Walmart Fired me today for insabornation

[Kuilui]

I work at a supermarket and my section (deli) is basically the only one that the managers don't boss around and make work different sections of the store (for the most part). Unions aren't really all they are cracked up to be either. I'm in one and it basically sucks. You get money taken from your paycheck with virtually no benefits other than the managers will have a harder time firing you. But yeah though the bakery department collects carts in the afternoon and helps bag groceries if need be. The cashiers restock the store, replace items around it and do other odd jobs, maybe work in the dairy department if it is slow enough.

With jobs like this where you are a minimum wage drone working in retail you have to do a lot of different nonsense because your not really worth anything to the company. Your just a drone that any 16 year old can replace, so they make you do nonsense that you were never informed you'd be doing because they don't care, your an easily replaced cog.

 

[shootthebandit]

I'm loving all the people in this thread who think the proper response to a boot being on your neck is to kiss the laces.

Also, some people are mistaken about Right to Work. Right to Work legislation typically bans union shops. The right to fire you at any time for any reason is called At Will employment. Common mistake!

Do you guys actually have unions in america? Ive heard your employment laws are pretty lax and people can be sacked without a days notice and dont get a redunancy pay out?

In the UK employers need a good reason to sack someone otherwise they can get the pants sued off them for unfair dismissal. If people are being made redundant they usually get some sort of pay out

Captcha: no soup for you. Times must be getting tough

We do have unions but:

A. not all businesses are unionized
B. even with unionized businesses, you can sometimes choose to join the union or not (sometimes you are forced to)
C. unions have a history of having ties to the Mafia

Unions in the US have a pretty shady history and are in some cases just as corrupt as the shadiest, greediest businesses in the US. Not to mention, unions are some of the biggest lobbyists in the country.

That's mostly labor unions though. The other unions are usually on the up and up.

Granted, I would imagine C is less true today than a few decades ago, but their image is going to be tainted for a long time. If you found out that your unions were working/owned with/by the IRA, how long would it take for the union's image to get rid of that taint?

This seems a lot different from UK unions, unions in america seem to employ a lot of bullying tactics where as unions in the UK are a lot more organised and official. Theres only really 2 big unions (unite and unison) and they offer legal advice, personal injury claims if injured at work, employment rights etc. If companies are making redunancies the unions will often pressure employers to find other ways to save money

 

[barbzilla]

Thats called a job. Get used to it.

They sign your paychecks so you do what they want. If you dont like it then you should find another job or wait until you get fired.

Sorry, but you are just plain wrong here. Unless they specifically stated that he would have to preform these "extra" duties, they have no right to "force" him to comply with their wishes that he do so.

First off, I'm pretty sure it was somewhere in the orientation process that he may be asked to do other duties. Also, nobody "forced" him to perform extra duties- this was a minimum wage at-will job. They asked him, and he was at-will to decline, and they were at-will to release him from employment and allow one of the other thousands of applicants on file to decide whether or not they'd like the opportunity.

Yes, by telling him to do something outside of the listed of his job under the threat of termination, that is FORCING someone to do something. Sure, he could just walk out and quit, but that isn't any better than being fired. You are still jobless, hungry, and (unless you still live with your parents) soon to be homeless. This is a threat to someone's security, which is one of the primary needs of a human being. When you threaten to remove one of their primary needs, you are in the wrong.

Now, had this been a listed job duty for him, then right on, get your buttocks to work. Otherwise, it is just forcing people to do excess work that you aren't being properly compensated for.

 

[silversnake4133]

Well OP, I'm sure that there are quite a few other hundred people who are willing to work your position and praise their managers for giving them a chance to get some income. They wouldn't mind working more than they were originally assigned to work especially if it means they can put food on their tables and pay their bills. Seriously, with the job market still in a royal shit storm, people are learning right quick that you can't back talk your superiors no matter how unfair you think you're being treated. Your position holds no worth to them, and as others have said before me, you're just a piece of minimum wage meat and until you make a name for yourself that's all you're going to be viewed as while working as a "Store Associate" under a retail conglomerate. Face it, you're at the bottom of the corporate ladder and EVERYONE walks all over you, showing some sass just means that you don't really care for your employment anymore, so the higher-ups will just replace you. They couldn't care less what happens to you afterward.

 

[lechat]

He's half-right. His mentality is wrong (in my opinion), but his answer ("if you don't like it, leave it") is correct. If more workers stood up to employer bullshit and didn't accept minimum wage if the business makes fuck-huge amounts of money, then the power dynamic would shift from "They [the business] owns you" to "You and them are business partners."

I doubt that Ragnar has that in mind, given his phrasing, but we shouldn't think of businesses as some magical entity with unlimited power. All it takes is enough workers with the balls to fight for what they feel is right to change things for the better.

If EVERY Walmart worker refused in the manner of the OP, and were accordingly fired, Walmart would have to either scrounge for idiots, the high schoolers, or the massively desperate, or change their policies/ideology.

Edit: (As a side note, I feel the same way about consumers, as well. Stop giving businesses like Walmart money if they are treating their workers like shit or have a greed-fueled mindset, and we would see said businesses either die out or adapt. The bus boycotts during the Civil Rights Era worked because it affected the pockets of the greedy fucks in charge)

you my friend need to run the world... or at least a union.
the problem is the work dynamic has shifted in first world countries (it's often this way in third world countries)from a symbiotic relationship between employers and employees when both need each other to survive to a slave relationship where the employee does what the boss says or dies of starvation on the street.

more people need to just walk away from shit jobs to force employers to hire inadequate labor or go bankrupt but it is only when you have a sufficient amount of savings to not care about your job that you are ever placed in that position and these types of employees will do whatever they they can do to ensure that doesn't happen.

 

[Doclector]

I can't help with the finding a new job thing, but I will say the CEOs and some of the managers of Wal-mart stores deserve hanging. I've heard so many stories of abuse that really should be considered illegal, hell, in england, a lot of it IS considered illegal.

I'm starting to get real sick of all the scum that are allowed to run free ruining other's lives. We shouldn't have to resort to violence, but one day, that's what it's gonna come to, simply because those guilty have shielded themselves from all legal, non violent punishment.

 

[TallanKhan]

If EVERY Walmart worker refused in the manner of the OP, and were accordingly fired, Walmart would have to either scrounge for idiots, the high schoolers, or the massively desperate, or change their policies/ideology.

I think the only problem with your theory is that based on what I have seen of Wal-Mart (when visiting the US and when they brought out ASDA here in the UK) the above mentioned idiots, high schoolers and massively desperate seem to be target of their recruitment strategy already.

 

[davidmc1158_v1legacy]

I would say you should have done what you were told. You were lucky to have a job. But they did sack you unfairly
You should go to your union and and take them on for unfair dismissal.
You should have gone to you union when they asked you to do things beyond your paygrade, and had your unionwoman/man deal with it.

Maybe the reason you did'nt get as much was because of the time you were there. Maybe if you'd shown willing, you have got more money.
That would work if it was run fairly of course. But if it was corrupt, then they could have been in the wrong.
Either way, get your union onto it.

Small but important point: There is no union at any Wal Mart in the United States. The corporation has been very diligent in making certain that any attempt to create a union is ended as quickly as possible.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

I'm loving all the people in this thread who think the proper response to a boot being on your neck is to kiss the laces.

Also, some people are mistaken about Right to Work. Right to Work legislation typically bans union shops. The right to fire you at any time for any reason is called At Will employment. Common mistake!

Do you guys actually have unions in america? Ive heard your employment laws are pretty lax and people can be sacked without a days notice and dont get a redunancy pay out?

In the UK employers need a good reason to sack someone otherwise they can get the pants sued off them for unfair dismissal. If people are being made redundant they usually get some sort of pay out

Captcha: no soup for you. Times must be getting tough

We do have unions but:

A. not all businesses are unionized
B. even with unionized businesses, you can sometimes choose to join the union or not (sometimes you are forced to)
C. unions have a history of having ties to the Mafia

Unions in the US have a pretty shady history and are in some cases just as corrupt as the shadiest, greediest businesses in the US. Not to mention, unions are some of the biggest lobbyists in the country.

That's mostly labor unions though. The other unions are usually on the up and up.

Granted, I would imagine C is less true today than a few decades ago, but their image is going to be tainted for a long time. If you found out that your unions were working/owned with/by the IRA, how long would it take for the union's image to get rid of that taint?

This seems a lot different from UK unions, unions in america seem to employ a lot of bullying tactics where as unions in the UK are a lot more organised and official. Theres only really 2 big unions (unite and unison) and they offer legal advice, personal injury claims if injured at work, employment rights etc. If companies are making redunancies the unions will often pressure employers to find other ways to save money

Most of that is right wing anti-union propaganda. Which was used to pass what's called a "right to work" law in something like 30 out of 50 states, which allows employers to fire their employees at any time without cause. It's basically impossible to claim wrongful termination in a right to work state, because only an idiot boss actually gives a reason. You could get fired for being in any given protected class, and it wouldn't matter as long as your boss wasn't braindead in addition to being a bigot.

They're called "right to work" laws because they make it illegal for a union to force an employee to join, by the way. It's (nominally) a "right to work" without having to join the union. Totally anti-worker. But of course, if you speak out against it, don't you know you're just a commie sympathiser. In many ways, US politics never left the Cold War behind, either at home or abroad.

Edit: Not saying Royotknife if a right winger or intentionally spouting propaganda. The right wing was just very, very successful at demonizing unions over the last 50 years or so, to the point that their version of the story is the one you're most likely to hear.