Current Events > Starting a job at Walmart today.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Today was okay. Im starting to understand that you gotta speak up to the team lead for things. I was a greeter twice, at the beginning of my shift and the end of it. I know I have to be the most awkward greeter ever. Its boring, and Im always worried a customer is gonna ask a question that I cant answer. Because I dont know shit about anything.

Besides that, I shadowed four different people on the register, who all did things differently, who all had really conflicting advice and attitudes and methods of working the register.

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Good, man.

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WrestlinFan posted...

Today was okay. Im starting to understand that you gotta speak up to the team lead for things. I was a greeter twice, at the beginning of my shift and the end of it. I know I have to be the most awkward greeter ever. Its boring, and Im always worried a customer is gonna ask a question that I cant answer. Because I dont know shit about anything.

Besides that, I shadowed four different people on the register, who all did things differently, who all had really conflicting advice and attitudes and methods of working the register.

You are smart, you will figure out your niche...and just assume it is a point a Point-A-to-Point-B job.
Are they any non totally corporate places around you? That is probably going to be more you ultamitly.
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Congratulations TC, good luck!

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Just show up for work, show up with a great attitude and be personable. That is my best advice. You will eventually learn what I call the "Wal-mart zen". It will all come natural to you. Don't listen to horror stories, I've seen you around here and you sound like a pretty reasonably intelligent guy. Pay attention to the rules and ask as many questions as you can. If you're walking around the store for whatever reason be sure to quickly touch up on the aisles to make it look nice. Listen to customers, let them tell their stupid jokes and give them a chuckle. At least you're not a cute girl on the register, that's the most horrifying job. Try to get to know your coworkers across all the sides of the store. You never know when you might want to change positions and if you show competence they will typically pick you up. Work hard, do your stuff and you will have a normal time. If you have issues with any coworker do not approach them, approach your supervisor and explain the issue. They do not like direct conflicts.

Also huge, huge advice here, if you see a spill, you have to guard it immediately. Stop everything that you're doing and wait for another associate to come immediately. If someone were to slip on that and the cameras caught you ignoring it, that's pretty much an immediate coaching (Write-up)

At my store someone actually got fired on their third week over that. I no longer work for that company but if you have any question feel free to ask me. I worked there for a long time and in just about any lower end position, including supervising the CAP 2 team. I'm sure a lot has changed but if I can answer it or give insight I will. It will be stressful, it will be hell but it can also be really fun too.

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@AirFresh Thank you for the advice. Im about to go in for my third shift in a few hours. Im guessing this will be the one where they have me doing things on the register on my own. Im so anxious that I feel like Im gonna vomit but, at the same time, Im excited to get over the hump.

Thanks for all the advice from everyone else as well. I knew CE wouldnt let me down.

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Walmart is a toxic place. I was AP and did Cap II before it was Cap II. People say show up and do your work and be + but, Walmart always expects more for less. You will always be short staffed and treated like dirt by Management. Cap II is a miserable position since you're unloading Trucks and it gets hot. Management is always screaming and yelling at you to hurry up. When I was an unloader they used to threaten us with write ups for not going fast enough. Like, my manager would go back to the line and scream and yell at us to hurry.

I was AP for a few years and some of the shit I heard was just terrible. I'd go to do my security checks and hear Managers threatening people with writes up or terminations. I was happy being AP I was buddy buddy with them since I wasn't a sales associate. My boss was pretty cool but, the Market APM was a huge dick. I got shitcanned for making a bad stop.

Funniest story: had a customer call 911 on me because, I was following her. me and the guys on the force were laughing about it. They gave her a ticket for wasting everyones time.

I hope you end up enjoying your new job more than I am right now.

I was an overnight stocker at Walmart once. It was actually pretty fun. Our store was really laid back.

Maninstagnate posted...

TC is a cashier. His job is probably going to disappear in a few years since lot of Walmarts are going full self checkout. They don't want to give $15 a hour to someone to stand on a pad all day.

They'll just give him a self check-out helper job if that's the case. More self check-outs means more chances for people to steal if they aren't being watched.

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I worked at Walmart in the past. Easily the best of the retail jobs I've had.

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WrestlinFan posted...

@AirFresh Thank you for the advice. Im about to go in for my third shift in a few hours. Im guessing this will be the one where they have me doing things on the register on my own. Im so anxious that I feel like Im gonna vomit but, at the same time, Im excited to get over the hump.

Thanks for all the advice from everyone else as well. I knew CE wouldnt let me down.

How did it go?

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Are you getting a good starting bonus?

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AirFresh posted...

How did it go?

Its been good today. I like who Ive been working with. Ive been working with this girl thats given a ton of useful practical advice.

Right now Im shadowing this tall dude that hasnt said anything to me in an hour except when he first took over. Im tired. but he seems cool enough and isnt an asshole.

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RoseLuck2022462 posted...

Are you getting a good starting bonus?

Nothing lol.

I do wonder why Im still shadowing. I have five years of experience on a register thats pretty similar to Walmarts.

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WrestlinFan posted...

Its been good today. I like who Ive been working with. Ive been working with this girl thats given a ton of useful practical advice.

Right now Im shadowing this tall dude that hasnt said anything to me in an hour except when he first took over. Im tired. but he seems cool enough and isnt an asshole.

Gotta love the practical advice person.

WrestlinFan posted...

Nothing lol.

I do wonder why Im still shadowing. I have five years of experience on a register thats pretty similar to Walmarts.

...Just protocol.
But you said you were nervous about it...so, it's cool that this is second hat to you.

I assume you are on your lunch break atm.
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Just got off. I worked the register for the first time the rest of the day. It wasnt too hard but the register is backwards compared to DGs. So my five years of muscle memory is throwing me off and making me feel like Im doing everything left handed. So thats gonna take some getting used to. My schedule got updated from 22 hours to 40 hours though so Ill have a lot of time to learn lol.

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WrestlinFan posted...

Just got off. I worked the register for the first time the rest of the day. It wasnt too hard but the register is backwards compared to DGs. So my five years of muscle memory is throwing me off and making me feel like Im doing everything left handed. So thats gonna take some getting used to. My schedule got updated from 22 hours to 40 hours though so Ill have a lot of time to learn lol.

Ahhh, well it looks like they have faith in you. AKA, your brain works.

And ya, I have a horrible register system, the interface is at least 20 years old.
And better then that, there are two locations, so everything seems backwards when you get moved.

~Cool they are giving you the hours though!!
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Don't forget your CBLs!

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SiO4 posted...

Ahhh, well it looks like they have faith in you. AKA, your brain works.

And ya, I have a horrible register system, the interface is at least 20 years old.
And better then that, there are two locations, so everything seems backwards when you get moved.

~Cool they are giving you the hours though!!

Yup I cant wait for that first check.

ProfessorKukui posted...

I imagine you are actually coded for full-time, right? Walmart likes doing sketchy shit like that.

Not sure tbh.

Heartomaton posted...

Don't forget your CBLs!

Psssh I finished those in two hours. I just would always picks the non-audio versions when I could and would just skim-read. Its too much info to comprehend at once and the majority of it didnt seem relevant to me anyway. The older ladies in my orientation class took two full nine shifts each to finish theirs.

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WrestlinFan posted...

Psssh I finished those in two hours. I just would always picks the non-audio versions when I could and would just skim-read. Its too much info to comprehend at once and the majority of it didnt seem relevant to me anyway. The older ladies in my orientation class took two full nine shifts each to finish theirs.

They do that on purpose. The longer you take to do your CBLs, the less you have to work.

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How's it going so far?

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Heartomaton posted...

They do that on purpose. The longer you take to do your CBLs, the less you have to work.

Theyre smarter than me.

TheRadiant posted...

How's it going so far?

Its okay. My nerves are completely fucked every time right before I go in. I shake and vomit and sometimes cry and hyperventilate and my anxiety is off the charts. Its so nerve racking for some reason. Well, its probably because I find social situations really stressful and mentally draining.

But once Im actually there it goes from bad to tolerable to good depending on who Im working with.

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I worked there a year as an unloader and it sucked. Fights happened all the time. I was fired cause i was literally drinking diet vault and coworkers were literally calling me gay over a diet soda. Then this weird war vet interrupted saying "The romans use to practice being gay".

I said we dont know whos gay, for all i know youre gay so lets cut it with the gay talk. He then said if i ever insinuated he was gay hed hurt me. I got mad and told him id love to see that right now. He ran off to management.

We were called in and they were trying to just tell everyone to cut it out but the war vet got mad and said hed been trained to kill and he wasnt going to take such disrespect. He was immediately fired and staff at the moment told me not to worry about it but later higher ups said can us both.

I did have random write ups for stupid things being my first job but the manager writing me up was a personal trainer on the side and mostly slept in his office where people kept turning off his alarm and taking pictures of him sleeping. He later came in on his day off very drunk and made such a scene that they fired him for it.

The turn over rate was insane and people would literally come and go weekly while the few that stayed would get fired over little stupid things.

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I hope it goes well. Being a CSM was my favorite thing I did at Wal-Mart. It was way better than management. Too bad the pay was shite.
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Walmart is a good job, i had a lot of fun when I worked there, to be successful you basically just have to be seen , walk around looking busy, if asked say you are helping a customer if you are doing nothing say you are on your 15 minute break , i talked to customers every chance I got to pass time

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sabrestorm posted...

Walmart is a good job, i had a lot of fun when I worked there, to be successful you basically just have to be seen , walk around looking busy, if asked say you are helping a customer if you are doing nothing say you are on your 15 minute break , i talked to customers every chance I got to pass time

I can only hope Im that tactful with time.

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Did you have to fill out government assistance forms during orientation?

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VitalGetPrank posted...

Did you have to fill out government assistance forms during orientation?

I did not.

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I wish Id feel more comfortable already. I know Ill be up all night sick to my stomach with anxiety and dread like the past three nights. I go in tomorrow at 12. Instead of sleeping, Ill be laying in bed, my mind pounding suicidal thoughts into my head over and over again for hours til its my time to go in.

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WrestlinFan posted...

Yup I cant wait for that first check.

Right? Living poor, which I know how to do gets old at some point.
I think I have a second job in the works, and only working very little at my current job. Which is a choice.
....Though I wouldn't mind if they called me in to help cover late breaks...

But anyway, always squirrel away some money.
Even if it is your first check, even if it is only five bucks.
Stick it somewhere, know it is there, but forget about it.
Keep doing that. Emergency money/cash on hand is a big deal.
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I worked for Walmart like 10 years ago albeit in the pharmacy. Only made like $9/hr but I imagine theyre paying a lot more now with the labor shortages, or at least I would hope. Hated the job and leaving felt so good but hopefully it goes alright for you.

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LordMarshal posted...

I worked there a year as an unloader and it sucked. Fights happened all the time. I was fired cause i was literally drinking diet vault and coworkers were literally calling me gay over a diet soda. Then this weird war vet interrupted saying "The romans use to practice being gay".

I said we dont know whos gay, for all i know youre gay so lets cut it with the gay talk. He then said if i ever insinuated he was gay hed hurt me. I got mad and told him id love to see that right now. He ran off to management.

We were called in and they were trying to just tell everyone to cut it out but the war vet got mad and said hed been trained to kill and he wasnt going to take such disrespect. He was immediately fired and staff at the moment told me not to worry about it but later higher ups said can us both.

I did have random write ups for stupid things being my first job but the manager writing me up was a personal trainer on the side and mostly slept in his office where people kept turning off his alarm and taking pictures of him sleeping. He later came in on his day off very drunk and made such a scene that they fired him for it.

The turn over rate was insane and people would literally come and go weekly while the few that stayed would get fired over little stupid things.

I feel bad for laughing but the situations you described are genuinely hilarious. Sorry you had to go through that

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DirkDiggles posted...

That's the hardest job in Walmart. lol Sure, they are standing on a pad all day....not moving much also having to deal with some of the filth of humanity.

Standing in one place all day doing nothing interesting is honestly a very hard job for me. I was in charge of mask monitoring at the front door last year for a while and I couldn't stand how dull it was. Every now and then a customer would joke to me that I got the easy job today. In my head I'd roll my eyes so hard because I actually found that role really hard. Not because it was challenging me but because it felt so torturous.

Also there were anti-maskers who would confront me. It's not fun telling them to put on masks, it just makes you feel angry.

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Word of advice: Make yourself useful and stand out. That way they'll make sure you get fulltime. No reason to work at Walmart without FT. You get literally nothing as PT but, still work 40 hours. No Vacations, No protected pto, no benefits, no bonus. \
Maninstagnate posted...

TC is a cashier. His job is probably going to disappear in a few years since lot of Walmarts are going full self checkout. They don't want to give $15 a hour to someone to stand on a pad all day.

Self check outs have to have people watching 24/7. Tbf Walmart has veryfew cashiers to begin with

I liked Walmart so much that I would go back a couple of hours after my shift to shop but mainly to bs with other co workers

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I worked my way up to customer service manager in 2 years, I loved it because i was very social, my manager called me a social butterfly

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Balnazarr posted...

No Vacations, No protected pto

Part timers do eventually start accruing regular PTO, and they get protected PTO as well.

I was part time for 3 years and used more than my share of ppto lmao

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sabrestorm posted...

I worked my way up to customer service manager in 2 years, I loved it because i was very social, my manager called me a social butterfly

I really hope Im like you lol.

Next shift is in three hours. I didnt sleep much last night and Ive been vomiting from anxiety all morning but Im hoping this shift goes well.

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@SiO4 Right, Im gonna get an account set up to automatically put some of my check into a savings fund once Im back on my feet.

Balnazarr posted...

Word of advice: Make yourself useful and stand out. That way they'll make sure you get fulltime. No reason to work at Walmart without FT. You get literally nothing as PT but, still work 40 hours. No Vacations, No protected pto, no benefits, no bonus. \

Self check outs have to have people watching 24/7. Tbf Walmart has veryfew cashiers to begin with

Might be wrong but I think recently they stopped giving out bonuses. And I will start getting PTO and PPTO in due time, I believe everyone does now.

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They will stop giving them soon. Next quarter but, you might get lucky.

>Might be wrong but I think recently they stopped giving out bonuses. And I will start getting PTO and PPTO in due time, I believe everyone does now.

You don't. As in you wont be getting it at the same rate. It'll be a long time. Last time I checked a very bad ratio.

Wal Mart was one of the only 2 jobs I ever quit without giving notice. Never looked back. Best of luck.

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WrestlinFan posted...

Right, Im gonna get an account set up to automatically put some of my check into a savings fund once Im back on my feet.

Are a cash person?
I realize I am one of the few cash people left.
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Balnazarr posted...

You get literally nothing as PT

You get PTO, health insurance, and stock purchase as PT.
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from personal experience, as someone who worked there.... run. Run fast, and run hard. That shit that they pull on the orientation day only lasts at most a week. Then you have fucking side managers who aren't even managers of your department yelling at you for shit that is out of your control because they can't get off their ass to do it themselves.

Story time kids. I got plenty of them.

We had a guy working store standards with us, useless idiot. Barely pulled in carts, stood in the porch most days and did nothing. He messed up our cart machines plugin cord somehow and didn't tell the other store standards about it, and nearly electrocutes one of the guys. Still kept his job. A couple weeks later, that same guy sat down to tie his shoes and immediately gets yelled at by one of the side managers because it "looks lazy and he needs to be outside hauling carts."

I can't count the amount of times I got yelled at for shit that was out of my control, or for really fucking stupid shit. Someone doesn't show up for work, somehow that's my fault. Someone is scheduled to go home at 10, but the managers change it the night before to 10:30 and don't tell him about it, still... my fault.

I worked the night before Black Friday prepping the entrance. I was there until about 11:30. I was told at the last minute that I would have to come in in the morning because the guy who was supposed to open isn't coming in, and they can't find a replacement (Typical retail answer). I agree as I need the money. I bring in a coffee because I need caffeine to wake me up. I immediately get yelled at for bringing in the coffee. "We don't drink coffee while we are working", get rid of it." I sigh and agree and bring it to my car. I come back in, to get pulled into the office and the manager says to me "I expected you to throw it out", I think to myself "I spent money on this. I'm not throwing it out." I get written up for not wearing a safety vest, when I didn't even clock in yet.

They chopped my schedule one year without warning to one 5 hour shift... in 5 weeks, all while being told "I should be thankful that I'm getting work". Mind you, here in Canada its illegal for them to do that, and I was the guy who always showed up for work and didn't miss a single day.

The single biggest thing that took me over the edge... and it wasn't even something that was done to someone in my department. It honestly infuriated me so much that I, as a store standard overruled them.... During the pandemic we had people on the door at all times to limit the amount of people coming in. A young girl, couldn't have been older than 17, was told to stand by the door and count the people coming into the store and limit them. Mind you, this girl had just broken her entire leg from a sporting event she was in. She wasn't allowed a bench to sit on, and she was being told to stand there for 8 hours with a freshly broken leg. I literally looked at her, and said, "sit on the customers bench. I don't want you moving out of it, and if any of the managers question it, tell them to come see me and I'll take responsibility for it". It could have ruined her leg for life.

They also fucked over our Covid pay. They gave out a loyalty pay for working multiple years with the company. I got somewhere around 700, when I should have gotten double that. I digress. This pay wasn't supposed to be listed with the government as paid work, but it was. Because it was listed as that, we weren't entitled to Covid pay, which was 2 grand.

I got a lot more stories than that, those are just the ones that come to mind.

Case in point, fuck Wal-Mart.

Also, a little side note, because of the way Wal-Marts manager system works, every assistant manager is your manager. So someone in produce can also tell people in Electronics what to do, its extremely fucked and if I were in charge of the company I'd change it immediately. The amount of times I as a cart pusher got yelled at by the produce manager was unreal. Doesn't work in my department and is yelling as us literally daily, sometimes 4-5 times a day, we complain about it to HR/manager of the store, and nothing was done.

One last edit, I promise. TC I wish you the best at that company, hopefully your experience is better than mine. But one key piece of advice and if nothing else I tell you makes it through, I hope this one does. DO NOT accept to go haul carts. Trust me on this one. They will pull you in the middle of whatever line of work your doing to haul carts, and eventually try to convince you to go on carts permanently.

Ivany2008 posted...

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Jesus H. Christ, you must've been really unlucky to work in such a shit store. I didn't get nearly the same treatment when I worked at Walmart. Only thing I relate with though was the whole stupid "drink policy" where you can only drink their own bottles of water, not even your own personal one.
I work at a Smith's deli and they have something similar, but they have "PAID" stickers you can put on your drinks and they generally don't care what you bring unless it's one of those inspection days. And well, they have a union so they probably can't afford to treat their employees badly.

I can agree with the carts though. Working carts is strenuous work and the moment you agree to do it once, they keep sending you out there. Don't do it if they give you the chance.

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BakonBitz posted...

Jesus H. Christ, you must've been really unlucky to work in such a shit store. I didn't get nearly the same treatment when I worked at Walmart. Only thing I relate with though was the whole stupid "drink policy" where you can only drink their own bottles of water, not even your own personal one.
I work at a Smith's deli and they have something similar, but they have "PAID" stickers you can put on your drinks and they generally don't care what you bring unless it's one of those inspection days.

I can agree with the carts though. Working carts is strenuous work and the moment you agree to do it once, they keep sending you out there.

yep.... those were only some of the issues. There were a LOT more. It got so bad that literally all of the store standards mass quit except for one who couldn't find work immediately. It was so bad that a good 75 percent of our shopping carts were rusted and couldn't move properly. They finally got new ones in, only to overstock and refuse to put any of them in hiding so we had way too much work in the evenings. It went from 40 working carts to over 500.

I'm just glad I'm not working there anymore. Working on my diploma/certificate instead.

LordMarshal posted...

The turn over rate was insane and people would literally come and go weekly while the few that stayed would get fired over little stupid things.

As much as people complain about union jobs taking 1% of a paycheck, plus a $20 fee each month, it certainly stops the sort of behavior in your story. A manager can't just go on a power trip one day because they're feeling butthurt about something in their personal life and want to take it out on somebody.

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