(Hard) Lessons Learned as a Walmart Operations Manager
Pros
Coming from a 20+ year military career, I chose Walmart as an employer based upon several factors. Top on my list was the fact that, with the sheer size of the company (2.2 million employees in the U.S.), there were processes and procedures in place on how to do (almost) everything (i.e. no lack of resources/guidance). Next, with so many opportunities available from shelf stocker to CEO, Walmart appeared to be the type of company that you could have a second career with (plenty of room to move up). Lastly, compensation was reasonable for what the (advertised) work hours were.
Cons
No work-life balance. Twelve to thirteen hour-a-day, four day a week position turned into a twelve+ hour, five day a week grind. (Do the math, but the average work week was around 60-65 hours.) Managers were expected to keep their Associate's (employee's) hours as low as possible (makes sense for driving corporate profitability while minimizing costs), but were then expected to finish the work after they had let their employees go. With attendance issues, we over-hired to ensure we had enough manpower to get the job done, but then cut hours across the board or asked for people to take days off to keep the total shift hours in check. (No wonder there was little worker loyalty.) Additionally, managers were just that, not leaders. They did not inspire their employees to do their best, but rather utilized a draconian "accountability system" to keep workers in line. I understand the need to track poor performance but, in many instances, it appeared to be more of a means to intimidate employees to toe the line. They would never use the term "write up" an employee as that is a "union term" (Walmart is not unionized), but that is basically what you are doing. I your superior felt you did not adequately "hold someone accountable"/punish them, they in turn would "write you up."
