I left Walmart after almost 10 years of service. Leadership lives with their heads in the sand, oblivious or unwilling to see what is happening around them. I survived multiple rounds of layoffs over the past 3 years in my area and eventually just had enough. I understand layoffs are hard and sometimes necessary, but Walmart is no longer trimming the fat to be more "efficient", they are removing the heart. I left and got a raise at a company that actually respects the individual. I'm no longer doing the work of 2 or 3 people and have a great work/life balance. It's sad to see how far this company has fallen and I chose not to stick around and be another 20+ year associate to get laid off like a piece of trash. The talent drain is in full swing at Walmart and there's no e-commerce acquisition that can fix that. Walmart's culture used to be the strength of the company, now it's a liability of Walmart's own making. To all my former coworkers, there's life after Walmart and it's likely a better one...
18 replies (most recent on top)
You can count me as one of those suffering from WM PTSD! I’m a walking drug cabinet, no thanks to the “8th St Concentration Camp” that I called home for 7 years! Getting laid off stopped the bleeding, but the scars still remain. Thanks, WM Finance, Tax and Treasury!!
The PTSD thing is real. Several of my close friends who work at H.O. are on anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medications, and they say it has only gotten worse because of layoffs.
To the last poster, you must be willing to move or you will never escape to something better. School rankings have nothing to do with it, if you work hard and are honest employers will want you
To the person with the ptsd comment. It’s not just people who were born in this region with the ability to put up with this. It’s also those who have only worked for walmart since graduating college. Many of us came from rural schools or U of a (pine bluff ) or LSU. We don’t know no better and can’t find work when we are laid off.
The looting comment made me laugh. That is SO true. So so true. Where’s the Walmart ethics team on THAT particular issue? I’m sorry but hiring your best buddies or creating jobs for them is wrong. You cannot effectively manage your friends. And evidence of that fact is all over the company.
The PTSD thing is also sadly true. I have a friend with a family who cannot sleep nights because she is the bread winner for her family and is in constant fear that the next round of layoffs will hit her. She either dreams she’s at work and wakes up in a panic or she can’t sleep at all and just paces. We are trying to find her a job with the vendors but suppliers are saying they are scared to hire Walmart employees right now due to fear of retaliation.
The thing about only Arkansans being able to tolerate HO for any amount of time also has some truth to it in my opinion. Sad thing is that the company seems to think the talent elsewhere is better and gives other branches of the company better benefits.
The nepotism is a bad problem in my opinion. It has made a toxic environment.
I would rather collect a government check than work for Walmart in BV again. Agree with the last poster about Walmart PTSD. They abuse micromanage and belittle the people doing actual work while promoting bullies and well connected d---beats.
I'm a carpetbagger, lol... Sincerely, I feel sorry for people getting treated bad at HO, lots of super nice people there. I got treated bad too. It was like fresh hell almost every day. I felt like Walmart roadkill until I got out. Seriously, it felt like PTSD for months after I left.
Maybe it was a good place at one time, don't know. Honestly though, there is nothing that can prepare someone coming in from the outside for what it is like. I'm convinced you have to be born in the Arkansas region and never have worked elsewhere to be ok with it. It is only because that person won't know any better, they'll think it's normal. The only other people who might understand how oppressive it is is the NWA vendor community, because they have to deal with the the mothership.
This was one of the wake up signs for me. When you hear a vendor buddy describe being relocated for work as a "tour of duty," you think Afghanistan, until they say, "no, to Bentonville, for Walmart." That's not good.
Whoever described the current situation as "looting" wasn't exaggerating. Walmart is infested with NEPOTISM and FAVORITISM at all levels. A lot of us on these forums, what we have in common is being overworked while being held to impossible standards because we didn't have special privileges. We are the work mules/wage slaves that do three heads of work including the work of family member/manager's pet PARASITES while being told we're failing, late, and need to be more "accountable" the whole time we're suffering and severely underpaid. We keep the company running in its current state and the only way we can change our situation is to protest by leaving. I encourage all the work mules to jump ship, you owe these scumbucket parasites and carpetbaggers nothing and I guarantee if you actually start looking you will find a job that values you, treats you like an equal human being, only gives you one head of work or less and pays you what you're worth!
We had all kinds of nepotism going, hear it's worse than ever now. It's like a looting spree of the company, which is ironic when you think of retail in a natural disaster. Some of these leaders must sense their run at the company is almost up and are letting the unethical behavior fly unabated.
I'm back East now working, I couldn't stand it there in BV. The daily drama at HO is beyond unprofessional, totally unacceptable.
I don’t think people arent as upset with the change as they are the lack of transparency and the nepotism.
How many times have you seen a new VP take over an area and then they bring in all their friends and buddies? I realize that happens everywhere to a degree, but it is extreme at Walmart. You have VPs hiring their best friends as direct reports. It’s very noticeable and isn’t a good look.
Loosing HO talent to suppliers is nothing, what they ought to be afraid of is losing talent to their competition, or to vendors that support Amazon's efforts. Both are happening. Talent gets chased off or let go, yet people are retained who have little skill who have just high school or a GED. Makes no sense.
DM once made a comment about villains lurking inside the company. There are! They are in your organization fighting progress every day in order to maintain the status quo.
Agreed. I was impacted and took a job with a higher salary ,better benefits and less hours. There is a better life after Wal-Mart.
I would rather be happy and at least have some of the holidays and my lifetime then be with that company.
Agree there is life after WM. Staying is questionable because the company doesn’t appear aligned across the enterprise on performance-based employment versus tenure, relationship-based when making decisions for these layoffs. This is especially true in support areas of the business, which are outside of core retail and eCommerce. I notice a lot of people who have been around forever who don’t have the background, technical skill or education to get the work done.
Most concerning is the lack of focus and strategy to make gains for the Company. It’s more about keeping the status quo, even if it's to the Company’s detriment and expense. I haven’t seen leadership embracing top performers, especially people who come in from the outside. They should want people who are skilled in using actual metrics and data to focus aggressively on controllable expenses, especially SG&A functions, I haven't seen that happen. I've seen just the opposite, shoot or silence the messenger and keep the status quo.
There are other signs too that things are not quite right. When you witness your leadership putting across highly questionable initiatives NOT supported in any form by reality or data, ideas that are the retail equivalent of all things canned corn as game changing, despite evidence to the contrary, the leadership is troubled. Riding the crazy train under a troubled leader is no good. It’s a waste of time and talents.
Above all, it’s disconcerting to have your livelihood in the hands of a leader who is disconnected with reality, and who is not being honest with the organization. When all ties to reality and integrity are absent, the game is already over. I think it is best to get out, rather than taking the risk of derailing one's career by staying.
The talent drain is so bad that they are allegedly telling suppliers not to hire their people away. Sad.
I would rather make less money than work for them!
Agree--I did the same. I took a minor pay cut, but the work life balance and happiness I reclaimed is totally worth it. And to those who say, "why are you on here if you're so happy?", it's because I have close family and friends who still work there and are constantly in fear, I spent several years of my life there, and I am still a shareholder. There is life after WM.
Agree.