Oops

Despite the stress of dealing with disgruntled customers, I preferred working at the customer service desk to the monotony of cashiering. So I was happy when I was offered a primary placement there, just a few weeks after training in customer service. There was grumbling among some of the women who also worked on the desk since this promotion officially bumped me ahead of several of them who had far more experience than my 2 1/2 months. This included a far more qualified woman who had worked two stints at the store for a total of six years, and had been requesting this very position for some time now. But my stint here came to an abrupt end since I was never “coded” on the desk in the computer, even though I had been granted the promotion. So when an opening came up one of the assistant manager’s went and filled the position with a new transfer from the night shift. Rather than correct her higher-up, the front-end manager ambushed me on my way back from break with the question “How would you like to go back to Layaway?” I gave a cool “I guess so,” because I had been back in layaway before.

For a few days during the pre-Christmas rush I was thrown into Layaway without any training and told to “do what I could.” Considering, I did fairly well, serving as a runner to pick up the packages and also figuring out how to run the register. They always had to push the limits though, and one particularly rough evening I found myself as the only one scheduled to deal with a long line of people and close down the desk, something I had no clue how to do. (Touchingly, two girls who I didn’t get along with especially well broke their plans and stayed late on a Saturday night to help me out...) On the whole, Layaway was a pretty stressful place, due to long lines and understaffing, which were even more acute here than in most deparments. The problem stemmed from the thousands of packages being stored in many random locations, both in and outside the store, because of a crunch for space. Unlocking and searching shipping containers with a flashlight in freezing temperatures may rank as the single most unpleasant task of my tenure at WAL-MART. My catching a cold almost immediately sealed the deal: I hated Layaway.

But I digress, because this wasn’t even the main reason that I didn’t want to move to Layaway. As I have said before, I liked the service desk for all of the action; I got a lot of great material working there. This was why I had passed on the position in the photo lab, something I certainly wouldn’t have done if I had known I would soon be banished to Layaway. Back in my conversation with the front-end manager, my less than enthusiastic response must have been obvious, because she had my favorite CSM take me aside to take the fall. Clearly upset at being forced into such a position, she apologized for not “coding” me to the front desk, which triggered this unfortunate chain of events. While accepting full responsibility, in a more candid moment she admitted it wasn’t technically her fault, but rather something that slipped by everyone and came about due to a lack of communication. I tried unsuccessfully to ease her concern, telling her it wasn't a big deal and convincing myself that being “cross-trained” in another department would probably give me a better grasp of operations.

This experience is relevant for two reasons. The first is that it shows how poorly WAL-MART treats its employees and what little regard is given to their feelings. Equally importantly, my bouncing around points to yet another scam. I contend that my not being “coded” for the service desk was not a mistake, but a purposeful omission. The Service Desk is listed as a Pay Grade 4, as opposed to the Pay Grade 3 of cashiers, a difference of 20 cents per hour. A small amount perhaps, but it adds up when you consider that there are four of us associates who work largely at the desk but are not paid extra for it. I am further convinced that this is the case since they pulled the same shit for another raise that was coming to me. When I was hired as a temporary cashier I was told that I would receive an evaluation no later than 90 days in, the time when raises are rewarded. My 90th day came and went without mention; ultimately due to these convenient mistakes I would end up leaving the company before ever receiving a single raise.