Please pardon my ignorance. I am unable to figure out what the initials “CSM” mean. I have figured out from reading the posts that the CSM is a God-like supervisor type.
Every time I read one of these Wal-Mart posts I keep meaning to ask this question.
Thank you.
Customer Service Manager
And no, I don’t work at WallFart.
You did the right thing, though, in the company’s eyes. Remember, you’re supposed to STAY WHERE THE SPILL IS until maintenence gets there!!!
Yeah, accidents are commonplace at mine too and they also go ignored. We had an employee get attacked and mugged in the parking lot one night and they wouldn’t even give her a day off to recuperate.
It gets better and better. This morning it was storming out and I don’t have a car. I couldnt get a ride and there’s no buses here on Sundays. I know the store won’t give out other employee’s phone numbers, which is fine, but I called and asked if they would please do me a favor and call a coworker of mine who I knew would give me a ride, and give him my number so he could call me. I was simply trying to get to work.
They refused, and yelled at me for “begging for help” and then finally relented and said they’d call the guy, but that I’d basically be in trouble when I got to work. Well they either never called the guy or something but the end result is I had to walk to get there. I didn’t end up getting in trouble but I can’t understand it: when I’ve been sick they tell me I MUST COME IN and when I’m not sick and am clearly TRYING to come in, I get threatened.
Even worse is the gossip issue. Now I know every workplace is a bed of gossip to an extent but the level of it in my one department is so bad I can’t even write about it for fear the situation will be recognized and it’ll get worse.
How is it that every walmart is so much the same??? Cruelty towards employees who are sick or injured, overzealous managers who want to punish everyone, complete chaos and lack of any logic or order, and Evil CSMs Of Doom who take their time and ignore everyone, especially if you work in lawn & garden. And since everyone who shops at walmart seems to come away disgruntled, why is the company so popular? Basically, why is this allowed to continue?
How about we get all the former wage slaves of the supermarts, who have moved on to bigger and better things, to come back and get a job at their chosen teenage part-time hell and just totally behave like normal human beings.
Just out of curiousity, how would you feel about someone grabbing your attention, managing to get you to come over, and saying “You need a break, pretend you’re helping me. Take as long as you need.” or something similar?
Walmart is Eee-vil, but how may the civil disobedient within us all help?
My experience at Wal-Mart is unique and certainly unlike anything I ever heard about or experienced and I am not young. I started working there and from day 1, management hated me despite my trying to be as friendly and nice as possible. I never had a break and while this is unbelievable no one from management would talk to me or acknowledge me except for two employees and one day one of the CSMs who did speak to me, said out of the blue, “I don’t talk to you”??? Yeah, I don’t know why either. She never spoke to me again either. She made good on her word despite the fact that the night before when I left we were friends. I was being worked to death and had to take pain medication to stay on the job. Then one day something strange happened. Though previously I had never had a hello or goodbye or anything remotely civil at this WM, a woman started talking to me socially and no one approached me for a coaching. By the way, I was coached on my second day there for not knowing how to use the Gemini. Anyway this woman knew too much about me and she ended up wanting to speak to me further about the coincidences in our past. I was from California and she had never been there. This should have been a clue. She gave me her phone number and I called her and she proceeded to cuss me out and cruelly insult me. I mean really cruel stuff. I sat holding the phone in my hand for about half an hour stunned by her words and she said also, “Who gave you my phone number, never call again”. The whore need have no fear, I destroyed her phone number. The place had an evil feel to it that Stephen King or Hollywood could not duplicate. The management was like something out of a Grade B. scary cult film. I am afraid to walk by the place. I used to have their phone but I got another phone at a competitor because I knew I could not handle going into a WM>
My original post does not in anyway mention all the evilness of the Wal-Mart I worked for. I have left out much not to incriminate myself in any way. Wal-Mart must hire psychopaths because of the things they do, the lack of concern for older, infirm employees who are only hired because they can’t get another job and WM can exploit them and does. You see young Wal-Mart employees who have no concern for a sick or disabled older employee and will yell their heads off at them. I have seen older employees truly in pain and sick while being shoved around by management. I saw a situation I would rather keep quiet for now where it looked like something out of Auschwitz. I wonder where they find their management and their management will tell any lie they want. They accused me having a certain person fired. I don’t know the person. I was not in a position to have anyone fired. I only found out later that management did not like me because I had this person fired. Seriously, I never saw this person I supposedly had fired AND LET ME ADD THAT IF WAL-MART CAN CHECK YOUR IP, DO SO IMBECILES AND CONTACT ME AND LET ME KNOW WHEN I HAD A PERSON FIRED AS A LOW LEVEL CASHIER THAT I DON’T EVEN KNOW AND BE AWARE WAL-MART THAT IT WAS A CO-MANAGER WHO TOLD ME THAT I WAS NOT LIKED BECAUSE I HAD THIS PERSON FIRED. I WAS THERE 2 MONTHS, I WAS NOT EVEN AN OFFICIAL EMPLOYEE YET. WHERE IS AN INCIDENT REPORT YOU MORONS? WHO IS THE PERSON. AT LEAST SHOW ME A PICTURE. I WAS TOO BUSY WITH NO BREAKS OR BATHROOM BREAKS AND SOMETIMES NO LUNCH TO KNOW WHAT I WAS DOING, LET ALONE ANOTHER EMPLOYEE. PS. LOL, The person I was accused of firing was a manager to make it even funnier.
Welcome to The Straight Dope Message Board, CreepyWalMart. Our motto here is “Fighting ignorance since 1973.” For some reason, it’s taking a really long time. I blame population dynamics, personally.
I’m sorry you had such bad experiences working for Walmart. Upon preview, I see that you have added another post about Walmart and your experiences there. While I can understand wanting to scream in all caps to a massive, faceless organization, doing so while claiming that “they” can trace your IP address and therefore know who you are leaves the impartial reader with just the tiniest twinge of concern for your sanity. I trust that you will take this expression of concern in the spirit with which it is offered.
We do have a forum for such posts as yours, upbraiding persons or organizations with whom you have crossed swords. It is called “The Pit.” I invite you to consider it for any future rants. Again, welcome!
After reading this thread, I’m really puzzled at how common these situations seem to be in the USA. As a non-USA citizen (who relies on mass media: TV, magazines, books, movies and so on), I thought such stories are the exception. Or are they?
UY Scuti: The thread is a zombie from 11 years ago. Things may or may not have changed.
best thread ever. 
So you take it they were the norm for that time. I wonder how things have changed given the financial crisis and its aftermath. As an outsider, I think certain aspects of globalization could have only worsened the situation but I’m not sure.
Didn’t WalMart get sued at some point for not giving legally required breaks and forcing employees to work off the clock?
I work in a big box store, but it’s a different company. We get one half hour lunch which is rigorously enforced - you MUST take that lunch break. We get two other 15 minute breaks which occasionally will get skipped on an extremely crazy day. Basically, the place is more sane than what you hear about WalMart
I do fear one day some “genius” in corporate will decide that WalMart has the superior business plan and turn us into a clone of that horror.
I avoid WalMart as much as I possibly can.
Betcha that rigorously enforced break is a result of the lawsuits (Wal-Mart and otherwise) scaring other employees with the potential consequences of breaking that law. I work in a corporate environment, and even here I know hourly workers aren’t allowed to skip their breaks, and I believe the threat of an external audit turning up employer violations like this is the agent behind that rule.
Partly lawsuits, but also because some of stores in the company have in-store unions and some do not. In a fit of sanity, someone thought that maybe having comparable rules between the two sorts of stores might be a good thing for consistency’s sake.
While there is plenty to complain about in regards to my current employer they are far from the worst employer ever, and certainly better than many in the same sector. I just hope they don’t go downhill from here.
Another reasonable and rational moderation. This thread was headed for PIT territory anyway…where I will enjoy any further comments.
Have you considered the possibility that you are actually a zombie, who has been dead and resting lo these past 10 years?
How can a store function, when It’s run like this?
Well I’m convinced.