I went to wal-mart very early this morning to get some packing boxes-yes, you are in hell when you step foot into wal-mart but the total wal-mart experience was made even more hellish for me when I heard this over the loud speaker:
ATTENTION OVERNIGHT ASSOCIATES!! IF YOU ARE JUST STANDING BY THE SIDELINES GET ON OVER TO THE BOYS DEPT AND START ZONING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As many of you may know, I worked for wal-mart for 3 years, the last year on the overnight shift-10 pm to 7am-part time in the cash office and part time as a stocker, which are the only overnight positions in this walmart since it's not open 24 hrs. Overnight stocking is the absolute worst job in the world as far as I'm concerned. I would rather clean out porta potties or flip hamburgers at McDonalds or clean fish guts than ever ever work the overnight shift at wal-mart ever ever again!
The overnight part is bad to begin with-humans are not nocturnal and it just goes against Mother Nature to have to be awake when it is the middle of the night. Humans do not do well trying to sleep in the daytime, especially when the rest of the country is outside your door using leaf blowers and gas mowers.
No, the sleeping is the least of the bad parts of working the overnight shift. The bad parts are being treated as a little less than human because you are working the overnight shift at wal-mart and you must be a little sub-human to have taken this job in the first place, so it's okay to treat you as you would someone who just isn't the sharpest crayon in the box. Besides the hard physical labor of slinging heavy boxes around and pulling 5000 pound pallets of freight around all night, there is last straw of being LOUDLY TOLD to go help clean up a department that isn't even yours at 6:30 am when you are exhausted and have had just about enough of the overnight shift at wal-mart and just want to hide behind an end cap somewhere until the magical hour of 7am when you can finally get the f**k out of there and go home!
What was really disheartening was seeing one of my old co-workers from the overnight shift looking about 10 years older than he did when I left wal-mart a little over a year ago-his hair had turned completely grey too.
Showing posts with label walmart. Show all posts
Showing posts with label walmart. Show all posts
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Sunday, January 27, 2008
We Are Pretty Boring
Sometimes it's hard to think of something to blog about since our lives are pretty...um..dull.
Here's how we spent our Sunday: Had our coffee and some breakfast-no eggs since we were out of them and no eating out since we already did that twice this weekend. Last night we went across town to Carrow's since we had a coupon for 50% off one entree with the purchase of another. Definitely not worth it, Carrow's is about the same as Denny's which I didn't realize until after we got our food.
We needed some stuff from walmart so we did our shopping there and then went to Von's for the groceries. Note to self: Keith likes to browse, only go shopping with him when absolutely necessary. I spent half my time in Vons waiting at the end of each aisle for him to catch up.
We've had some strange weather this weekend so we came out of Von's to hurricane force wind and big fat rain drops. A few hours later it must have been the eye of the hurricane because the sun was shining and everything was calm.
After lunch, I went into my studio to do a little work and take some pictures. Keith spent the entire afternoon rolling up coins. He had been throwing his change into a big glass jar and the jar was full, so he sat there watching his new war documentary that he got at walmart and rolled up over 250.00 worth of change. I told him to save it for the new saw that he wants.
That was our fun and exciting Sunday. I wish he had done some more work on the remodel, but he does deserve a day off to just roll coins I guess.
Here's how we spent our Sunday: Had our coffee and some breakfast-no eggs since we were out of them and no eating out since we already did that twice this weekend. Last night we went across town to Carrow's since we had a coupon for 50% off one entree with the purchase of another. Definitely not worth it, Carrow's is about the same as Denny's which I didn't realize until after we got our food.
We needed some stuff from walmart so we did our shopping there and then went to Von's for the groceries. Note to self: Keith likes to browse, only go shopping with him when absolutely necessary. I spent half my time in Vons waiting at the end of each aisle for him to catch up.
We've had some strange weather this weekend so we came out of Von's to hurricane force wind and big fat rain drops. A few hours later it must have been the eye of the hurricane because the sun was shining and everything was calm.
After lunch, I went into my studio to do a little work and take some pictures. Keith spent the entire afternoon rolling up coins. He had been throwing his change into a big glass jar and the jar was full, so he sat there watching his new war documentary that he got at walmart and rolled up over 250.00 worth of change. I told him to save it for the new saw that he wants.
That was our fun and exciting Sunday. I wish he had done some more work on the remodel, but he does deserve a day off to just roll coins I guess.
Monday, January 7, 2008
Yes, I Used to Work at Wal-Mart
I just got back from the post office and a trip to the local Wal-mart to get some more mailing envelopes. The cashier was one that I used to work with and of course she asked if I'm ever coming back to work there. Um, NO!
It's kind of embarrassing to admit that you work or have worked at Wal-mart because of the connotations that only the truly desperate unemployable people work there, which is partly true. I had a good paying, but incredibly stressful office job that I quit to move inland where housing is cheaper. I tried the usual temp agencies and applying for jobs in the paper with dismal results, and went to Wal-mart since it's right around the corner and any job is better than no job. I started out as a cashier making 7 something an hour. The job really isn't that bad except the being on your feet all day and then the after the store closes jobs that they make cashiers do. All the merchandise that customers would leave at the checkouts or around the store when they decided that they really didn't want to buy it had to be put back on the shelf by the cashiers. That's hard when you really don't know where everything goes or even what department it goes in. One night I had to put away a huge basket of women's clothing that I had absolutely no clue where it went or what rack it went on. I was so tired and nearly in tears and then just thought 'F*ck it, they're getting stuffed wherever I can find a spot!'
I was a cashier for almost a year and then was offered a position at the service desk, which was a lot better than cashiering, at least you could go to the bathroom when you needed to instead of them telling you that you should have gone on your break and you'll need to wait. Utter bullshit there-great way to get a urinary tract infection. The service desk led to a position in the cash office which was a little more money but way more stress. There were some in the office that were a little difficult to work with and very immature-the office manager to be exact. If you made a mistake she would become very angry and not talk to you all day-to 'punish' you I guess. After about 9 months of that, Wal-mart decided to revamp the departments and get rid of positions that really weren't a necessity. They decided to have one person in the cash office from 6am to 3pm and then one person overnight from 10pm to 7am to handle all the posting of the receipts and counting all the cash overnight. You were allowed to choose one of these positions based on your seniority and me being the latest hired was left with an overnight shift of 2 nights in the cash office and 3 nights on the floor as a stocker, complete with a pay cut. So, for about 9 months I worked overnights, stocking and cash officing, and that was the worst employment experience I've ever had. Trying to sleep in the day is really hard and I never got enough sleep, so I was always exhausted and cranky.
So, when my etsy shop started really taking off I discussed the possibility of quitting Wal-mart and trying crafting full time with Keith. It's worked out pretty well and basically I make about the same amount of money. Would I ever go back to Wal-mart? Again, a huge NO-I'd go work at Taco Bell or McDonalds first.
That's not to say that working for Wal-mart is always horrible-they do employ a lot of otherwise unemployable people and do offer some pretty good benefits and experience. But, the thought of working there again makes me feel a little nauseated.
It's kind of embarrassing to admit that you work or have worked at Wal-mart because of the connotations that only the truly desperate unemployable people work there, which is partly true. I had a good paying, but incredibly stressful office job that I quit to move inland where housing is cheaper. I tried the usual temp agencies and applying for jobs in the paper with dismal results, and went to Wal-mart since it's right around the corner and any job is better than no job. I started out as a cashier making 7 something an hour. The job really isn't that bad except the being on your feet all day and then the after the store closes jobs that they make cashiers do. All the merchandise that customers would leave at the checkouts or around the store when they decided that they really didn't want to buy it had to be put back on the shelf by the cashiers. That's hard when you really don't know where everything goes or even what department it goes in. One night I had to put away a huge basket of women's clothing that I had absolutely no clue where it went or what rack it went on. I was so tired and nearly in tears and then just thought 'F*ck it, they're getting stuffed wherever I can find a spot!'
I was a cashier for almost a year and then was offered a position at the service desk, which was a lot better than cashiering, at least you could go to the bathroom when you needed to instead of them telling you that you should have gone on your break and you'll need to wait. Utter bullshit there-great way to get a urinary tract infection. The service desk led to a position in the cash office which was a little more money but way more stress. There were some in the office that were a little difficult to work with and very immature-the office manager to be exact. If you made a mistake she would become very angry and not talk to you all day-to 'punish' you I guess. After about 9 months of that, Wal-mart decided to revamp the departments and get rid of positions that really weren't a necessity. They decided to have one person in the cash office from 6am to 3pm and then one person overnight from 10pm to 7am to handle all the posting of the receipts and counting all the cash overnight. You were allowed to choose one of these positions based on your seniority and me being the latest hired was left with an overnight shift of 2 nights in the cash office and 3 nights on the floor as a stocker, complete with a pay cut. So, for about 9 months I worked overnights, stocking and cash officing, and that was the worst employment experience I've ever had. Trying to sleep in the day is really hard and I never got enough sleep, so I was always exhausted and cranky.
So, when my etsy shop started really taking off I discussed the possibility of quitting Wal-mart and trying crafting full time with Keith. It's worked out pretty well and basically I make about the same amount of money. Would I ever go back to Wal-mart? Again, a huge NO-I'd go work at Taco Bell or McDonalds first.
That's not to say that working for Wal-mart is always horrible-they do employ a lot of otherwise unemployable people and do offer some pretty good benefits and experience. But, the thought of working there again makes me feel a little nauseated.
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