On 29th April Tuesday an associate argued in regard to spending extra time in the lunch

room after swiping out for 30 min break. Even though there might be more people who

did the same I noticed him leaving the lunch room without swiping in and found

irregularity in it. Just to clarify the information I enquired the associate about the same.

Even though I was being amiable in my conversation and wanted to help him if in case

he has lost his tag, I didn’t find the same from him. He even stated that he swiped in

when I was distracted with something which somehow was hard to believe given the

context I was observing the act to an extent that chance for distraction is almost zero.

Even if it was my mistake he should have communicated to me with proper manners

one should follow in a workplace. He demanded he wants to talk to Overnight Assistant

Manager about the situation and I agreed with him. When we approached the Assistant

Manager the way he communicated to manager was not professional. I nearly felt

personally attacked with the gestures he used to explain the situation. Moreover he

even accused me of targeting him deliberately. I have explained the situation from my

Point of view to the Overnight Assistant Manager. On another situation the same

associate used more improper way of explaining things and I clearly felt personally

attacked. This was on 4 th April Monday morning around 6:20 a.m. associate showed

discomfort in following instruction with similar gestures and other forms of non - verbal

communication. Even though the associate followed the instruction after expressing his

discontent in helping me in doing my job as the Support Manager the experience was

not much pleasant for me. I instructed him to switch the task assigned to him since

there was less time for the store to open and I found there was a more important task

on hand to be finished than the one he was about to work next which I said to him I
could take care. I explained the situation to the other Support Manager (Douglas) since

he was the one who assigned task to the associate first who then tried to clarify the

situation to the associate. Later when the other support manager clarified the

instructions then the associate used improper language and gesture which I felt

discriminating and damaging to myself. His way of communicating is provocative and

this kind of behavior may get in the way of my planning and operation as an Overnight

Support Manager.

There was another associate (Jugraj) who said he lost his badge and hence he have to

use the computer. I instructed him to reach out for personnel manager to get a new one.

Later when I asked him about the same he said he already got his badge back Being

the support manager I believe it is one of my responsibilities to make sure associates

resume their work on time once they are clocked in after the long break. I was trying to

fulfill my duty. I believe time loss have to be treated like all other losses considering the

fact that single biggest cost of Walmart is Labour cost. Moreover, each minute an

associate lose in fulfilling their duty will overtime get multiplied given the number of

associates.

On one of the days Store manager himself lead the morning meeting and specified

about the restriction for using headsets/ear buds and still 3 associates used them on the

same day and one of them was calling someone for significant amount of time while on

clock. Since I don’t have documented evidence against any of them I would like not to

mention their names. There is progress when it comes to transformation to steel toe

boots especially for the new associates.

Associates still need to improve when it comes to performance considering the fact that
Walmart has a standard for performance that has been carefully developed over the

time with a lot of research and planning. I believe it’s the duty of the management as a

whole to enforce strict measures compatible with Walmart and the Canadian policies in

making sure there are no deliberate time losses made from the part of any employees

be it regular associates or any others.

Later on May 6th associates showed disinterest in getting to the floor for continuing with

their work and they sat in the lunch room even after me reminding them they have

surpassed 17 minutes which was available to them (15 minutes break and 2 minutes to

reach the lunch room).I believe it was the first 15 minutes break. I stood there for a

minute more to make sure they leave the lunch room and resume their work. One of the

associate (Udhay Chawla) who has been with the company for a significant period of

time (enough to understand how to behave in a workplace like Walmart) used

inappropriate language. He used abusive words in his language. He said let me stay

there as long as I want. He used the words both words with Indian origin. One was

‘saala’ and the other word was ‘behanchod’.You could find the meanings to be very

offensive. Moreover few other associates followed the trend and sit there for a few more

minutes. To avoid complicated situation I left the room and reported the same to

Overnight Assistant Manager.

On the next day they were playing cards for 15 minutes break and left the lunch room at

least after 20 minutes and all were laughing at me for asking them to resume their work.

This shows how much they value the resources of Walmart. There are proactive

disobediences related to safety rules such as wearing hoodies, using headphones and

not wearing steel toe boots. Associates who are ready even to abuses their supervisors
who tries every second to help them in improving their productivity should never be

acceptable. The associates who put in effort in following these rules may find

themselves in an unfair situation thereby losing their confidence in the system. I want

the management to look in to these matters and moreover educate associate about

manners at workplace. This can help us avoid further elevation of problems in future

there by making sure that professional indifferences won’t end up as personal problems.

Overnight Assistant Manager tried to correct these issues in his own way. I agree that

there are improvements but I strongly believe the situation is far flung from Walmart

expectations

Rahul Poruthoor Ignatious

Overnight Support Manager

10th May 2020