Interesting Walmart Article

[billbenson]

An employees story about working at Walmart for two years, how they operate, and that he liked it.

I Worked at Walmart for Two Years and I Actually Really Liked It - Yahoo! Finance (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/i-worked-at-walmart-for-two-years-and-i-actually-really-liked-it.html)

[cbscreative]

Interesting, yes—true, the evidence isn't favorable.

[billbenson]

The conclusion I drew from the article is that as a college student, he could learn the inner workings of a very well run company. That is very different than the poor guy who can't find a better paying job and is stuck with Walmart as his only option. I think it would be a very interesting place to work in security there as a college kid. Walmart obviously monitors employees and shoppers via their camera system. I would love to see the processes they have in place for doing that. You never see a Walmart employee sluffing off. It's gotta be because management keeps an eye on them via the camera systems.

[Dan Furman]

I worked in a stand-alone retail store similar to walmart. Busy discount place, 300,000 sq ft, 25 registers open on weekends, all jammed. It was a great job. And like any other job, if you were the type that just didn;t work hard, you were left behind by guys like me, who actually cared about doing good work.

it's like any job - you get out what you put in.

[billbenson]

When my career ended in the dot com crash of 1999, I had the worst job of my life. The owner who was also my boss made a point of berating employees in front of others. Some mornings I would come in to see holes punched in the walls. I didn't fit in and was eventually "politely" fired.

However, I worked there when sales were shifting from direct sales to internet. He was smart. The company was online sales of wifi products. He had a very good web site for the era which generated all sales. He also had very good internal processes set up where every order went through several hands and was checked and double checked. About 35 employees. He was making a lot of money. If anybody in the loop screwed up you could hear him from 50 ft away literally screaming in their face like you would see on some cop show. I had dental insurance but wasn't allowed to leave to go to the dentist on company time.

However, I learned an incredible amount from that job. The first thing I did after leaving or perhaps even before was buy some web design books. That led to studying php mysql as well because I could see the power of databases early on. I also learned a lot about putting processes in place to prevent errors in orders, shipping, on time delivery etc. He ran a very smart operation.

While I didn't do what you did Dan and put my all into the job, I walked away having learned a lot and have implemented a lot of that into my business. I'm kind of surprised I never punched the guy though :)

[cbscreative]

The conclusion I drew from the article is that as a college student, he could learn the inner workings of a very well run company. That is very different than the poor guy who can't find a better paying job and is stuck with Walmart as his only option.


it's like any job - you get out what you put in.

True, your reason for being there, how long you intend to stay, and attitude make all the difference. I've had some crappy jobs, but each of them in some way prepared me for facing different types of challenges and circumstances. Working in retail or hospitality is an opportunity to truly develop people skills and discover the true nature of the general public (it's an effective cure for idealism). There are customers that make it their mission to be difficult and make your job harder. When you can deal with that, very little else will faze you.

[queenvictoria]

Aside from the public scrutiny that Walmart receives, there are some good things that can come from working there. I haven't worked at a discount place similar to a Walmart, but I have worked my fair share of service jobs. More importantly I knew plenty of people who did work these types of jobs and they did learn a lot about customer service which translates into the business world. Responsibility, treating customers kind, and hard work, are all elements of the business world that some people simply don't learn at a young enough age. The application process for these companies is grueling because they are looking for people who ARE serious about the job. The pay is not superb, but as far as a 'job' goes, it is decent.

Working any job is going to come with a lot of the same stresses and problems, and learning how to solve these at a young age is useful. Since Walmart puts their emphasis on conflict resolution and interpersonal relationships, this is a job that can be incredibly useful to aspiring business workers and owners. Attitude is everything in the business world and having the right one goes a long way, whether its Walmart or any other job.

[Watchdog]

Excellent Article, thanks for the link.

Take the customer by the hand and show them the way. It don't get any better than that.

I have worked with a lot of people that just don't get it, often including my own children.