Vantaggi
* Anonymous environment may be great for those who are working here seasonally or very temp--not a place to go to get comfortable with coworkers. * An incredibly vast amount of great info and policy on their intranet Wire... but they manage to turn this into one of their worst offenses. * Interviews are easy. Not much eye contact and the standard idiotic questions, which are read verbatim from a sheet of paper spat out by corporate command and filled in dutifully with check marks regardless of your answers. Most positions are not exactly competitive--coming into the company is usually coming into their entry-level jobs like cashier or stock associate. These jobs are staffed by huge groups of orientation and the in and out is constant due to either moving up into the numerous levels of unnecessary so-called management/supervisor positions or people who just quit. * At my location at least, there were some great people involved with the management and the employee pools. There were a lot of people I personally did not like or want to work with, but for the most part, the occasional conversation was easy to make, and I enjoyed learning from many people. Even those who I think contributed to the bad points were good people, and many appeared to be caught up in the corporate tangle and unable to free themselves to make any difference. * Again at my location for lack of experience in the other stores, there was a surprising lack of catty infighting or obvious problems in office politics. They heavily emphasize the prohibition of romantic association between manager and employee, and perhaps this carries over to a strong guard against too many interpersonal relationships at all. This combined with the anonymous assembly line feel of the employment at least did not produce the typical annoyances in those office politics.
Svantaggi
I'll try to focus on what I consider system wide failures of the WM corporation and current situation. For one, the main feelings I had at the end of each work day were ones of shame and degradation. There were some occasions that I would say only that I felt/feel violated, though it's not the immediate association that one would have--no sexual harassment or physical bullying, and even a lack of interpersonal bullying based on social status within the frame. Instead, it was a mechanical following of procedure down to a degree that made me feel that a machine was coldly using only policy and never a personal regard when determining if I was meeting expectations, especially in dress code. The dress code itself is not horrible--the navy/royal blue top of some sort and khakis. We were told during orientation that dressing up is fine--i.e. I could wear a dress and heels. However, upon being finally dismissed from "training," and entering the pharmacy, I learned about the fact that no personal bags or purses were allowed, and no jackets. After a few days of wearing a sweater jacket and arthritis gloves, I was told both had to go. The gloves especially were difficult to accept. I do have arthritis, which is caused by psoriasis and my hands are the most affected for both. The lesions and broken, bleeding sores of the psoriasis during a flare is difficult for me to go out with--I feel so ugly and gross that it is difficult to operate. This was occuring between a medication change, which caused a flare, and since this winter is atrocious, the pain was definitely a factor for me as well. I was told that of course I could wear them--after I manage to make a trip specially to see my doctor and obtain the proper forms that "allowed" me to wear these very thin fingerless gloves, and that during this process I would be forced to convince management of WHY i needed them, and the shame of the personal feelings was nervewracking. I could not afford either the time or the money to make a trip to the doctor, and I dreaded the events of this official request process so much that I just didn't wear them. Pharmacy regulations are a bit different, and I was told that some positions didn't have to follow the same ones I would. For instance, some managers told me that the employees were allowed to have bottled water (why only water? I don't know). For others, it appeared to be acceptable to dress within code with slight "extras" such as my sweater jacket. However, in pharmacy, not only were we not allowed to have drinks at all, but also could not bring our jackets or purses to even hang in the specially assigned pharmacist bathroom adjacent to the pharmacy. I'm a heavy drinker anyway and always feel the need to have a sip at hand. However, combined with a flu I got almost immediately, it was excruciating to wait hours until I was able to get a drink from the tiny little locker we were allowed in the very back of the store. However, this was the way it was commanded, and apparently the reasons most people have never questioned it is that they felt the need to keep their jobs and feared retaliation. Walmart keeps its policy on its intranet, the Wire. However, this can ONLY be accessed while on the clock and at work, never at home or to come in off the clock or on breaks. Therefore, for me at least, it was impossible to access these policies. Very bad thinking and I felt that I was purposely blinded from the official documentation even tho the biggest effect would have HELPED me in my job. See, at my pharmacy, there were reports done on regular basis, but unfortunately only one person may know the routines. Seriously, there was never a cross trained other employee or even a tiny little note to help explain processes. No one ever knew anything. When I attempted to find out more info, I was tattled by my coworkers who claimed that since I also attempted to see what the pharmacist tech official walmart program was, and yet still had some work to do, it was making them mad. WTF? This was an effort to improve myself at the same position, and to find info on how to do the jobs I was "not doing." I'm still not sure who exactly had it out for me, and many experiences left me feeling not only degraded and stuck, but also distrustful and alone. Oh, so much more I can say. But I'll save everyone's time by just suggesting that you really think when you accept a position from WM.
