r/walmart

Got written up today. Apparently a few customers complained about me. Saying they thought I was mad when I wasn’t. That I shot looks at them. I don’t think I did. I understand that as an autistic person I’m not the best at faces but I didn’t shoot them a look. They wrote me up and said it’s a yellow tag or something like that? They said if anything happens again I’m getting terminated. I feel like I’m going to throw up. I’m so anxious. If I get fired I’ll lose access to my healthcare and won’t be able to pay my medical bills I already have. I think I’m fucked. I don’t know what to do. My new team lead has been bullying me so I WAS gonna transfer to Sam’s Club but I know that I can’t now. I can’t until that falls off in a year. This is just great. This after my mom telling me she doesn’t care about me anymore last night. Really the cherry on top. But hey, at least they said they care about me and told me to call Lyra.

unless you're in an area with a higher/no limit.

So context here. I regularly clock in for my 2-11 shift at 1:51 and I always am actually working right away. Im always first in the back room setting up for the truck. None of my team leads, coaches, store manager ever say anything about it. So I have been doing it almost since I switched stores year and half ago.

In our department (CAP 2) they structure it where we take our 15 before lunch, clock out for lunch immediately after. Then our 2nd break is supposed to be the last 15 minutes of our shift. If im not mistaken that is already a policy violation right?

Now the juice. I clock in at 1:51 right? Well the team leads and coach have lectured the team many times that any WOSH or overtime is not allowed. So that means I have to clock out at 10:51 to avoid overtime. The department is structured to have the last 15 minutes be our break. But twice in the past month my coach has scolded me and said im going to be coashed for starting my break at 10:40. So im still not even getting my full 15 but they are threatening ill be coached if it keeps happening. Maybe 2 or 3 times a week get a full 15 cuz I have a super cool team lead who understands.

So my question is can I make an ethics report?? Will is do anything??

Am I the one in violation or is my coach??

I recently had the craziest experience with a child who couldn’t find his mom, mainly because of the mother not coming to customer service, going to an employee, or responding to us paging her by name, for 45 minutes… So i’m stock 2, and i’m walking back from the bathroom headed towards the seasonal costumes for halloween on display. This kid comes up to me asking me to find his mom. So I ask where he last saw her and he said the costume aisles, so I took him over and we walked around the general area, and after he didn’t point her out or spot her, I walked him to the customer center.

I get the kid’s name and his moms name and tell it to the worker at the customer center, and he goes over the PA paging for the mom, using her name. He spoke very clearly, no accent, no impediments. Very clearly saying her name over the loudspeaker and saying to come to customer center as her party’s waiting. So I have to stand with the kid while we’re waiting for his mom to come. I talk with him so that way i’m not just awkwardly standing there with him and I get some info, such as that hes in 3rd grade and his age, and apparently his dad works at our walmart but wasn’t working that day. I got the dad’s name and the customer center worker and I didn’t recognize his name.

So they keep paging the mom, and I try to get a sense of where they went. According to the kid, they were coming from his soccer game, and his dad and siblings were waiting in the car, and that only him and his mom went inside through the doors by the pharmacy and into the costume area. And thats all the kid said they went, and said his mom said that if he got lost she wouldn’t find him. And apparently he said his mom said bye to him before he lost her. So 20+ minutes have gone by, and now i’m starting to worry, because now this sounds like an abandonment situation more than a simple lost child. The mom said bye to him, left him, and hasnt come to the desk at all.

After 45 minutes of standing at the customer center desk, the kid says he heard someone yell his name and that it sounded like his mom. So I look at the customer center worker and he says to go check it out, and if its his mom let him go. So we walk to the area where we heard her yelling and the kid points her out and we walk over to her. I ask if this is her kid and she says yes, and apparently (according to her) she told him to wait in the costume aisle while she went to the household area and bought some paper goods. So I just say we had been paging her for a while, and she asked if she’s in trouble, and I said no, but just dont leave the kid alone in the store anymore and she understood. And as i’m walking away I hear the kid say something to her and shes snaps and says “shut up, i dont want to hear a word from you, stand here.” And after that I just kept walking and went back to work.

Needless to say, that absolutely was the worst lost child situation i’ve dealt with. How the hell do you lose your child for 45 minutes (granted yes she was shopping elsewhere for probably 20 minutes) but still, how do you walk around for 25+ minutes and not come up to an associate about you missing your child. If she had done that, the kid would’ve been back to her in 5 minutes, but nope, clearly she was wandering around looking for him, completely ignoring the clear callout on the PA for her. It just baffles me how you could leave a 9 year old child by himself in a Walmart, and just walk away, whether you told him to stay or not. I never thought that’d happen to me, but in the end, i’m glad this didn’t turn into an abandonment situation where the mom left the store and abandoned the child on purpose. Nonetheless, its still horrible.

my team lead just told us that they’re planning on getting rid of the set schedules, meaning you can be put at any hours or any days unless you update your availability. but they did say that if you close off your availability you’re less likely to get many hours, but full time would still be at least 32. is anyone else hearing about this or know when it’ll go into affect??

I feel like Walmart has been slowly making things worse for hourly associates, whether you’re a regular associate or a Team Lead.
Reduced hours: Regular associates are getting fewer hours, which means Team Leads are expected to pick up the slack. The workload keeps increasing, but the staffing isn’t there to support it.
Same or higher expectations: Despite having fewer people and fewer hours to work with, management still expects the same results, if not better.
Team Lead bonuses: Bonuses have been slashed by a significant margin. We’re taking on more responsibilities while the financial incentives keep shrinking.
Associate bonuses: Regular associates finally have bonuses again, but the payouts are peanuts compared to the company’s overall profits.
Annual raises: Team Leads used to be eligible for raises of up to 5% for exemplary performance. Now, even if you’re an outstanding performer, you’re capped at 4%.
Regular associate raises: While associates now have the potential to earn a better raise based on performance, they also run the risk of receiving no raise at all.
What bothers me the most is that Walmart keeps demanding more while gradually taking away the incentives that made the additional responsibilities worthwhile.
As a Team Lead, you’re expected to manage your team, complete your own tasks, cover staffing shortages, and still deliver the same results. Meanwhile, regular associates are dealing with reduced hours and increasingly uncertain compensation.
It feels like the company is trying to squeeze as much productivity as possible out of fewer people while cutting back on what it gives them in return.
I’m genuinely curious: Is this happening across Walmart, or is it more noticeable at certain stores? Have other Team Leads and associates noticed the same thing, or am I just getting burned out?

Those HO asshats have genuinely never worked a day in their lives, have they? Put 200 pounds on an L cart and tell me it's easy to control while pulling. What a fucking joke of a company. Instead of simply saying "hey everyone, slow down a little bit and make sure your path is clear", they've created safety issues with both of our carts, never mind the raw physical strain, and the brand new risk of getting run over.

Hey Johnny, if you're reading this, try firing half of HO. Making changes for the sake of making changes is NOT management. HO's complete lack of common sense is creating problems where none existed.

I work overnights, 4 days a week. Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I have a fixed schedule, and I know a lot of people would die to have 3 days off, but somehow it still feels like I’m wasting away. Those 3 days are mostly spent sleeping, with the entire first day dedicated to ONLY sleep. I cannot physically stay awake after I come home on my last day, so I honestly feel like I only have 2 days off and my coworkers that I’ve spoken to about this have agreed with me that it’s the same for them. I’m just so exhausted. There’s no other decent jobs in my area so I’m kind of forced to stay here, even though it’s taking a toll on my physical health. On my work days I consistently only get around 4-5 hours of sleep because I have things to do and I don’t want to immediately pass out once I’m home. Can never hang out with friends anymore because I’m at work when they’re off. No more Sundays at the bar or anything. Constantly had to reject plans until people started getting the memo that I’m never available, so now nobody ever asks anymore. Working at Walmart is not for the weak. You genuinely become a bot with no social life and that’s exactly the way this system was designed. I should’ve listened to the people who warned me about it but it’s too late. Now I’m stuck putting boxes of cereal on a shelf for a company that makes billions and doesn’t give a flying shit about me. Only profit.