Summer Jobs, WAL-MART, and "The Club:" All Things Considered Pt. 1

It's been about three and a half months since I began applying for jobs in this "shit-market" economy, finally settling on a job as a cashier at the local Sam's Club. As a "temporary" employee (not on the books per se, but thanks be to God I go back to college in the fall), I have little to fear regarding losing my job insofar as it is by no means my main source of income; that is, I remain a dependent, after all. However, my intention here -- like many former "associates" at WAL-MART Stores, Inc. -- is to discuss my experience at the store in hopes that it may serve some greater purpose. America is, after all, a democratic republic. The opinions of the majority do matter, I hope, to some extent.

I began work at Sam's Club about four days ago after a two and half month hiring process. From what I remember, I applied in mid-May online. My application was at first ignored due to the fact that I did not have "open avaliability," which was partly due to the fact that I asked for a few hours off on Sunday for church. My first interview was in mid-June with an MSS with the second interview some time in late June or early July.

None of this, however, is relavent; my purpose is to discuss my experience at Sam's Club and that of some of the other employees whose names I refuse to disclose. Thus, I began officially on the 20th of July with "orientation," which consisted primarily of paperwork and CBL's. After doing three days of work at Water Country in Portsmouth, NH, I welcomed the opportunity to not only be inside, but to also be forced to take a fifteen-minute break every two hours on top of my normal thirty-minute lunch break. I thought Sam's would be better than Wal-Mart due to its rate of pay (I started at $9.50/hr, which is a few dollars above the current minimum wage even after the recent changes in July 2009) and the better things I had heard about the place.

Every employee begins with CBL's (computer-based learning), which are basically WAL-MART Stores, Inc.'s method of teaching "associates" to do the necessary tasks for their jobs without having them actually interact with other associates or customers. One, that is to say, does not need to "learn by doing" in this case; one is taught to follow Sam Walton's aspirations blindly via a computer program. CBL's cover how to use the cash registers, handle food, etc., as well as certain "moral issues" in the work place like theft, harrasment, gender discrimination, the "three goals" of Sam's Club/Wal-Mart including -- but not limited to -- "respect for the individual," unions and unionizing, etc. After being bombarded with these things for about twelve hours in the first two days, I found it rather difficult to not become somewhat "brainwashed." I found myself sitting in front of the monitor on Tuesday thinking: "This isn't all that bad; Wal-Mart seems to have improved." The CBL's discussed how it was WAL-MART Stores, Inc.'s policy to respect associates by following federal and state laws regarding worker's rights, but most of these statements are meant to scare the worker to abide by each of these laws in order to attempt to escape termination and little more. For instance, failing to take your half-hour meal break can result in termination if not taken before the five-hour mark in your shift, even if your area is not covered by another associate. Likewise, one cannot work overtime even if one's hours force one to do so. Again, such actions can result in termination. The same goes for working off the clock, etc. The implication of termination is, obviously, that WAL-MART Stores, Inc. is innocent, and it was quite obviously the associate's responsibility that s/he failed to leave the store before the 40-hour mark, even if it was completely impossible for said worker to leave his/her job due to issues in scheduling.

The ironic thing about overtime and working off the clock is that while it is terminable offense to do either in most cases, Wal-Mart and Sam's Clubs are almost always understaffed. On my first day on the register, I found myself becoming incredibly stressed to keep up, even though the lines were not that long. The issue being, of course, that there were only three cashiers on at the time. Perhaps it was not particularly busy, but this is a common problem. Why? Because the $200,000+ Sam's Club earns daily is not enough money to hire a sufficient number of employees to deal with busy days, even though that is more than enough money to pay for the mediocre wages of most Club associates.

I will begin on unions later. That's all for now, folks!