Walmart Greeter Grabs Customer, Then Fired

[Calum Veteran]

[. . .] It's that simple. [. . .]

It isn't "that simple" at all, considering grabbing the person who attacked you, while falling, after being pushed, is a natural reaction. From what we know, after reading the story, this lady did not intentionally grab the attacker. What happened to this Walmart worker is terrible.

[CrimsonBetrayal]

I have not seen the video, and was not there. Based however on the original article, I would say that if Walmart asked a lady in her 70's to guard an exit on one of the biggest sale days of the year, I'd have to say that Walmart are the ones to blame for creating the circumstance to allow this situation to take place. The customer was annoyed (as happens on these big sale days), and she was told to prevent customers from exiting. She is a greeter, not a security guard.

I think Walmart should have acknowledged that they made a bad business decision and not fired this lady, If she really is this old, the fall could have been fatal to her, so if we want to look at it another way, Walmart put her in a potentially fatal situation willingly and knowingly.

That's my 2c on this.

[Growled Member]

If you've ever had any family who have worked for Wal-Mart (as I have) you quickly learn that they are sucky employers. Their pay scale is not that good, their benefits are terrible and they have no loyalty to any of their employees, regardless of tenure. They are generally a blood sucking blight on the face of the earth.

[Hum]

^ Sounds a lot like McDonald's ... :p

[Growled Member]

^ Sounds a lot like McDonald's ... :p

Just like them.

[ILikeTobacco]

You are missing one very important fact, the employee did not purposely touch the customer. The customer caused the interaction by pushing the employee, the employee was instinctively protecting her well-being something that cannot be considered a premeditated choice.

On the point of age most young employees are discriminated against anyway as they start on lower rates yet can perform better at least physically in most cases than seniors as the work is very basic (in this case meet and greet.)

You forget that there is at least health and safety to take into account as this is something thankfully imposed on the likes of Wallmart. These regulations are of a purely practical nature and consider such things as if a person is capable of carrying out a task asked of them safely taking into account their age and physical restrictions and as the management gave her the job of crowd control they are actually criminally responsible for breaking health and safety regulations that require it to be the task of someone able bodied (please look at the main link for the picture of her if you think she should have been given the task on one of the busiest days of the year.)

What you are saying is that the world is black and white and sadly many of these rules are drawn up with people of the same mentality, people who work at the company H/O but have never spent an hour in a store let alone managed one.

She admits to purposely touching the customer. She touched the customer to keep from failing. She even says in her statement she did it soley for that reason. It doesn't change the fact that she touched the customer which is what she was fired for.

Senior citizens and 18 years olds start at the same ****ty wage, minimum wage.

You are right, the manager that told her to do this shouldn't have. That is a seperate problem though. Regardless of why she was there, she grabbed a customer.

I am not saying the WORLD is black and white. Walmart is not the world. Walmart has polcies like this in place and they know that they can always replace you. They don't care. They fire/hire people faster than McDonalds. If you break a rule, any rule, they fire you on the spot. Is it a ****ty way of doing business? Yes. Is it moral or ethical? No. Is it how big corporations do business? Yes. Welcome to America. The country were people work ****ty jobs for minimum wage.

In America, if you get a job where the only requirement is that you are not on drugs enough to pass a drug test, you can expect to get treated like ****. Not saying it is right, that is just the reality of the situation.

[devHead]

Based on what I've read in this thread alone, they probably already have a policy against their workers forming a union.

Oh yes, I worked for 2 months at a Walmart, and during the initial training period they showed us a video about the evils of labor unions. They made some good points (I've see how unions have actually hurt companies), but for the most part it was basic Walmart propaganda. I have to say, Walmart has done a bang up job of training customers to be disrespectful and rude, because they know as an employee you can do nothing about it.

[chillipig]

She admits to purposely touching the customer. She touched the customer to keep from failing. She even says in her statement she did it soley for that reason. It doesn't change the fact that she touched the customer which is what she was fired for.

Senior citizens and 18 years olds start at the same ****ty wage, minimum wage.

You are right, the manager that told her to do this shouldn't have. That is a seperate problem though. Regardless of why she was there, she grabbed a customer.

I am not saying the WORLD is black and white. Walmart is not the world. Walmart has polcies like this in place and they know that they can always replace you. They don't care. They fire/hire people faster than McDonalds. If you break a rule, any rule, they fire you on the spot. Is it a ****ty way of doing business? Yes. Is it moral or ethical? No. Is it how big corporations do business? Yes. Welcome to America. The country were people work ****ty jobs for minimum wage.

In America, if you get a job where the only requirement is that you are not on drugs enough to pass a drug test, you can expect to get treated like ****. Not saying it is right, that is just the reality of the situation.

Although you have followed up your original comment by saying you don't agree what happened was morally correct, your tone all the way through is defensive of the way Wallmart dealt with this situation.

If a railway worker was pushed in front of a train entering the station by a passenger who was angry at the soft drinks machine being empty and they got crippled followed by sacked would you agree that it was still the fault of the employee who should never have allowed his or her body to come into contact with said train under any circumstances even circumstances not under his/her control?

Also if this same wheelchair bound paraplegic was then sued by all the passengers that were late for work that day because of the clean up job not to mention the withheld pay from the rail company would you still say "Welcome to America"?

If not then why should only the big chain minimum wage payers be allowed to operate this way?

[Growled Member]

In America, if you get a job where the only requirement is that you are not on drugs enough to pass a drug test, you can expect to get treated like ****. Not saying it is right, that is just the reality of the situation.

You hit the nail right on the head. Most of the big corporations run their operations in this way. They do it because they can and no one, and I mean no one, is going to stop them. They pay Congress many millions of dollars a year to make sure they can get away with this crap.

[ILikeTobacco]

If a railway worker was pushed in front of a train entering the station by a passenger who was angry at the soft drinks machine being empty and they got crippled followed by sacked would you agree that it was still the fault of the employee who should never have allowed his or her body to come into contact with said train under any circumstances even circumstances not under his/her control?

Lets keep it in context. The woman wasn't pushed in an attempt by the customer to get her back out of anger. The customer was pushing the woman to stop her from unlawfully detaining her somewhere she didn't want to be which happens to be illegal in the United States. A manager made the (poor)decision to put this woman in this place that should have been done by security and should be punished for that, however, the women still broke the rules and touched a customer. The difference is a min wage worker is a worthless assest because it costs nothing to replace them while dealing with the discrimination lawsuit of not firing her would cost millions. Because of this, everyone gets the same no second chance harsh treatment.

[TEX4S]

Im sure there are some attorneys out there looking to get some quick money & notoriety. They could do some pro bono work. Raise a bunch of stink, make sure the case hits all news channels & they are probably going to get some $$ since Wal-mart wont want to look like the ridiculous behemoth they are - offer her $50,000 & she'll be happy.

Hearing stories like this just reaffirms how lucky I am to be working for the company I do. They will go to great lengths to make sure the employees are happy.

During Katrina, our Louisiana salesperson left her home when everyone else (the smart people) left. The company put her and her entire family in a room @ the Four Seasons for an entire month here in Dallas -

As much as the greeters are made fun of, I actually feel sorry for her & hope she gets what she deserves. What a loathsome company

[Hum]

Why don't I ever get grabbed at Wal-Mart .... :/

[chillipig]

Lets keep it in context. The woman wasn't pushed in an attempt by the customer to get her back out of anger. The customer was pushing the woman to stop her from unlawfully detaining her somewhere she didn't want to be which happens to be illegal in the United States. A manager made the (poor)decision to put this woman in this place that should have been done by security and should be punished for that, however, the women still broke the rules and touched a customer. The difference is a min wage worker is a worthless assest because it costs nothing to replace them while dealing with the discrimination lawsuit of not firing her would cost millions. Because of this, everyone gets the same no second chance harsh treatment.

Why would firing the employee prevent a lawsuit? The customer can sue regardless.

I'm pretty sure putting the meet & greeter in a position where she has to make a split second decision by choosing either her health or her job by touching or not touching the customer is a blatant abuse of her human rights.

Wallmart have broken both US and International laws here and regardless of how textbook you want to see it Wallmart do not have the right to make such rules, its like them insisting all employees do 200 press ups if they take more than 2 minutes in the toilet.

All right minded people should comdemn the treatment of this poor woman for the sick torture it is.

[Guest nicconics]

Why would firing the employee prevent a lawsuit? The customer can sue regardless.

I'm pretty sure putting the meet & greeter in a position where she has to make a split second decision by choosing either her health or her job by touching or not touching the customer is a blatant abuse of her human rights.

Wallmart have broken both US and International laws here and regardless of how textbook you want to see it Wallmart do not have the right to make such rules, its like them insisting all employees do 200 press ups if they take more than 2 minutes in the toilet.

All right minded people should comdemn the treatment of this poor woman for the sick torture it is.

The bad thing is, you don't have human rights anymore in the US as a worker. I am not advocating unions, as they have done as much bad as they have done good, but it seems without them a company can do what it wants to do regardless. You have companies now that if you get hurt on the job, they can fire you without paying for your care, or if they decide to, drop your pay to minimum wage on a 'whim' welcome to the good ol' US of A. Land of the free....

[ryokurin]

Walmart is probably one of the worst corporations to work for.

It's not as bad as people make it out to be. It's competitive to what other minimal wage jobs pay in the same area and the benefit prices are comprable as well. When you are only making 19-21k a year (which is common for almost any retail job) that extra 30-50 dollars a check for various benefits begin to sting. I worked at various walmarts for almost 5 years and compared to the other retail stores I worked at it's no different. About the only ones who pay exceptionally well is Costco and Whole Foods.

[Hum]

^ Is that why Wal-Mart has been sued and fined for employee treatment ?

[ryokurin]

Probably should point out too that she likely was going to be fired soon anyways as Wal-Mart eliminated greeters back in February. If they were able, they could do stock but with most of them being elderly I'm sure most were let go.

[Hum]

^ Thank goodness they eliminated greeters ! They were damned annoying. I don't want a cart shoved at me ...

[ryokurin]

^ Is that why Wal-Mart has been sued and fined for employee treatment ?

Yes they were, but that was in the late 90s and early 00s. And I did take part in the lawsuits and received compensation for some of it. But from experience from working in other stores a lot of managers at other companies try to pull the same crap to workers who don't know their rights. They aren't innocent, but you should just say that retail in general treats their employees badly because they can always replace you.

[SirEvan]

why was a 73 year old woman, who's body is frail, put on guard duty at Wall mart on black friday? That manager should be fired.

[*RedBull*]

Too bad the old lady didn't get a Web Redemption on Tosh.O. :((

[Hum]

They aren't innocent, but you should just say that retail in general treats their employees badly because they can always replace you.

And customers can replace the stores they shop at. :)

[Growled Member]

It's not as bad as people make it out to be. It's competitive to what other minimal wage jobs pay in the same area and the benefit prices are comprable as well.

Walmart is one of the richest companies in the world, yet they can only manage to pay minimum wage?