Wal-Mart New Revised No Overtime Policy

Happy late New Year's everyone! While mine was just a marathon of video games, I hope you have found yours more stimulating.

Here I am going to talk about odd quicks that go along in with the retail business. And I am pretty sure it is like this at a lot of places in retail. If you want to futher educate yourself on surviving in retail. I suggest, pretending you care by Norm Feuti.

Today's odd quick is overtime. People who are working paycheck to paycheck love this little word. But at Wal-Mart/Sam's Club, it is like one of George Carlin's 7 dirty words. You know which ones :/. So if you want to engross yourself in toilet humor, Wiki it.

Overtime is considered so dirty associates and managers refer to it by OT. And they no longer used the phrase write up, they call it a coaching. Wow! Like anyone cannot see through the euphemism. Now this actually gets me a bit angry because what a lot of managers do at Sam's Club. And while they do work 50-60 hours (depending on the department), it is not going to kill someone if they have to the finishing touch at the end of someone's shift. That is why they are being paid 30-60K to finish some work that is leftover. Why do I mention this before getting into their system? Because a lot of the Cash Office Supervisors and Managers actually cause people to get more overtime for someone else's extra stuff. In fact I have gotten warned two days ago by the same manager that said he did not care about over time. (At whose expense?) While he did not say it was a verbal coaching, he implied that I could lose my job if I get more. That is not to say he is not a good manager, but I could tell he being led by the operations manager who is bent on getting anyone with a fraction of a second of OT. And there are times when customer or "members" come up to me and ask me questions. So great, if a manager forces me into OT, I could get fired, if a member forces me into OT, I could get fired. I am starting to see why retail has such a high turnover rate.

So members and managers could potentially get me fired, great. Now there is a law that is in California which now applies to Nevada's Sam's Clubs and Wal-Marts as well. For any associate that makes over $10.50, they cannot work more than 40 hrs. However, since I make less than that, I have to abide by additional clauses. For anyone making under $10.50, they cannot work more than a maximum of 8.0 hours in a day. This also means that their corporate Sun Down rules is utterly pointless.

Sun Down means that the associate must finish all tasks assigned by the end of the shift. So if there is a new task that will take thirty minutes and you only have fifteen to go, you might want to start dusting off that resume. In short, do not take on any new tasks that are not part of the job desciptor. Disreguard Sun Down, do whatever you have and just go home. While Sam Walton might frown on you, he is not around to judge you. Corporate, however, is. So for now on, if someone asks me to do something at the end of my shift, I will refuse. If they so much as ask me to do carts and I only have thirty minutes to go, I will refuse or just do some and leave seven mintues in advance (I need time to put away stuff and whatnot). Here at Sam's Club, overtime is a dirty word.