Walmart: You have Failed Your Associates

People often don’t know what to expect during their first week as a Walmart employee. Before you show up to work, go in with an understanding that retail is hard. Retail is particularly difficult when you work at one of the largest retail companies on the planet. This fact only becomes more difficult to live with when you come to realize that this company’s main goal is to cut money wherever it can, to show that it made more money than it did the previous year.

As a new Walmart employee, you must accept this simple truth: “You are replaceable.” This isn’t something that anyone wants to hear nor accept, or go to work knowing that anyone can do their job; however, this is just the fact of the matter. You will be making $17,000 - $18,000 a year, generating over $220,000 a year in revenue, for a company who claims they can’t afford to give you over 30 hours a week. Simply speaking, you mean absolutely nothing to Walmart. This is a company who isn’t afraid to fire around 400, corporate employees at their home office, just to show that they made more money than the year before. Walmart as a company, does not care about their employees. They won’t even give employees the opportunity to get health insurance through their company. Most employees will never reach full time status; most aren’t given the chance to work more than 30-35 hours a week, making less than $9.00 an hour. How can a single person expect to make ends meet, let alone a single parent trying to support several children? Walmart does not care.

I can’t begin to tell you what it was like to listen to conversations in the Walmart breakroom. I can say with absolute confidence that I heard the same conversations every day. People were struggling to pay bills, health expenses, and most could barely afford food. They often spoke of how they would be ok if Walmart allowed them to have full time hours with benefits to support their families. Walmart needs to make a better commitment to their employees before they can make a commitment to customers. Associates want to have pride in their job, they just want their employer to take pride in them. A two-dollar raise isn’t the answer; it is just a mere start. And Walmart can’t implement such a measure, just because they want to see if it will increase profits in the long run. That’s bad for a business, it’s just plain horrible.

I will leave you this quote from Art of war:

“Regard your soldiers as your children, and they will follow you into the deepest valleys; look on them as your own beloved sons, and they will stand by you even unto death.” –Sun Tzu

Just to clarify, I am not telling associates to work themselves to death, I am however asking that Walmart view its employees as its own sons and daughters. Walmart doesn’t have the luxury of saying that this is the case, if it was, their profits would be considerably higher, and people would not have such a negative opinion of the company as a whole.

Walmart has failed its associates across the United States of America and the world. It needs to start treating everyone in its company as family. The “Always low prices” mission statement is dead, and can no longer be applied. People will pay more for a better shopping experience, just look at Target. Walmart needs to adapt to today.