When A Supervisor Makes Threats For Reporting His Favoritism

by Sharon
(Glen Burnie, MD, USA)

I work at Walmart, and have pretty much had enough. My department manager in Lawn & Garden not only displays blantant favoritism to two of the new young cashiers, my only guess is depending upon which one is his flavor of the week, he also threatened to write me up for privately complaining to him a few months ago. I must admit that because he allowed their misconduct to go on so long, I was a bit upset, and threatening to add a write up to my personnel record understandably only made me furious!!! If anyone knows anything about Walmart, they know there's an 'Open Door Policy,' which was enacted for protection from retaliation against legitimate complaints by employees, whistle blowers & whatnot. I then marched off to the manager's office, but unfortunately for me, the manager was extremely busy at the time. When I quietly returned to my work area, I was under the impression that my supervisor believed that I had reported the incident to the manager, so I didn't feel the need to say anymore to my supervisor, let alone allow my supervisor to think any differently. My supervisor then changed his tune, and I believed everything would end there hmmm...so I thought!

These two young girls who have only been with the company for about eight months & are permitted by the department manager to walk around doing virtually nothing 25-30 hours out of a 40 hour work week, mind you that all awhile customers are complaining because the lines long as hell...leaving myself & whoever else is stuck on the registers with me to hear the customers' complaints about the long lines, so we work even harder & faster to help get those lines down and the poor customers out of there. Please note there are two other empty registers to remedy this situation, however my its becoming more than obvious that my supervisor is appeasing these two cashiers by not politely asking them to do what they were hired for & to simply help out on the registers. Also note that they have expressed their dislike & lack of freedom to roam when they are forced to work on the registers to the department manager on occasions too numerous to count. Let alone, their refusal to help clean up at the end of the day because both of them refuse to take returns to the customer service desk, refuse to touch or empty a trash can, and even appears to have an adversion to sweeping up the area with a broom!!!

Now that the busy retail holidays are in full swing, management needs all the help they can get on the registers up front. Efforts to get those two to help out on the front end has either been fruitless with them trying to hide and/or refusing to go up front to help out, or just going up for an hour or less, then back to Lawn & Garden to continue doing virtually nothing. What the hell do they get paid for?!!! They spend more energy avoiding work than it takes to actually do some work!!!

YESTERDAY WAS THE STRAW THAT BROKE THE CAMEL'S BACK!!! In the past my department manager has even commented on what a good worker & employee I am. Whenever the managers need a hand up front they call & request for me by name. When my department manager told me they requested me again to come up & help them out, I informed him that the other cashier is due for lunch, so he will need to have one of his favorite 'wondering aimlessly' cashiers to get take over one of the registers in our department. His answer: "She is doing something for me, so it looks like you stay & don't go up front to help out."

Needless to say, I lost it!!! When you are asked or requested by name to help out, it can be considered a direct order & failure to obey a direct order could land an employee written up for insubordination. Duh? What part did he not get? Sorry if I am wrong, but I get it that he was willing to allow me to possibly get written up for insubordination, rather than delegate or request the cashier in question to take over the register. And needless to say, I went up to help out anyway despite his questionable department management abilities.

When I arrived on the front end, while waiting to be assigned to what register they wished me to help out on, I briefly touched base on what had been going on with two store assistant managers. Since time was of essence as the lines were growing longer, I wasn't able to tell them the whole story. Not telling the whole story played on my mind until lunch time, so I decided that someone with authority needs to hear the story in its entirety, so after lunch I went to managements office, sat down almost in tears.

I started off by asking for a transfer out of the Lawn & Garden Department to the front end permanently which led to the question why I would make such a request. I then proceeded to tell the whole story from start to end. Our co-manager informed me that management will do their best in rectifying the problem. If they see that it can not be rectified, then they will be more than happy to transfer me immediately after the holiday season. Meanwhile, because my department manager is so angry & no longer talks to me, I only pray that he doesn't retaliate or find other reasons to harrass me. My only other option would be to have my attorney contact Walmart's corporate office which I don't really want to do because I have no problem with management & other managers per se & am afraid corporate will make things really hot on them.

Response from Carl: Thanks for your detailed submission, Sharon. I think you did the right thing by asking to get transferred to a different department. Some people might panic and simply quit or get a new job but Walmart stores are big enough with enough departments that hopefully you can get moved to a new area and start fresh.

It sounds like you already have access to an attorney should the need arise but as you mentioned, it would be better (and cheaper for you) if things can get worked out and you get transferred to a different department. Good luck and I hope things work out for you.

Carl