'Wal-Mart Says Thank You To Workers,' With A Nice Big Slap In The Face
Wal-Mart, which, in recent months, has taken away stools from older cashiers in order to encourage them to quit, required workers—including those with young children—to be on call 24 hours a day, and seen its stocks fall the most since July, has decided to make some changes. It’s going to start appreciating its workers more, and not because it's been widely criticized for failing miserably to do so in the past and not because that may be a reason why people don’t want to shop there anymore (which relates back to the thing with the stocks). Just because, you know, that’s what good people do, and Wal-Mart is nothing if not run by good people. What follows is one of the ways Wal-Mart is going to start being nicer to its workers. Keep in mind that someone (or probably a bunch of someones) were brought in to come up with this idea, probably sat around a conference table for a while, probably had to work late a bunch of nights, before someone snapped his fingers and said, “you know what, I’ve got it,” everyone else said “hey, you, I think you do got it,” and, finally, someone else, who signs off on things like this, came in, said, “wow, this is great work guys,” and put his name on a dotted line, authorizing this great, humanitarian idea:
The program includes several new perks “as a way of saying thank you” to workers, like a special polo shirt after 20 years of service. Sarah Clark, a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart, said the program was a “a more formalized, contemporary approach” to communicating with and collecting feedback from its fast-growing work force.Asked if absence for a family emergency, like a sick child, would be authorized, Kory Uselton [a 35-year-old overnight floor cleaner at a Wal-Mart in Tyler, Tex.] recounted, his manager said, “No, it’s not.”
Wal-Mart Says Thank You to Workers [NY Times]
Comments
"Special polo shirt"...damn. I'm not sure whether to be outraged or sad on behalf of the poor suckers working at Wal-Mart. It's stories like this one that make me despise multinational corporate elites and their managerial bureaucratic lackeys.
Posted by: Bob Fleming, a.k.a. Badger Watch | December 4, 2006 02:44 PM
But the prices are great!
Posted by: Sam | December 4, 2006 03:04 PM
The prices are "great" because if they weren't, the sad schmucks working at Wal-Mart and their fellow underlings in America's retail, hamburger-flipping economy wouldn't be able to afford them.
Posted by: Greenwich Academy | December 4, 2006 03:16 PM
That is so sad. Wal Mart won’t be around for long. They only grew because there competition went out of business. Their competitors are much stronger now. I mean 20 years of service and all you get is a louse 'Polo Shit', hell they probably had little children making them in some sweat shops.
Posted by: Tim | December 4, 2006 03:26 PM
Did they take the cost of the shirt out of her wages?..Ha Ha
Posted by: s | December 4, 2006 03:37 PM
What cracks me up is the word "special" in "special polo shirt." What, are the shirts made out of spun gold or unicorn silk or something? Damn.
Posted by: ... | December 4, 2006 04:24 PM
I work for a vendor that supplies Walmart & I spend a great deal of time in the store and communicate with the employees. Walmart has a number of stores in rural areas where there is extremely limited employment opportunity (ie Wallie world or the chicken plant). My county is one of the poorest in the state, so Walmart employment is slightly better than welfare and food stamps as a option. The decline in sales on Black Friday? no layaway. With limited income, layaway is the best option to keep Christmas alive for the kiddies. Big screen tv's? from Walmart? okey dokey. sure. without layaway? the problems are waaaay deeper than this article addresses.
Posted by: S | December 5, 2006 05:28 AM
Any institution who claims to be "all American" and treats employees like that should without reservations be boycotted.
Shop at Target
Posted by: Toby | February 10, 2007 12:30 AM
Any institution who claims to be "all American" and treats employees like that should without reservations be boycotted.
Shop at Target
Posted by: Toby | February 10, 2007 12:32 AM