No, it's not true that it has to do with retail. It's has to do with Walmart. I thought it was almost impossible to find a company in retail where a person could feel respected and valued, especially because even before this sweatshop I worked at another sweatshop that was very miserable. However, I recently managed to get out of here move to a place where the atmosphere is better and where I am paid better. It makes me sick when some people try to justify Walmart in the way that it is a “world of retail”, thus saying that it is almost normal for employees to be miserable while working in retail. No, that is not normal and never will be.
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Everyone misses the point. It IS retail, and because the associate work force is so large, so low skilled, and, because there are always people that have no other employment choices, it is what it is and will not change. This is basic economics 101.
Clearly, if someone had other employment opportunities, they would not be at Walmart.
Don’t think it’s necessarily a “sweat shop.” Walmart leadership expects the millennial generation to have the same work ethic as the die hard Sam Walton era associates that have retired or have been displaced over the years. Walmart culture went with them. They are expecting kids, 80-90% of which don’t give a ____, to work. Management, many (not all) of whom also don’t give a ____, don’t know how to manage millennials. HR is focused on hiring bodies, not quality associates to meet the needs of the store thanks to COVID. Meanwhile upper leadership wants to pretend COVID isn’t happening, send a bunch of freight to the stores, and create more processes that unintentionally send more freight to the store because there aren’t enough people to run those processes. The company puts more focus on the metrics around these processes than the customer, even though they say the metrics are an indicator for serving the customer and availability. Vicious cycle that’s going to cause a lot of damage, likely irreparable damage, to the brand in the long run. Just my observations. Oh, teaming doesn’t work, especially in a pandemic.