I really should post to this blog more often and tell people about it (consider yourself told!)! Maybe then I might be able to keep in touch with people better, just maybe...
Well, I had a fair amount of driving to do the past couple of days and that meant a fair amount of time to think since I was traveling at odd times of the day. And for some reason topics that I typically don't agree with kept coming to mind. One of those is the fact that I shop at Wal-Mart and a bunch of people I know don't. They have always said it because of the prices - potential exploitation of labor etc., not treating employees right and the stores not being that great.
For some reason I could never explain what bugged me about those reasons and it finally came to me! I have worked in places that treated employees worse, exploited labor and quality, and prices were atrocious as well as the place being not all that great.
The more recent of the two places was a fish cannery. Jobs were essentially assigned based on who you knew and what nationality you were. Keep in mind this was 12 years ago, things have probably changed! Working conditions were pretty rough and the food provided was utter crap - I lived on rice and peanut butter sandwiches for several weeks. I also will never again ever entertain the idea of eating fish-head soup - gross!
My first place of employment probably exploited its workers the most and everything was based on politics as well. I am talking about the lovely world of theme parks. Crap food for exhoribitant prices (at the time something that cost 50 cents to make was selling for $8), merchandise that was marked up beyond belief as well, and schedules that were completely ignored unless you were 15 (have to avoid the potential lawsuit). The security checks that they are supposed to do on employees - they didn't do them until it was too late. And they would ask you to do things that were not your job, but a supervisors role and then pass one over for promotion - that would happen to a lot of people - and then someone with less experience would get the promotion. Paperwork would be ignored as well as school schedules and such once you got to the fall (and in the spring too) - you might come to work the next weekend and find out you had been let go because someone forgot that you had to be in school when they had scheduled you to work.
The worst was the security issue though. I had a friend in high school who worked at the same theme park. There were several times that she had mentioned another employee to management because he was harassing her, but management did nothing about it. Then he attacked her. Thankfully, with the help of another friend, she was able to get away before the worst case scenario happened. It was then exposed that the guy had a record of similar offenses, but the background check had never been performed. She was then persecuted by those in management at the park for sticking up for herself! The impact that everything had on her was big, but how the employer reacted made it a hundred times worse. There are more details, but this is the limit to what I want to post up here...
That is part of the reason that I refuse to pay full price to go to the place and purchase as little as possible while I'm there. It can be a fun place, but I have a problem with its policies and those who run it.
On the other hand, I have worked at Wal-Mart and I have to say that I was treated a whole lot better there than at other jobs I have had over the years. Yes, there are issues still as they always exist with companies that have larger numbers of part-time employees as opposed to full-time etc. But they pay attention to security and drug issues as well as schedules and respecting people for who they are a lot more.
Random, I know but it is actually the first of a couple more of these questions that have bugged me for awhile, whether you know it or not...
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