In the Summer of 1981, I had the opportunity of a lifetime, I met Mr. Sam during my time in Western Arkansas in one of his stores, he put the four words to how I was raised and lived my life "Respect For The Individual". I am launching "Respect For The Individual" in honor of that moment in my life, I learned so much in minutes from Mr. Sam. Thank You!
As you read "My Walmart Story", think about these four words, words to live all aspects of your life by.
Editor's Note – we have updated the original story to add information from a November/December 2019 interaction with Walmart, the company finally opened an Open Door issue on this case some seven years after the fact.
"Respect For The Individual" - My Walmart Story
20 May 2019 - Mark W.
Copyright © 2015 & 2019 – It’s Not
Sam’s Walmart…..Anymore!
One of Mr. Sam’s Basic Beliefs is “Respect For The Individual”.
Think about this as we relate the story of a now former overnight Customer Service Manager at the 180th & West Center Road store in Omaha, Nebraska with over 10 years of service.
Overnight shift on the night of May 12, 2012 into May 13th was proceeding like any late Saturday night duty, not enough associates on shift, and too much freight, that was the norm for this store after its award winning Store Manager transferred in 2009.
As this CSM went to purchase some stuff for his late night meal break, the cashier said the following to him
“since your gay, have you become a Democrat since the President said he was for same sex marriage”?
Say what?
This CSM is divorced, has two children. This cashier was well aware of those facts.
On top of this associate asking that question to this CSM, her direct Supervisor, she also asked a number of other associates on staff that night that she thought were gay the same thing.
Incident was reported to the Shift Manager, the Store Manager, the District Market Director, Walmart’s Home Office, even the Walmart Board of Directors, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s Office in St. Louis.
Do you think any of the above took action?
Absolutely not.
In the aftermath of the report, the overnight management team of this store took retaliatory actions against this CSM.
Forcing him to change his schedule, assigning more work to him than his duty hours would allow, not approving vacation days, as well as denying him promotion to accounting, not once, but twice, despite the leads in accounting recommending him for the promotion.
Further to this, even though this CSM notified Management that due to the incident he could not, by the company’s ethics policies, have any involvement in future coaching or conducting the annual review of this associate, he was forced to.
This CSM reported the conduct, as required, while still under employment to the Ethics Hotline, which failed to respond.
Due to Store Management, District Management, and Walmart Home Office’s HR Management’s lack of response, and lack of taking any action, this CSM was left with no choice but to tender his resignation.
But this wasn’t the only episode of harassment that occurred over the 10 plus years, when the store opened in 2001 it was already a toxic environment, but back then reports of the harassment were dealt with, costing not one, but two store managers their positions.
From 2003 to 2009, the store’s third Manager, who firmly followed Mr. Sam’s “Respect for the Individual” belief. Store went from one of the worst to best, winning multiple awards, and having the lowest associate turnover rate of any Walmart store.
But in 2009, our award winning Manager transferred to a store closer to his family and home in the Kansas City Metro area (note, it was in sad shape too when I visited, but months later this manager’s award winning leadership style righted that store too), and the toxic environment began to return.
It was to the point in 2012, not many would take their breaks in the lounge. What few associates in there were talking about their escapees with their “partners”, and who was gay, lesbian, whatever.
Ask yourself, would you want to work in this type on an environment?
This is a classic case of Walmart dropping the ball and hoping the problem it refuses to address will go away.
It will not.
Now Walmart Shareholders have an opportunity to step up and strengthen broken policies, the first step is to vote for Proposal #4 and hold Walmart’s liberal leadership accountable for indicident of sexual harassment such as mine.
January 2020 Story Update
In
November 2019, I was contacted by a Robert Stoud, an Associate Relations Case
Manager with the Open Door Helpline. A case
had been finally opened for me relating to the issues noted in the article.
Mr.
Stoud was more concerned with getting the case closed quickly, than doing what
should have been done in such a serious issue, that being researching and
resolving it at his level.
Instead
the case was kicked to the Market District People Lead who has yet to contact
me, and I was told to reactivate my application in Walmart’s on line
system. This lead to a poor job offer in
a store over 35 miles away, at a rate of pay over $4.00 and hour less than what
I was at prior to leaving the company in 2012.
(As
a side note here, we will be doing a story on that store, and the slave wages
it pays soon!)
This
job offer was rammed down my throat, without any consideration for when I would
be able to start, which was not the date they chose. After finding out it was the day after
Christmas, and I was committed to being out of town, I declined the offer.
Like
What Happened Here?
If
you don’t, call Robert Stoud at 479-258-0376 or e-mail at Robert.Stoud@walmart.com and Kristi
at 402-970-5321 and demand they make things right with Mark Stevens immediately.
