In the article Up Against Wal-Mart, Karen Olsson exposes the largest retailer in the world by listing many of the retailer’s flaws such as worker mistreatment and discrimination. Throughout the article, Olsson uses anecdotes from employees that have worked at the company and statistics to support her arguments. Ultimately Olsson’s piece serves to harshly criticize Wal-Mart due to low pay wages, unpaid overtime, and gender inequality. From the start, Olsson relies on actual employee interviews to support her arguments against Wal-Mart. By introducing Jennifer McLaughlin, a young woman who has been working for Wal-Mart for three years but makes under $17,000 a year, the author builds tension between the worker and the company.
In the essay titled “Labouring the Walmart Way”, author Deenu Parmar explains the unhealthy effects of Walmart, how to stop them, and the challenges of doing so. Parmar begins by detailing how Walmart has done little for local economies. By hiring financially vulnerable people, the franchise insures that no one would dare to unionize; thus ensuring employees will only earn the bare minimum, and thus out-competing local competition. Parmar also goes on to explain how a local community removed Walmart. They were able to do this through the use of fierce union protests that made the store unprofitable.
In her essay “Up Against Wal-Mart,” Karen Olsson claims that the employees of Wal-Mart are mistreated. They are overworked; each has to perform a plethora of duties because their stores are understaffed. She contends that they are not paid according to their heavy work loads, causing them to be disgruntled. Her view is that they are underappreciated and underrepresented, and based on her essay, I have come to agree with her points. From the facts and first hand accounts she presents on employees of Wal-Mart, I agree with her proposition that employees are underappreciated.
Walmart’s customer service is quite awful; Walmart’s shopping experience has become chaotic and unpleasant for consumers. The employees appear as if they don’t want to be there. The lack of joy and delight in the store is felt in the atmosphere. The employees have attitude towards the customers and little patience for them. When in need of help finding an item or having trouble about anything; none of the employees seem to be there.
Olsson shows how difficult it is to get promoted in Walmart, which contributes to her argument that Walmart does not treat their employees as they should. In addition, it shows why employees can’t have better lives because they make minimum wages for a long period, and work extra hours without getting paid for it. Olsson suggests, “he asked for a promotion, but three months later he was still doing the extra work for no extra pay” (6). Olsson’s point is that Walmart employees can’t get promoted even when they try, instead Walmart is using them and make them work harder. Increasingly during her article Olsson makes it clear that Walmart exploits their employees.
Save money. Live better. Working for the one of the largest and most lucrative companies on the face of the planet can be difficult at times. More often than not every time you walk in to a Walmart you will not recognize anyone in there. Screaming red faced babies that can’t have what they want and befuddled customers asking questions that I don’t know the answer to are an everyday occurrence.
First, Olsson’s article and how this represents the mistreatment of its employees. This article discusses how Walmart employees are
There is also discrimination based on religion and nationality in hiring and promotion and daily transactions, which adversely affect the work efficiency So, Wal-Mart administration must put a quick and decisive strategy to solve this problem. 3- Staffing • The staffing system is to support the company in various fields Such as: organizational structure, recruitment, selection, retention and training, performance management, compensation, and career development to contribute to the productivity of workers in the company [4] • In addition, Benefits Packages: Wal-Mart benefit system is comprehensive and very competitive in the industry .The
Wal-Mart has faced numerous lawsuits for inequitable labor. The huge market enterprise values its employees with little respect. For example, it demands for long hours and overtime shifts to meet holiday sales. This is one of the reasons why the company has earned an outstanding profit over the decade. Yet, with all the affluence the company has, it still does not compensate for workers' healthcare benefits nor their low wages.
3.0 One of the most serious allegations of unfair treatment reported by some Wal-Mart employees is that of being asked to work off the clock. This means that employees are pressured to do overtime work for which they do not get paid. Employees are classified into two categories in which they get paid. They are salaried employees and hourly employees. Hourly employees are also known as non-exempt employees and they don’t have a contract.
The difference between both turns out to be $1.40; it might not seem like a big difference at first glance. But if you were to take both wages and calculated how much an individual will earn for working 40 hours which is roughly the standard workweek, the $9.93 will earn almost $400.00 while the wage from Walmart will earn almost about $350.00. That’s about a $50 difference between the two wages which is a huge difference compared to the $1.40 when just comparing the two wages. The difference will obviously grow the more hours and weeks worked. This shows that the employees at Walmart are fairly underpaid compared to other companies that aren’t a big workforce like Walmart has been
One of the worst parts about growing up is the fact that you have to work to survive. Life isn’t free, and it isn’t cheap. However only 54 percent of young adults in America even have jobs. This is due largely to a combination of decreasing job availability and increasing education costs. (1)
The author goes on in detail about Walmart’s employee selection process and the unique attributes they look for. Walmart looks to employee staff that will not look to unionize the company and employees that are afraid they wont be able
The next job I got was at Morton Culver's, and I have now worked there for over a year and a half. While working at Culver’s, I got a second job at Colletts Automotive. I have now worked at Collett’s for over a year. While working two jobs I maintained a “B” average through 3 high school semesters, and even though a semester of college. Having a job can help build responsibility, teach the worth of a dollar, and teach how to budget time.
For instance, the wage for a cashier is now $11.55 which is only slightly higher than the minimum wages of $11.40 in Ontario. This causes high turnover rate as a lot of staffs are working as part time and frequently quite due to the low pay. A recommendation for Walmart is to develop a formal human resource program and fair performance review process to manage employee compensation. When employees perform at a higher level, their pay rate may be justified according to their performance appraisals. Providing faster promotions is another way to keep people motivated and improve their performance.
