Quote:
Originally Posted by Manabi
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Costco treats their employees very well from what I've heard. Wal-mart treats their employees just awful. I worked at one for about two years, and discovered all kinds of horrible policies they have. Such as: absences for medical reasons are only excused if management approves it. You can have a doctor's note, and they'll still declare it an unexcused absence. Had that happen to me when my recovery from a surgery lasted longer than expected. They are probably one of the most employee-hostile employers in the whole country.
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I can't believe that I'm about to take up for Walmart . . . .
Yes, Costco does treat their employees better, from what I've heard. For one thing, I think that they pay them more per hour.
My impression, in the nearly 10 years that I was an insider, is that a lot of employee happiness depended upon the quality of, once again, the local management. Money and benefits aren't everything; much of an employee's happiness depends upon such things as how much their supervisors and managers praised them and otherwise seemed to appreciate them. IMHO, that was sorely lacking in some stores. I have to feel that that was because of the failure of upper management to adequately train the lower management.
IMHO, Walmart provided better pay and benefits than they had to. At least, that they had to in order to be able to hire all of the employees that they needed. How much they had to do for political reasons (to keep politicians, advocacy groups, etc.) off of their backs was a different matter. I think that the pay and, especially benefits, was especially good for part-time employees. How many companies do you know which give employees vacation time (It maxxed out at 4 weeks, if I'm not mistaken)? Offered personal leave (unpaid) up to something like 26 weeks? Offered a matching program for stock purchases? Contributed to a 401K on their behalf, without any contributions being required on the employees' part? Walmart, during my time with them, at least, did all of those things for part-time employees. And, part-time employees were eligible for medical insurance after a certain, relatively short length of employment. And their medical insurance was stout and inexpensive, due to in large part to the fact that the company heavily subsidized it.
During the time that I was with the company, I am almost certain that
no absences were excused, according to company policy. The employee was allowed a certain amount of absences within, I think, a 5-month rolling period. If an employee got more than that, he or she was subject to being fired; but, I think that that generally didn't happen until the employee had been "coached" (reprimanded) at least a time or two. If any absences were excused, it seems to me that it must have been because of a local management policy. But, personal leaves for even short periods of absence were readily available.
Don't think that I have developed a kindly disposition toward Walmart since my earlier posts on this thread, I haven't. I'm just interested in truth and fairness. I easily could share with you some things that I observed and/or experienced during my time with them that are very negative.