"Do you love Walmart?"
"Do you love Walmart?" I was watching a special about Walmart on CNBC. This question was asked by a Walmart company higher-up to a floor worker at one of their stores. I was appalled. It's not enough that you pay them five or six bucks an hour and make them wear that smiley face. The debasement comes, too, in a test of your loyalty and faith: do you love Walmart?
An employer has a reasonable expectation that an employee will perform well and when that includes customer service, service with a smile. That's part of the job. But that's not enough for this company: Do you love Walmart?
How is that person expected to respond? What is she going to say? "No, I think you suck and I'm doing this because I can't find anything else right now." So what's the purpose behind the question if there's realistically only one answer?
Other memorable scenes: employees in a newly-opened store in China clapping and chanting the Walmart slogan. In another store, they were singing Walmart's praises -- to the tune of Beethoven's "Ode to Joy." OMFG.
It's not enough that they own most of your life anyway, they want your soul. Perhaps it could be amusing if they weren't one of the nation's largest employers and one of the world's largest retailers. And if it wasn't part of an overall trend of the degradation of workers in the name of capitalism and free trade. Here's a thought: if you really treated your employees well, you wouldn't need to force them to say good things about you.
An employer has a reasonable expectation that an employee will perform well and when that includes customer service, service with a smile. That's part of the job. But that's not enough for this company: Do you love Walmart?
How is that person expected to respond? What is she going to say? "No, I think you suck and I'm doing this because I can't find anything else right now." So what's the purpose behind the question if there's realistically only one answer?
Other memorable scenes: employees in a newly-opened store in China clapping and chanting the Walmart slogan. In another store, they were singing Walmart's praises -- to the tune of Beethoven's "Ode to Joy." OMFG.
It's not enough that they own most of your life anyway, they want your soul. Perhaps it could be amusing if they weren't one of the nation's largest employers and one of the world's largest retailers. And if it wasn't part of an overall trend of the degradation of workers in the name of capitalism and free trade. Here's a thought: if you really treated your employees well, you wouldn't need to force them to say good things about you.
posted by Daniel wbc at 7:42 AM
2 Comments:
We have been boycotting the for years now.
Locking in illegal aliens at night to clean theirs store, unfair competition practices, killing Mom & Pop shops, paying female managers less than males, teaching their employees how to game the system to get state benefits so Walmart doesn't have to pay them.....all were enough for us to never darken their doors again.
Oh, we don't go near them. For all the reasons you mentioned and more.
That being said, I don't know that I could cast judgment on a single mother of three who needs stuff ... I mean, I'm glad I can afford to avoid them. I guess the worst thing is to know how horrible they are and yet be forced economically to shop there.
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