Working at Wal-Mart — Reviews by Employees

Ok I've been work at walmart for a little over a year now and it just keeps going downhill everyday. I work 2nd shift instock and thats deals with unloading turcks, sorting boxes onto pallets, sorting break packs(boxes of merchandise), Sweeping out the truck, and pulling all the pallets out on to the floor for 3rd shift to work them. Now that was not so bad until they started giving us more and more and more to do. We have 6 people right now and we can't all work on the same days so they leaves us with about 3-4 people to work with a day. 1 day they will say we want all the new mod boxes sorted by themselves and the next day oh we are not going to do that anymore and then a few months later we have a new asst. manager over us and they want us to do the same thing. Oh and then they want us to stop doing it again. Its almost an endless circle of the managers making the same mistakes as the last manager. Ok here is another thing with the break packs we have these 3 dept.s all on the floor right next to eachother so we sorted them together but the people who put them away said we need all of this sorted by dept. and i know that would take longer to do cuz more work means more time and i was fine with it as long as they didn't get mad about it taking longer. They ended getting mad anyways which is complete bull. For anyone who works anywhere a simple thing you must know is more work = more time. You can't pile more and more work on people and think they are going to get it done at the same time they got it done when they had less work to do. Now i am known has a good worker there i guess, i help others that are new i understand what needs to be done and i try to get done what i can. I also pace myself and end up still just not able to move at the end of the day. Just getting done with work today something didn't get finished and i go to leave and someone turns and goes i was told you cant leave until gets done and the way they said it was just so rude i just couldnt stand for that. They didn't talk to me about staying later they didn't ask me to stay later. They just say to me as i am leaving that hey you have to stay. I know how it works and at the end of an 8 hour day i not only can leave i have to there is no overtime. Sorry for this rambling on im just unhappy with how they get mad about not being fast as they want us for work that takes more people then they give us and they know this but the store manager will not hire anyone else to help us. One more thing to add we has so much piled in the back room they can't get everything binned. To get set up to unload the trucks we have to pull all the pallets they have piled up from the overflowing merchandise that keeps coming in out of receiving and into the middle of the aisles of steel where they keep all of the binned merchandise. Then at the end of the day we have to pull all of it back into receiving just to move it back the next day. I'm sure i would be fine with working in any other place then 2nd shift instock with the hours of 4pm. to 1am. Also I was talked to about calling in to much and yes i did call in 6 times which was over the limit but some of my co workers have called in over 30 times and have not been talked to once or even warned. One of the reason i had called in some much cuz well you can tell they made me hate my job. There is one person who everytime has a problem with our shift comes to me and either blames me or asks me why is this like this most of the time it has nothing to do with me. I am not the supervisor. I am not the one to go to. I would bring up Benefits but really i have nothing to say about it. I am just working here until i got back to college. About the pay its a little low but i did get to start with $7.90 and the min. when i started in instock was $7.50 and after i year i went up $.40 an hour.

You have to like working at a place like Wal-Mart where you see so many people everyday. Everyone I know shops at Wal-Mart so i see all my friends on a daily basis. That is an added benefit. I don't get rich, but I have a good job and job security.

My store offers a pleasant working experience and raises are guaranteed. I can't see the negatives of working at a Wal-Mart. One of my friends is now at the home office and is really making some big money. You can work your way up at Wal-Mart and my friend started out as a cashier.

Walmart sucks. Don't work there. It is like buying a KIA. Killed in Action.

PAY: The starting rate at our store is $8/hour I believe. It might be $8.50. Regardless, that is for the lowest pay grade, which would be cart pushers (Code 13's) and the maintenance crew, I think. Each pay grade above that obviously earns more money. While it might not be enough to live off of starting out, if you're a college student, someone young living at home with your parents, or need a supplemental income, it's pretty decent. Also, as long as you do your job, you're pretty much guaranteed a $.40/hour raise at the end of your 90 day probationary period, and each year at your yearly performance evaluation. Also, if you go above and beyond, you can get $.50 or $.60/hour. This happens every year, which gives the potential of a decent paycheck considering the workload.

RESPECT: As far as I'm concerned, my management team has treated me with utmost respect. Sometimes they may be having a bad day, and might say something that can be taken the wrong way, but that happens to everyone sometime or another. As long as you do your job in my store, your treated well.

BENEFITS: I can't say too much here. I just applied for benefits this year. However, from what I have seen about them so far, they work well enough for me. I don't get sick too often, and my benefits allow me to see a doctor a couple times a year. Most of my insurance is to cover catastrophes, death, and short/long term disability. It only takes about $30 a pay to cover me, as well. I have health, vision, and dental as well.

JOB SECURITY: Do your job, and you'll be fine. Also, no matter how bad the economy gets, people need food and other consumables, which are sold at Walmart with usually lower prices. So, unless you find a Walmart that is in the middle of nowhere that no one goes to, your store probably won't close. Hours may be cut in certain departments, but in our store at least, management usually lets you get your hours back assuming another department has hours they aren't using.

WORK/LIFE BALANCE: It gets a little hairy here, and it really depends on your management team. In my experience, management has been very good about working around my college schedule while I was in school, and they really don't seem to mind approving days off as long as they're given enough notice to cover your absence (three weeks in advance is the minimum, but earlier is generally better), and if other people in your department haven't requested the same days off earlier than you did.

CAREER POTENTIAL/GROWTH: I have to say, if you take your job seriously, learn why it is you need to do what they have you do, and show interest in learning more, they promote pretty fairly. I don't have a degree, and don't even have enough college credits to make a difference, but I've received a promotion to Department Manager, and have been interviewed for another promotion as well. Also, if you have either 2 years of college credits, or a year of retail plus a year of supervisory experience, you can apply for the management training program to become an Assistant Manager at any store in the country. And, if you apply to a far away store and get a job as an Assistant or higher, Walmart will help move you there. Pretty nice if you ask me.

LOCATION: Walmarts are EVERYWHERE. End of story.

CO-WORKER COMPETENCE: Well... As with just about any retail company, you will have people who take their job seriously, do their work, help others, and are just generally nice to be around. You will also have people who get distracted easily, talk more than work, take extended breaks, work slowly, etc. Fortunately, I've run into more decent than bad, though.

WORK ENVIRONMENT: I can't complain too much here. Our store is currently going through a remodel, so it's hectic, but most associates are doing what they can to keep things safe for everyone else. The store is generally clean, comfortable temperature, customers can be... irritating, but it's retail. You'll have that. The people I work with are quite nice, though. Very friendly, with a few exceptions.

I liked the money, MY store was pretty friendly, but the Manager treated you like you were incompotent and retarded

I have read some of the stuff written on this site and they feel about Wal-Mart the same way I do. It is a nice place to work and a fun and bright place to go. I have made some good friends in my store. I think some of the negative things are by people that don't even work. if you do your job, you probably have a job for life. I never went to college so this job means a lot to me.

wow these fake reviews walmart writes about themselves (the ones that only list a random state, not a specific city, and everyone has some cheesy feelgood story, that has nothing to do about the work enviroment) is just sad and pathetic. C'mon wal-mart! Not everyone is as stupid as you think!

Man, you have to love a company that is hiring in this economy. i was hired on recently and I think it is a cool place to work. So far, no problem. The guys are work with are cool and they have been there a couple of years.

I am an older person working for Wal-Mart and I like my job. I don't need benefits and the salary is enough for what I do and I can't imagine why anyone would be unhappy working for them. If someone doesn't like their job, they better be finding another one or they will be unhappy for life and life is too short to be miserable and complain. Going to work and seeing friendly faces is very enjoyable.