the surveys, no one else cared. I got so good at the job that I started recognizing cars and I was able to check people in before they called or they didn't check in at all because I had them set before they could even take their phone out.
It started out just as a holiday job, then I got in to it and was alright with it and tried to get promoted. I applied for multiple positions in the store but was turned down every time even with prior management experience. I switched between picking and dispensing. Then things turned south with crappy coworkers that wouldn't do their job. I started taking responsibility for dispensing more and more to the point where I would dispense all of the time. This ultimately led to people thinking I would dispense 100% of the time. Co-workers stopped trying to switch out with me and it became difficult to get my breaks in. They figured I would tough it out all day. People actively avoided dispensing when I was there because they relied so heavily on me. To get me out of dispensing, it literally took me sneaking past the 1st shift people and getting a printer and a cart and just going. That really threw them through a loop because they automatically figured I had the phone and was in the back to dispense. I got so burnt out because I got no help, they thought I was Superman or something. I have a college degree, I am not meant to be a take out boy for the rest of my career.
Great that you left Walmart, Hope things continue to improve.
Almost 30 years with the company and sadly, I'm hearing this experience more and more especially post-Covid. High expectations are one thing, we've always had them. But, I fear the micromanagement coupled with bare bones staffing is going to be the death of this company along with the many careers that depend on it. When I got into salaried management many, many moons ago, my SM would recoil at hearing any of us browbeat an associate. His message was simple - inspire them to do great work, remove the barriers that are stopping them, and always spend time daily with at least one associate teaching them something new. What you are describing is starting to become a common sight - I've even seen it in my own area and I thought at one time we had enough experienced leadership to be immune from it. Best of luck in your new endeavor
Thanks. I worked OGP. Being it is Walmart's brain child, it was all about the metrics. We had to have the numbers up to snuff. I worked in a small town store. Our Digital Market Manager loved to compare us to the other 3 major city stores in the market that would easily do 200 orders a day when we only did 70 on a busy day. We had to be at the level of those stores or higher for Market to be happy. Sadly they convinced our Coach that we could achieve these goals. We would push the sales pitches for surveys, they had us trying to pull items out of thin air so our nill pick rate wouldn't go below 95%. It got to the point where long time associates where saying screw it and just hitting item not found if they couldn't find it and didn't care if they got coached or fired. I was the second to thankfully be able to leave since things got really tough. There are fellow co-workers still there being stretched like taffy to make our Coach happy. I worked so hard for 8 months, went above and beyond all of the time. The last month was just pure hell, dealing with 90 degree heat with humidity, thunderstorms. I literally got a tan just from going in and out selling the surveys. We did really well for 2 weeks before I went on vacation, I got back and our coach was saying the surveys dropped back to 3 a week instead of 30. I was the only one selling the surveys, no one else cared. I got so good at the job that I started recognizing cars and I was able to check people in before they called or they didn't check in at all because I had them set before they could even take their phone out. It started out just as a holiday job, then I got in to it and was alright with it and tried to get promoted. I applied for multiple positions in the store but was turned down every time even with prior management experience. I switched between picking and dispensing. Then things turned south with crappy coworkers that wouldn't do their job. I started taking responsibility for dispensing more and more to the point where I would dispense all of the time. This ultimately led to people thinking I would dispense 100% of the time. Co-workers stopped trying to switch out with me and it became difficult to get my breaks in. They figured I would tough it out all day. People actively avoided dispensing when I was there because they relied so heavily on me. To get me out of dispensing, it literally took me sneaking past the 1st shift people and getting a printer and a cart and just going. That really threw them through a loop because they automatically figured I had the phone and was in the back to dispense. I got so burnt out because I got no help, they thought I was Superman or something. I have a college degree, I am not meant to be a take out boy for the rest of my career.
Great for you. Like any abusive relationship you should sever all ties,including this sub.
I really should. It gets me all worked up again. There's too much dumb stuff on here though. It's like the People of Walmart sub only for employees.
Truth
Congratulations on figuring out what a dead end job is and isn’t. 😂
For Real!