Turnover
...s so busy worrying about low pay increases and budget cuts that they don’t see people as people anymore all that they can see now is dollar signs that used to resemble a person. In fact upper management just implemented a new pay plan last year that cuts the long term associates throat. Before their new plan a employee could get as much as a five percent raise per year depending on performance. And if that same associate was a hard worker they could have even earned a merit raise, which can also go as high as five percent, so that would be a nice raise for the hard working type that actually did earn their keep. Now though, it’s a whole different story, its no longer on a percentage its merely by the cents. Associates all receive the same pay increases no matter how hard they work. The highest raise any associate can get now is fifty five cent per year. That will barely even cover the cost of living increases. Merit raises are a thing of the past now for old money bags WM. At a store with six hundred employees there is now a percentage of how many can now receive a merit raise. That percentage is now set at five percent, now lets do the math five percent of six hundred (on average) associates at our local Festus store, can only receive a merit raise. That’s only 30 people per year that can receive a merit raise for their hard work. Tell me that that’s not unfair to the rest of the employees. I had a doctors appointment a few weeks ago and I had to have a lump checked out the I was afraid could have been cancerous. I made the doctors appointment within their given network and I even had to drive thirty mile to get there. I thought that since I paid over a hundred dollars every pay day for medical insurance that I would at least try and use it. I now wonder what was the point of even paying for their health care. I got my bill the other day and to my dismay Wal Mart only paid twelve dollars on a three hundred dollar medical bill in their own *&^% network. WHAT am I doing paying for this I asked myself. I tried to cancel their so called medical insurance that doesn’t even cover prescriptions at all. When I discovered that there is no canceling until next year, when open enrollment comes around again. Now suppose that the company of Wal Mart were to for some reason raise prices and not keep it for there own profit and actually try and do something with it, there are ideas out there that make a lot of sense. I read one the other day that if they were to raise all prices on their products by a mere half a cent that that would generate enough money to have a decent medical plan at least. Why not you know, companies a quarter of their size have great medical benefits, and don’t have to pay for prescriptions even. Wow what a concept, medical insurance that actually does what its there for, insure. I worked with my cousin when I first started Wal Mart back in 2001, we used to work our rear ends off to make sure that the customer was happy and that we worked hard for our $6.15 an hour. We cut meat and cooked chicken all day long for a wage that kept us in poverty. I was the only provider in my family of three, and he was in the same bracket. We both had little money to make ends meet and there were times that both of us used to snack on food that would have been thrown away anyhow. He unfortunately, was caught up as a thief as they saw it. I guess if you look it in a literal sense we both were, but we had to do what we had to do to not go hungry. They pulled him in the office when he got caught and asked him why he was stealing food. He replied that he had no money to buy any food and was sorry for what he had done. Nonetheless he was fired and became an example for “thieves” in the Wal Mart ranks. My Dad just got a job in DeSoto, Wal Mart and during his orientation the store manager told a story about an ex associate at a store he used to work at that used to steal food and got caught. He went on to talk about how the associate worked in the deli and was a good worker, but he still was a thief. I guess they didn’t notice that the food was going to be thrown away anyway. Who cares about a underpaid Wal Mart worker anyway. That’s going a little too much into detail though I think, the problem still lies in our turnover and it causes. Causes I think,...