"My question has to do with whether certain people are taking too many breaks(paid). Some are claiming that you get a 15min break for every two hours work. When I worked for the university in work study, it was a 15min break for every four hours worked. Based on the formula from work study, people are stealing time from Wal-mart. As to breaks and mealtimes, Wal-mart is hypersensitive about making sure people get their breaks and meals(at least at my store). I just wanna make sure people aren't stealing money from me(stockholder and profit-sharing member). Tomorrow I'll learn from the manager what Wal-mart's policy is, officially. Later in the weekend I should learn from a legal expert what is required legally. We'll see.
At 10:56 AM 3/24/2004, Michael Perelman wrote:
>Is the Chico behavior that common -- that Wal-Mart confined a retinue of
>such devoted workers who would volunteer a Sunday afternoon to defend
>their employer?
In this exchange I had elsewhere, I should point out that this guy does admire the Sizzlean (in spite of having recently been shat on by them), so it's not surprising that he'd actually desire to BE a cop for Walmart. Even if he weren't a "shareholder," this fellah would be trying to find out how to make his "associates" take fewer breaks to increase shareholder value. But, it's not just because of his desire to be the Sizzlean.
There are a million and one other ways in which employers exert power that don't require force or money: it's called solidarity. Make them feel part of the team and *voila* you have extremely committed employees. They don't even have to spew a lot of claptrap about "teams," hold company picnics, or whatever other crap companies do these days to secure loyalty.
Walmart doesn't have to work terribly hard to nurture solidarity. Wally Whirled simply has to work an already existing culture/class/status warfare. As a cultural lightening rod, these folks go into their jobs knowing about the stereotypes of Walmart workers and the stereotypes of Walmart. They _voice_ them. As you become "one of them" (a Walmart Greeter, for instance), you also have to shore up your confidence that you _aren't_ one of them. Voila! One way to do that is to be a Walmart booster.
But, there's more on the class/cultural warfare front...
My guess is that if the guy (below) heard about a bunch of wackademic twits having a conference about poor Walmart workers and how abused they are, it would ranklehim. I doubt he's unique. The antipathy to intellectuals and meddling lefties is an entrenched cultural trope. We see it on this list all the time, among lefties and intellectuals!
so yeah, this young man (and no doubt others) would take time off to give a bunch of twits the _real_ story.
Aside from which, if you can't tell off the bosses, a great (and maybe even more freely despised) surrogate is a wackademic conference where you can get the satisfaction of telling a bunch of Ivory Tower types where they can stick their collective pipe and smoke it.
Now, what you're saying is that they acknowledge they feel powerless. How does that happen? How can they believe they are making the _choice_ to work for Walmart and even defend their employer while, at the same time, admit that they can't find work elsewhere?
There's a fascinating study by an anthropologist, Greg Pappas, called _Magic City_. It's about a plant shut down in Barberton, OH. One of the things Pappas discovers is that people who've been on the dole for months and who clearly know they couldn't find any work at all, will still tell him that they are taking advantage of the welfare system, unemployment, whatever. They desperately want, IOW, to come off as people who are control of their fates, even though everything around them ought to point to the objective fact that they are not. This also explains why you can freely find people telling you how they rip off welfare, WIC, TANF, etc. They often really are because they have to survive (see Katherine Edin's work, among others) but it's also a great way to show everyone else you hang with that you're are scamming the system.
"Every Mack wants a Cadillac// Every marks wants his scrilla back"
OK. So how's this connected? Because the demand that we be responsible for our fates is so strong that, even while they tell you they can't find other work, they are also going to tell you that it's _their_ fault. It is a perversely more dignified feeling. (If you can't wrap your head around this, I would argue that it's the same dynamic behind ten-year and fifteen-year plans in the Diss process: no matter what a fuck up you look like, if you fuck up on completing your diss, at least you're in control of the fucking up. Far more painful to go through the agony only to get out on the job market and not find a job. :)
here's the post