Walmart Greeter Grabs Customer, Then Fired

[Nagisan]

It doesn't matter why the reason is she is touched the customer. All Walmart cares about is that she touched the customer which is strickly forbidden under their policies. Break any rule in a large corporation, and you can expect to be promptly fired. They are strick about the no touching policy because it leads to major lawsuits.

So if someone bumped into you (and you were an employee), pushing you into a customer, Walmart would fire you?

Sounds like they need to rework their policies.

[ILikeTobacco]

So if someone bumped into you (and you were an employee), pushing you into a customer, Walmart would fire you?

Sounds like they need to rework their policies.

If you get into a simple non heated argument with a customer, and the customer complains, they will fire you. Walmart is as cold as it gets when it comes to a corporation. They avoid litigation at all costs. By putting it in their policies, they can fire you for it and you have no way to argue against it.

Think about the likely progress of those events. It would require for the person the employee bumps into to complain. At that point, they are mad and enough time has passed that the first person that pushed the employee is no longer around to take the blame. The customer, however unreasonable, wants blood if they are to the point of complaining to management. The customer is always right.

[Xilo]

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

[Nagisan]

If you get into a simple non heated argument with a customer, and the customer complains, they will fire you. Walmart is as cold as it gets when it comes to a corporation. They avoid litigation at all costs. By putting it in their policies, they can fire you for it and you have no way to argue against it.

Think about the likely progress of those events. It would require for the person the employee bumps into to complain. At that point, they are mad and enough time has passed that the first person that pushed the employee is no longer around to take the blame. The customer, however unreasonable, wants blood if they are to the point of complaining to management. The customer is always right.

That's why they have security cameras. Given the situation I mentioned above, I would sue Walmart for loss of wages, and use the security footage as proof that I did nothing wrong. They would either have to supply the security footage or lose the case anyway.....either way the point is if Walmart is that adamant on firing employees with no good/fair reason, the ex-employees can fight and win cases against them using their own security footage against them.

Honestly, you sit here and argue that the customer is always right, well no, when security footage proves the customer wrong, they are not right. I don't care about Walmart policies, what you are saying is basically it is Walmarts policy to get rid of employees just because a customer came into the store upset, even then the employee did nothing wrong.....if that's the case, no wonder Walmart is one of the worst companies to work for.

[ILikeTobacco]

That's why they have security cameras. Given the situation I mentioned above, I would sue Walmart for loss of wages, and use the security footage as proof that I did nothing wrong. They would either have to supply the security footage or lose the case anyway.....either way the point is if Walmart is that adamant on firing employees with no good/fair reason, the ex-employees can fight and win cases against them using their own security footage against them.

Honestly, you sit here and argue that the customer is always right, well no, when security footage proves the customer wrong, they are not right. I don't care about Walmart policies, what you are saying is basically it is Walmarts policy to get rid of employees just because a customer came into the store upset, even then the employee did nothing wrong.....if that's the case, no wonder Walmart is one of the worst companies to work for.

If the policy says don't touch the customer for any reason, and you do, its grounds for being fired such as this case. There is nothing to sue for because the women clearly disobeyed the policy. It sucks but thats just how it is when you work for anything larger than a mom and pop shop. You are nothing more than a statistic. If the customer had been hurt, the customer would have had the right to sue Walmart and won. The security footage wouldn't change any of this because it would have shown her grabbing the customer, which again, is against the policy and terms of employment. She broke her contract and go fired for it.

[*RedBull*]

Workers of Walmart need to form a union.

[Nagisan]

Workers of Walmart need to form a union.

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

[Tha Bloo Monkee]

Don't sugar coat it, lol she put her hands on someone else she got what she deserved 100%.

[ILikeTobacco]

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

Not sure how biased this source is but its not surprising. http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0511-03.htm

The arguement Walmart uses is that unions make prices go up significantly which would be passed on to the customer and thus does what it can to prevent them from being formed. Not sure how legal that is though. I thought forming unions was a right but not sure about that.

[chillipig]

How about some common f*cking sense?

This customer pushed someone who was clearly old and could have been seriously injured or even died from such a fall, this should have resulted in her arrest and prosecution for assault.

Wallmart however, as suggested elsewhere in this thread have very likely used it as a reason to sack her for other reasons (lets remember this is the same company that bans any meetings of their staff inside or OUTSIDE work unless a management representative is present, failure to comply with this gets everyone involved immediate dismissal!)

Self defence is everybody's right and its a crying shame this employee didn't punch the customer instead of grabbing on to her and any self respecting manager should have then barred her from shopping in Walmart for life before calling the police.

These national chains are a disgrace, always siding with the customer and encouraging them to behave like Paris Hilton in a perfume shop, its about time they were hit very hard in the pocket with some human rights regulations.

I really feel for for those working in these minimum wage jobs in the US more so than here in the UK as there are literally no workers rights as opposed to very few.

[ILikeTobacco]

How about some common f*cking sense?

Just to make it clear, I am in no way saying what they did is morally/ethically correct. All I am saying is that what they did was perfectly legal and the correct course of action from a business standpoint.

[Navan]

Wow, what kinda nincompoop pushes a 73 year old woman to exit from an entrance? Stupid.

[TurnedMyWorldToBlack]

Wow, what kinda nincompoop pushes a 73 year old woman to exit from an entrance? Stupid.

Wal-Mart customers :)

[briangw]

What is she doing working at 73 anyway?

Heh...Generation X'ers won't be asking that question based on the fact we aren't saving that much compared to the baby boomers....

[chillipig]

Just to make it clear, I am in no way saying what they did is morally/ethically correct. All I am saying is that what they did was perfectly legal and the correct course of action from a business standpoint.

There is more than one way of doing business, if they wanted to act on what they believed to be a criminal offence ei. an assault, they had a responsibility to call the police independently then await the outcome.

The outcome, as it was on video would clearly favour the employee which is why they bullied her out probably threatening to withhold holiday pay or something similar.

I don't understand why people stick up for these scum, it could be your grandmother/aunt who gets hurt by one of these self centred arrogant customers and after 20+ years of putting up all the Wallmart b*llshit, she deserves a medal!

There is no justification for persecuting people in such a way in their daily work, this company is one of the very worst for abusing its staff along with McDonalds in the fast food category and they break the law daily through harassment and discrimination as in this case.

But as far as evil empires go, yes they would consider blackmail and and a whole host of other sickening procedures "the correct course of action."

[nominak]

Workers of Walmart need to form a union.

If workers of walmart even whispered the thought, they'd be fired on the spot.

[Knife Party]

This is why we want to keep the likes of Walmart out of RSA, they have no respect for the employees.

[ILikeTobacco]

There is more than one way of doing business, if they wanted to act on what they believed to be a criminal offence ei. an assault, they had a responsibility to call the police independently then await the outcome.

The outcome, as it was on video would clearly favour the employee which is why they bullied her out probably threatening to withhold holiday pay or something similar.

Wrong. They have a policy saying don't touch customers under any circumstance. It's that simple. Don't try and make it anymore complicated than it is. Regardless if she had a valid reason to touch the customer or not, she broke the rules and was fired for it. Had she not been fired, an 18 year old could have sued Walmart for age discrimination for firing him/her for the same reason. Everyone gets treated the same this way. The fact that she is old is completely irrelevant.

[chillipig]

Wrong. They have a policy saying don't touch customers under any circumstance. It's that simple. Don't try and make it anymore complicated than it is. Regardless if she had a valid reason to touch the customer or not, she broke the rules and was fired for it. Had she not been fired, an 18 year old could have sued Walmart for age discrimination for firing him/her for the same reason. Everyone gets treated the same this way. The fact that she is old is completely irrelevant.

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.

[Hum]

Wow, what kinda nincompoop pushes a 73 year old woman to exit from an entrance? Stupid.

Hey -- she had to get that toaster oven on sale !

[HSoft]

I know, it's just not right. This woman has lost her house and any savings she had because of this incident, despite having paid taxes and contributed to the system. Walmart shouldn't be able to have the power to influence such a decision. As I said, common sense and decency is completely absent here.

It seems in the US they only care about you if you're paying into the system - if anything happens they couldn't care less. This woman worked most of her life and now has nothing to show for it. The system needs to be changed.

It's the same in the UK. If you get fired you don't get unemployment. So does the UK only care if you are paying into the system as well?

[shakey]

It's the same in the UK. If you get fired you don't get unemployment. So does the UK only care if you are paying into the system as well?

In the US, you get unemployment if you get fired, but if you quit, you do not. She most likely doesn't get unemployment, as she is probably receiving SS.

At least, that's how it mostly works. There are situations that will make my statement invalid lol.

[theyarecomingforyou]

Just to make it clear, I am in no way saying what they did is morally/ethically correct. All I am saying is that what they did was perfectly legal and the correct course of action from a business standpoint.

But that's the thing. It wasn't the correct thing to do from a business perspective. For starters they should have had security enforcing a door policy. Even after the fact they should have used their legal department to defend their long-term employee who was assaulted by a customer. Stop defending a company for treating its employees like dirt.

[theyarecomingforyou]

It's the same in the UK. If you get fired you don't get unemployment. So does the UK only care if you are paying into the system as well?

Yes, if the system doesn't recognise someone that has worked for over 20yrs at the same company - particularly when fired in circumstances as questionable as this - then the system is at fault. It fails the common sense test.

[Scorbing]

ST. PETERSBURG, FL - For 22- 1/2 years, Janice Sullivan put her heart and soul into working for Walmart.

"Walmart was my family. I didn't have any other family than them," :( she said.

But last Thanksgiving, Sullivan said she felt abandoned by her employer. As customers packed the store for Black Friday, Janice said managers told her to guard the entrance of the store making sure no customers exited from there. That's when she said one angry customer wouldn't listen.

"I said I'm sorry ma'am you have to go around the registers to go out. She said no I'm going out and then she just gave me a big push," she said.

Three days later, Sullivan said Walmart fired her because she laid her hands on the customer. Sullivan defends herself.

"I grabbed her to keep me from falling. That is why I grabbed her," she said.

Walmart told us in a statement: "Based on the information we have, the situation led to a bad experience for our customer and it could have been avoided. We had to make a tough decision."

Sullivan said the whole incident was caught on tape. When we asked about the video, Walmart told us they would not release the security tape.

At 73, Sullivan tried to collect unemployment, but said she was denied by the state. Since then she had to sell her house and has maxed out her credit cards to make it.

"Nobody wants to hire me," she said.

Walmart said they understand it is a difficult situation, but Sullivan said she will never understand why she was not given a second chance.

Janice Sullivan's neighbors have set up a website to help her with finances: www3.indiegogo.com/Jan-Sullivan2012

source

This only tells you one thing:

Big, greedy corporations like Walmart will stop at nothing to kiss the customer's ass. They don't care if they have to fire someone who has been in the company for 50 long years as long as that customer is happy and comes back every week to buy stuff from them.

Totally wrong and disgusting because, contrary to what Walmart says, the customer isn't always right.