is wal mart still evil?

[Zoe Girl]

the good news is that i got my own purchasing card! that means i can shop for my program when i want instead of driving across town to meet the shopper at wal mart for things that are perishable (as much as possible i shopped at amazon and had it delivered). there is a wal mart very close to work as well.

so i got the great idea to NOT shop at wal mart and instead shop at target. i worked there, my daughter and dad and cousin work there, i would rather support them. However my department has officially recommended wal mart, amazon and a few others saying that we need to set up the tax exempt purchase ourselves if we shop somewhere else. when i talked about being excited i could shop somewhere else i realized i was in a group of people who love wal mart and i was probably going to sound snooty and elite for pushing it. right now i have an image issue at work and need to just go along more.

with employers changing pay rates and work practices is wal mart still evil or does anyone know if they are becoming a decent place to work?

[Tammy]

Here is an example of what I meant a few days ago by not going above and beyond in a bureaucracy. Just go to Walmart and don't waste your energy fighting the system.

[iris lilies]

Yes, I'm sure Walmart is still evil. Where's that sticky here, anyway?

[Alan]

Yes, Walmart is still evil because,,,,it's Walmart, and all the right people tell us so. Target is good because it caters to a better class of people, or so I hear.
But, even as evil as it is, I still go there a lot. They let me park my motorhome overnight in their parking lots and Target won't. Of course Walmart is simply exploiting my desires to their own ends and I should really refuse to be taken advantage of, although I don't. I guess I'm one of their minions.

[sweetana3]

If you are buying for a business especially a government agency and you want to go "somewhere else", you better be prepared to show that it was cheaper, period. They dont care what your ethical reasons are or what you "like" in policy or religion or whatever. You are to buy where you can get the product for the least amount of money.

Do not badmouth Walmart in a group that may include Walmart shoppers. You will just be labeled at best elitist/too rich and at worst arrogant and uncaring. I dont shop at Walmart because many are dirty, smelly, their marketing stinks, produce is not usually good or stocked, etc. (We have quite a shoplifting and crime problem at ours also.) But I dont mention it to others unless they bring it up first.

[catherine]

I'm with Tammy. Don't buck the system. How you spend your money in your off-hours is your own business, but you heard loud and clear from your workplace that they prefer you to shop at Wal-Mart.

From an environmental standpoint, I don't like the idea of flying in planes to do my job, but until I'm ready to quit my job on principle, I'm going wherever and however my clients send me. On occasion I quietly send contributions for carbon offsets but I wouldn't dream of spouting off at work.

[Ultralight]

For me, I just try to buy as little as possible from any store -- Wal-Mart, Target, Whole Paycheck, etc.

I just try to not buy things so I am not spending money. haha

[ToomuchStuff]

so i got the great idea to NOT shop at wal mart and instead shop at target. i worked there, my daughter and dad and cousin work there, i would rather support them. However my department has officially recommended wal mart, amazon and a few others saying that we need to set up the tax exempt purchase ourselves if we shop somewhere else. when i talked about being excited i could shop somewhere else i realized i was in a group of people who love wal mart and i was probably going to sound snooty and elite for pushing it. right now i have an image issue at work and need to just go along more.

with employers changing pay rates and work practices is wal mart still evil or does anyone know if they are becoming a decent place to work?

So your wanting to again show not being part of the team, or doing what your bosses are requesting.
Let me clarify " department has officially recommended wal mart, amazon and a few others saying that we need to set up the tax exempt purchase ourselves if we shop somewhere else"
That means that in some cases, your employer may receive some other benefits from these companies, and if you can't find the items you need at them, THEN you are responsible for setting up the tax exempt part of the purchase, yourself.

Is Walmart successful? (do they profit)
Are they a large company?
Do the ones running the place, make more money then the worker bees/drones?
Did you just ask if they were evil?
Is the answer yes to any of the above, then you have your answer!

[Zoe Girl]

okay got it, this may take awhile to learn. i am kinda hard-wired to do something different at every step of the way and realizing that this is a bad idea is, well, a big shift. i have not said anything negative at work about wal mart, i am aware and sensitive to some of the times i could sound like a jerk. i just have so many family members who have ben treated very well by target so i like that.

So looking at reducing my paper use to afford recycled copy paper also a bad idea (unless i get it cheaper)

[JaneV2.0]

Tall poppy syndrome. It's very important to conform. :doh:

[Zoe Girl]

how does that balance with being counted absent when you are actually there (happened several times in high school, and i was the only one in combat boots)? right now sup is saying that i miss meetings which is not true, i guess just speak up and say something, something conforming that is.

isn't there an island of mis-fit toys for grown ups?

[JaneV2.0]

Let me know if you find one. :thankyou:

[freshstart]

In home life, we don't shop there, lots of reasons, we just don't

but when I request a wish from our Wish Fund, most of time they give me a walmart gift care to buy the items or a gift card to just give to the family. Let me be clear, Walmart has donated nada, we have the cards because someone along the line chose Walmart. Do I go to Walmart and try to make a dollar cry to get stuff for a family? You bet your buppy I do. Do I give the GCs to the families? of course

I kind of wanted to ask the person who gets the cards to watch the High Price of Low Cost. But I would've been out of there so fast, my head would spin. It's work, go along to get along.

[sweetana3]

Whether YOU "like" Target for any reason is not important to the organization that you work for and that is the point. What do THEY want/need/require/ask for and how do they want you to do it?

The answer to your question on reducing your paper use to be able to afford recycled paper means that you will get no aknowledgement for anything except saving money. It is not a good business reason to spend more on different paper. The only time buying a more expensive paper would be considered appropriate is if the whole organization had such a goal and advertised it as a goal and got kudos for meeting a goal, like using recycled products. An employee using more expensive paper, for whatever reason, would be considered a problem employee without the ability to follow directions on the proper use of a purchasing card.

story: We could have saved our organization huge amounts of money by taking specific airline flights or staying in hotels that we found and were willing to stay at. But we had specific directives, both written and oral, to use only and exactly what flights and hotels the goverment wanted us to use. Many years later, I found out that there were contracts with airlines, we had fares that allowed unlimited refund, and hotels had to meet a lot of safety reviews to be allowable. Nothing of this was evident to me and never explained. I got in trouble once for using an unapproved flight fare class. Sometimes these requirements changed and we did not know it so we got used to just following instructions, using the provided travel agents and saying ok a lot even though we wanted to do something different.

My hubby wanted to add that when you do something like change a vendor, create a new program because you want to, or do anything not requested by management, you do so at your own risk. You are the only one that can decide on the risk/reward balance.

[flowerseverywhere]

I used to have a little sign at my desk "conform and be dull" that a sibling gave me as a joke because I was never a conformist. It should have read "conform or be fired, conform or don't get a raise" and so on.

That is corporate life. Either figure out how to support yourself without the job or conform, even if you think they are idiots. It is what we have to do. Our office supplies used to be delivered to the office and sometimes I would have to check the invoice against the delivery. The prices shocked me. I actually proposed I could drive to the local office supply store and get what we needed for way less. The boss just laughed. He said you don't realize we get a volume rebate at the end of the year, and we don't have to have an employee out of the office shopping. He was kind, but kinda told me "do you think we are idiots? This is a business and we run it like an efficient one."

live as simply as possible so you won't have to work until 90 for a dysfunctional organization, conform to the dress code, smile and make positive comments at meetings. Play the game. Fit into the box they want you to. No one likes o be a boss to someone who is constantly bucking the system. They have to answer to their boss you know and explain your actions. No one wants to do that, believe me.

[catherine]

how does that balance with being counted absent when you are actually there (happened several times in high school, and i was the only one in combat boots)? right now sup is saying that i miss meetings which is not true, i guess just speak up and say something, something conforming that is.

isn't there an island of mis-fit toys for grown ups?

If that is happening, this is a good chance to observe your own body language. Are you rolling your eyes at the drivel that people are talking about? Are you slumping back in your chair wishing the meeting was over? Doodling? Looking down?

Or, are you acting engaged in the meeting, by leaning forward and maintaining eye contact with the leaders and others who are speaking? And yes, contribute if you want to--not just throwing something out to make your presence known. I am VERY shy at meetings, and often say nothing, but that doesn't mean I can't LOOK like I'm happy to be there. Or, after the meeting, take the time to acknowledge something you liked to the person who said it. I'm not advocating lying or hypocrisy, but I don't think it's being hypocritical to give your co-workers the respect of your total presence when they are speaking whether you like being there or not.

[Zoe Girl]

oh no, no phone checking, no lap top out, no rolling eyes. in a big room i tend to sit by myself to avoid the side-talkers. our meetings tend to have lots of interactive pieces. now doodling, i can't help that. i try as much to be taking notes of make it look like notes but sitting still is quite painful. i do very well in some meetings, the one committee i was on was so productive. i took notes and it was a good fit, i could take them in google docs as we went, ask for clarification, check in with the group. Another committee kept on being so hard, i have a personal rule of thumb. if you are interrupted 3 times then just stop. i couldn't totally check out as a member but i did stop for long stretches.

[freshstart]

The prices shocked me. I actually proposed I could drive to the local office supply store and get what we needed for way less. He was kind, but kinda told me "do you think we are idiots? This is a business and we run it like an efficient one."

live as simply as possible so you won't have to work until 90 for a dysfunctional organization, conform to the dress code, smile and make positive comments at meetings. Play the game. Fit into the box they want you to. No one likes o be a boss to someone who is constantly bucking the system. They have to answer to their boss you know and explain your actions. No one wants to do that, believe me.

I remember when office supplies became a game of us running to get a pen before they were gone. Then no more pens, bring from home. We used small tablets of paper to take notes on, gone, bring your own paper. Yearly calendar, gone. Phones were going to be gone, we would be reimbursed $10/month for our own phones. That was the breaking point, your own phone would no longer be private and we talked and emailed and texted on them all day. $10? Nope! In the end they couldn't do it because we would have patient info on our phones. But I was prepared for the day when they said no more gauze, syringes, or enemas, bring your own, lol.

Fit in the box on the outside, inside you can be dropping F bombs. Do not drop F bombs to even your closest peer, however. It sucks to have been raised in the 70s and 80s, told you can do anything! Free to be You and Me. IRL, at work, it's just "Be You, but be the You We Want."

[iris lilies]

Adding a new vendor also adds to administrative costs, it's not only Zoe Girl's time that would be sucked up.

[iris lilies]

how does that balance with being counted absent when you are actually there (happened several times in high school, and i was the only one in combat boots)? right now sup is saying that i miss meetings which is not true, i guess just speak up and say something, something conforming that is.

isn't there an island of mis-fit toys for grown ups?

You calmly correct any factual inaccuracy about your work performance, that has nothing to do with this discussion of conformity.

Either you attended all of the meetings in question,or you did not, that is a simple fact not open to interpretation. Tell your "sup" you were at those meetings, or if this is part of your written performance appraisal, write a response. It is simply a factual rebuttal, no need to delve deep into the wrongs of your life including high school. Sometimes "sups" get it wrong.

[Suzanne]

Can you show evidence that you were at those meetings?

[ApatheticNoMore]

Taking pics of oneself at the meeting from now on, not a bad idea maybe. Here's a selfie of me from the July 20th meeting, as you can see I'm there and we're having a meeting .... :)

[sweetana3]

As I often told people sitting across the desk from me, first you have to agree on the facts and then you can apply the rules to the situation.

forgot to add that sometimes supervisors are thinking of someone else. Hard to imagine but they can be totally wrong.

[iris lilies]

I would like to defend Walmart as invited by this thread. The sainted Target did, for years, separate their children's products by gender and in that spirit made hot pink signs for girlie toys and appropriately colored signs for boy things. This conveyed even to three year olds without reading skills that those aisles were not appropriate for them. Stay out!!! I believe that most right thinking people frowned on this practice. Just recently Target discontinued this practice.

Evil Walmart has never labelled their toy aisles for gender.

[catherine]

oh no, no phone checking, no lap top out, no rolling eyes. in a big room i tend to sit by myself to avoid the side-talkers. our meetings tend to have lots of interactive pieces. now doodling, i can't help that. i try as much to be taking notes of make it look like notes but sitting still is quite painful. i do very well in some meetings, the one committee i was on was so productive. i took notes and it was a good fit, i could take them in google docs as we went, ask for clarification, check in with the group. Another committee kept on being so hard, i have a personal rule of thumb. if you are interrupted 3 times then just stop. i couldn't totally check out as a member but i did stop for long stretches.

I hope I didn't sound accusatory, I was just asking questions, because I HATE meetings, and that's one of the reasons I'm a consultant now. I only get invited to the meetings that they'll pay me to sit through.

I actually think iris lilies had a great response. Just state the facts.

[ToomuchStuff]

Are these "missed" meetings: "so i have had several meetings with my supervisor cancelled and she has shown up late for at least 2" ? How did you verify they were canceled?

[JaneV2.0]

Why don't you have sign-in sheets at meetings? Make a copy if they tend to get "lost."

[rodeosweetheart]

Why don't you volunteer to keep minutes of the meeting? Problem solved.

[iris lilies]

Why don't you volunteer to keep minutes of the meeting? Problem solved.

Funny you should mention that because that is exactly what I used to do for two meetings, one weekly, one quarterly. I volunteered to keep minutes because it forced me to pay attention. But sadly, after a few years, I reverted to bad old behavior and zoned out during droning talk on a particular topic, just making mention of generalities that "Subject X was discussed" in the minutes. If there was ever an actual decision made, I made an effort to record that, but seldom were clear decisions or specific plans drawn up in these meetings.

[kib]

Zoe, I have to applaud you for trying. I really, really do, because I think to myself that if I were to go back to work, the only way I could stand it would be to become a blank-eyed drone. I want the world to be a better place, and that included any place I worked, and it is so hard to just watch the small part of it in which you feel you might have some input chug along as the same godawful mess, expressing active hostility toward any move for the better. Frustrating, disappointing, baffling. So ... my hat's off to you for not getting beaten down.

Sigh. That said, the others are right: work in this day and age is no place for the individual high road. Maybe this will make you feel better ...

https://hbr.org/2013/10/dont-spin-a-better-story-be-a-better-company

[iris lilies]

Zoe, I have to applaud you for trying. I really, really do, because I think to myself that if I were to go back to work, the only way I could stand it would be to become a blank-eyed drone. I want the world to be a better place, and that included any place I worked, and it is so hard to just watch the small part of it in which you feel you might have some input chug along as the same godawful mess, expressing active hostility toward any move for the better. Frustrating, disappointing, baffling. So ... my hat's off to you for not getting beaten down.

Sigh. That said, the others are right: work in this day and age is no place for the individual high road. Maybe this will make you feel better ...

https://hbr.org/2013/10/dont-spin-a-better-story-be-a-better-company

i think this view is overly broad.

if an employee wishes to change ALL THE THINGS including those traditionally determined by administration and that are not in his/her jurisdiction, that employee isn't realistic. Make realmlife suggestions upwards, and then move on. But a really good way to show you are promotable is to find out WHY seemingly silly policies exist. Examples of this have been posted on this thread. Sometimes procurement procedures exist for a reason.

We all have pods of responsibility in the workplace where we can polish up our individual areas and make the organization shine in our corner of that world. Sometimes that's the best we can do and is, in fact, making a significant contribution.

[kib]

Yes, you are right of course, I'm not suggesting that the advice given here is wrong. Stepping away from things that are not your responsibility is appropriate in the workplace, and seeking to improve what IS your responsibility is the correct course of action if you want to be appreciated, non-threatening and promotable. But the hard part is seeing big holes you can't touch. I'm not sure if some people take that harder than others, and if those people seem to always wind up on the wrong side of the fence. I found that at every level, there was always someone pushing to make sure I didn't step outside of my assigned little box, some wanna-be chief to my Indian no matter how petty the change might have been. I don't play very well with others and I'm damn glad I no longer have to.