markjs
Banned
Oh I do, I hear every detail about Walmart more than I ever wanted to hear. I won't slam them, but they aren't doing you any favors. It's just obvious by your satisfaction with them that you haven't had many good employers.
This makes me...
- Thread starter BeardofPants
- Start date
Oh I do, I hear every detail about Walmart more than I ever wanted to hear. I won't slam them, but they aren't doing you any favors. It's just obvious by your satisfaction with them that you haven't had many good employers.
jimpeel
Well-Known Member
Simplex Time Recorder Corp.
Field service and shop manager time recorder and fire protection systems. Repair, diagnostics and installation.
Odetics, Inc. Spaceborne Div.
Designer/Drafter and project coordinator for spaceborne tape recorders including HDRR space shuttle, MMU space shuttle, SPOT telescope, Israeli MPAR military satellite recorder, schematic capture expert hand drawn and Orcad SDT CADD platform.
Paul Munroe Engineering
Hydraulic engineering and design. Hydraulic schematic expert, systems design. Disneyland amusement rides, features, and animatronics. AutoCAD and Orcad SDT expert.
Translogic. Corp.
Documentation of fire suppression system for Denver Intl Airport vacuum tube transport system. AutoCAD expert including AutoLISP programming language.
Thomas & Betts Aster Div.
Design, documentation, and implementation of fiber optics systems for telecommuncations. Pro-Engineer (Pro-E) CADD expert.
Quantum, Corp.
CADD design of Superloader DLT tape system. Pro-E expert.
Yep, not a good one in the bunch.
jimpeel
Well-Known Member
I'm a cashier and a damned good one, one of their best.
You see, you confuse being satisfied with having a good work ethic. If I worked for a janitorial company I would endeavor to do the same quality of work as I do at every other job I have ever worked at.
When I was a drafter, I was a damned good drafter.
When I was a designer, I was a damned good designer.
When I was a motel manager, I was a damned good motel manager.
Everything I do I do to the best of my ability and I always perform above standard.
markjs
Banned
Oh and I'd like to know your wage as well, although I know some people feel that's personal, but I know it's not on par with other retail stores who treat their employers better for a fact already and since this is a largely anonymous BBS, I see no reason why you should hold on to privacy about it unless you are embarrassed about it.
jimpeel
Well-Known Member
10-7 varying days. I asked for and received a set schedule. Most cashiers do not have that luxury.
jimpeel
Well-Known Member
I make over $10 but that is only 1/4 what I used to make.
If you want the long, drawn out, detailed explaination of how I ended up here simply ask.
jimpeel
Well-Known Member
That rate is usually for the temps and the shop gets 25% of the paid rate so the client is paying $60 to the shop. Captive personnel at that rate are degreed engineers as well. I'm not degreed so my rate was 40+.
2minkey
bootlicker
hmmm. i used to do consulting work for a company that did pay the skilled, non-degreed folks that much. actually caused some tension with the newer engineers who didn't make as much... this was detroit though, at a time before automotive hit the skids... may have been a unique skill demand situation...?
jimpeel
Well-Known Member
Maybe the skillset in automotive. I have always been in high tech doing smaller projects, coordinating, designing, etc. Hydraulic systems, hard drives, micro hard drives, mechanisms, small plastics design, sheet metal enclosures, form-fit-function, tolerance studies, what have you.
I did a lot of rescue work wherein I would come in and solve the problems of why the system didn't work. Usually it was some tolerance problem like crossing tolerance zones, daisy chained dims, etc.
I had one at T&B where they laid out the top and bottom sheet metal for an enclosure and they did fine as far as the dimensioning -- starting at 0,0,0 lower left corner. However, they didn't use GD&T (ANSI Y14), they just let everything float in the square tolerance zone of the drawing default.
That wasn't bad enough so they also screwed up the layout of the parts. Like I said, they started at 0,0,0 in the correct fashion but then the parts mated by flipping one of them -- like having your hands face up and then placing the right one on top of the left -- which placed 0,0,0 in the lower left of the bottom and 0,0,0 in the top part at lower right. The parts didn't mate because of the crossing tolerance zones.
I re-laid out the top, went to GD&T tolerancing for both parts and started getting good parts.
Another project they had was a sheet metal enclosure that had ten parts -- top, bottom, front, back, left, right, bracketry, and hinge. On top of that, it was held together with 72 pop rivets which were a serious hand job which drove the cost up.
I redesigned it with a bend up on the sides of the top and bottom parts so that when they were mated the two "L" shaped parts created a full box. I then used half-shear locators so they would be self-locating eliminating tooling and specified welding instead of riveting with a caveat that they could be riveted if necessary as not all shops have aluminun welding capability.
They had also made separate drawings for each part which is wasteful so I redrew them into a -99 inseparable assy configuration which is one of the drawings that I let Mark go on my webdrive to look at. After that, I simply tabulated the -99 configuration for color/customation configurations and there was only one drawing to modify instead of ten.
The cost saving on the next reorder was in excess of $30,000.
spike
New Member
markjs
Banned
I am curious as to why you work at Walmart? It's a great place for certain people, and it's not at all, the evil empire it is made out to be, but what makes a person do a job that is far beneath their ability?
I can certainly understand if you are just happy there, make enough for your needs, and will move on as needed, but you have to admit from the information you've given, the logic behind isn't clear. Surely you must also see how it could be easy to disbelieve. Not that I don't believe you work at Walmart, but without the reasoning I am skeptical, and the word skeptical is better than the way I posted it the first time.
I can certainly understand if you are just happy there, make enough for your needs, and will move on as needed, but you have to admit from the information you've given, the logic behind isn't clear. Surely you must also see how it could be easy to disbelieve. Not that I don't believe you work at Walmart, but without the reasoning I am skeptical, and the word skeptical is better than the way I posted it the first time.
jimpeel
Well-Known Member
Actually, the unit that I redesigned that had the crossing tolerance zones was my last hurrah. Theyn brought in a troop of temps running 24 hours a day building the things. The system was to compete with another company which was scared to death of our product because it was far superior to theirs. T&B built a shitload of the things and filled up a warehouse with them. That was all part of the plan. They wanted to give the impression that they were going to seriously market the thing.
The other company had made an offer to buy the technology so they ramrodded out as many as they could. I thought they were going to get a business loan as banks will not give loans against unfinished goods. Instead, they entered negotiations with the other company and sold them the technology, finished goods, inventory, design specs, all documentation and got 26 million dollars. The other company then took everything, except the documentation and design specs, to the dump and had it plowed under.
Apparently, it was far cheaper for them to buy the technology and destroy it than it would have been for them to switch to it as their own product or to upgrade their product, redesign, retool, and redistribute, etc. Last I heard they were still using the same old stuff.
Oh, and my share of the 26 million? I was laid off, so we moved back to CO and bought a house and went to work for Quantum, Corp.
markjs
Banned
The thing that Walmart does to cashiers that I was trying to coax out of you is the fact that schedules are never set and stay, barring the possibility to hold two jobs, at least all the stores here in Washington do. I am pretty sure it's true of Walmart policy everywhere, but it's one of the worst things you can do to an employee IMHO. Pay a low wage and make sure they can't supplement their income with another traditional job. Plus, days off are usually in flux. Walmart pays a low wage, there is no denying that. The benefit packages are a great start, and prove Walmart is beginning to understand the value of keeping employees happy, but all in all, it's not a friendly place to work on a corporate level. Individual stores do vary a lot though I hear.
In our state there is a class action suit that all employees will benefit from if they don't opt out. It's for forcing unpaid overtime. Jody's store is a damn good one as Walmart goes, and was not guilty of the offense. While she is barely eeking out an existence, she opted out. Partially out of (a somewhat reasonable) fear of retaliation. I know that it's highly unlikely, but in her position she can't afford to gamble. I am proud of her though because the primary reason she opted out is because it was the right thing to do.
But anyway, thats some of why I don't buy you singing Walmarts praises. Depending on the store experience may vary. But the bottom line is that are not even average as far as employers go. On a 1-10 scale from what I know, I'd rate them a four.
In our state there is a class action suit that all employees will benefit from if they don't opt out. It's for forcing unpaid overtime. Jody's store is a damn good one as Walmart goes, and was not guilty of the offense. While she is barely eeking out an existence, she opted out. Partially out of (a somewhat reasonable) fear of retaliation. I know that it's highly unlikely, but in her position she can't afford to gamble. I am proud of her though because the primary reason she opted out is because it was the right thing to do.
But anyway, thats some of why I don't buy you singing Walmarts praises. Depending on the store experience may vary. But the bottom line is that are not even average as far as employers go. On a 1-10 scale from what I know, I'd rate them a four.
jimpeel
Well-Known Member
Okay, here comes the long version. Grab yourself a Coke and get comfortable.
I moved to CO in 1994 and went to work at a place called MediaLogic in Boulder, CO. Came on as a temp and went captive after 90 days.
Later they closed the facility and laid everyone off except myself and a guy named Stan who was a programmer. They offered to keep me on but I had to move to MA and work at the Plainville, MA office. They paid all expenses to get me there and flew me and my wife out there for a six week stint to see if we would like to make it permanent. We did and they did. They also bumped my pay $12,000.
The job lasted for a year before they closed the doors for good. The place was so mismanaged that they couldn't find their ass with both hands.
They let the other designers work in what was comfortable for them and that meant that Greg was working in AutoCAD 10 (the current rev was 13) Neil didn't want to learn AutoCAD 13 because he was comfortable in ACAD 12. Neither of them would learn Pro-E which was part of the reason that I was brought back there.
Greg would design something in ACAD 10 and Neil would convert it to ACAD 12. ACAD 10 is upward compatible to ACAD 12 but not downward compatible. That meant that Greg was now out of the loop. Neil would finish the thing, transfer it to me and I would open it ACAD 13. ACAD 12 and 13 are upward and downward compatible so every time Neil wanted to work on a drawing I had modified he would convert it back to 12 which caused it to lose some features of 13.
In the meantime, I was converting everything to Pro-E so we would have true 3-D CADD capability. That just scratches the surface but you can see what I mean about the mismanagement.
After that, I went to T&B and worked on their fiber optic communications equipment. They had 16 captive employees and everyone else was a temp. The number 16 is significant because that is the number that you can have without having to offer benefits like family leave, etc.
I also worked in the connector division for a while which was located in the same building. We designed mass termination ZIF connectors for computer chips.
They laid me off and I returned to CO where I went to work for Quantum, Corp. Going in the door I knew that there were active discussions on moving the manufacturing portion to Panang. They had already sold off their hard drive division to Maxtor, Corp.
I was the coordinator for the sheet metal enclosure and magazine latching system for the Superloader DLT tape system. They were attempting to put a DLT cartridge loading system in 2U of space which in chassis rack terms means that they were going to get these things into a rack height of 3.5 inches. 1U is 1.75". As you can see by the illustration, we succeeded.
When the project was over I was assigned to the test equipment area where I was to redesign the test racks for maximum capability and serviceability. It was during this time that the word came down that the Panang deal was approved and that 900 of us would be seeing the door. I was in the first 300 out of there. That was August 9, 2001. A month later, 9/11 hit and the market for designers went soft. Very soft.
I watched the ads say "Wanted: Degreed Engineer, must know CAD." That meant that they were getting rid of the designers, which are the assistant to the engineer, and the engineer would be expected to take over those CAD and drafting duties. Because of the CAD tool they felt that the engineer would not need an assistant any more. He could simply put his ideas into the system himself. It will take a while for them to find out that engineers are a stubborn bunch who don't want to be doing that shit.
At the same time companies went into protectionism mode. The ads would say "Local candidates only. No relocation will be provided." H1-Bs etc were out.
I got one temp position that went three months in Longmont, CO. I was driving 108 miles one way every day. I put the house on the market. It took 56 showings before it sold even though it was only a year old and had upgrades, window treatments, landscaping, etc. I wasn't asking too much ($149,900) and in fact a new home by the same builder was at that time selling at a base price of $155,000 stripped.
When I sold the house I bought a 31' 1973 Airstream trailer and figured that I would go wherever I need to to get a job. In the meantime we moved into our friend's unfinished basement and stored all of our stuff. I still couldn't get anyone to talk to me.
There was one job with a job shop in San Jose, CA which I called on. I told her that I was in CO but was totally moibile. She said "Well, they're (the client) pretty firm on the local candidate requirement." I said "I can be a local candidate tomorrow." She said "Wekll, they're pretty firm on the local candidate requirement." to which I answered "Did you hear what I just said? I can be there in 24 hours." When she stared to say it again I simply gave up, bade her farewell and hung up the phone.
I had UI but that came to an end after a year so I told my wife that I was going to try to get a job as a maintenance type at a hotel, motel, group home, apartment complex, etc., which would pay a wage plus apartment.
We got a job as the resident managers for First Interstate Inns which was a small chain which was based mainly along I-80. My unit was in Kimball, NE on I-80 20 miles east of the NE/WY border (about 60 miles east of Cheyenne). The starting wage was $5.15 / hr for me and $5.35 / hr for my wife. She was the manager and I was the asst. manager. We rented rooms, cleaned, repaired, etc. 24 hrs per day but got paid for 8. If the bell rang in the middle of the night I would get up and rent them a room.
I still had the debts of a guy who made $75,000+ but by taking that type of job I got rid of the things that take most of your wages -- rent and utilities. I was able to sell the airstream, pay off my truck and we were comfortable. Best of all, we didn't have to bankrupt and you guys didn't have to pay my debts.
We did that for 2 years.
At that point, the in-laws called from CA and said they wanted to get out of there. It was supposed to take two months but took nearly a year. We quit our jobs and my FIL paid our bills for that year. I went through the house and did the painting, flooring, roof, etc. etc. adnauseum and got rid of the sixteen years of neglect. They sold the house for $645,000 on a triple contingency (Yeah, yeah, I know. Never sell on a single contingency and a double contingency is a sale killer; but don't try to tell that to my FIL.) It all worked out.
We bought a 24' high cube GMC C-6500 box truck, loaded it up and headed to CO. We resold the truck when we got here and made $3,500.
The in-laws bought a POS house in Longmont which had ironically had 16 years of neglect. They cashed it out at ~$300,000 so they have no debts except taxes and utilities. If they had stayed in CA they would have eventually lost the house.
Wal-Mart had a hiring center for the new Supercenter so I applied. I worked there before the store opened and I was in First In-Stock. We loaded the shelves, etc in preparation for opening the store. When it opened I went to being a cashier. I have now been there 2 years.
What it comes down to is this:
Any job at any wage is better than begging or stealing. I'm not the type to sit and wait for "my ship to come in". You can't eat pride. Shit in one hand and put your pride in the other and see which one fills up first.
I have now been off the board for six years. No one wants me because they want Bob Bitchin' to show up and start producing the moment his ass hits the chair. I need some ramp time to get back to speed. I also have what I call the "version mentality" to deal with. "Oh, you finished up on Pro-E 200i2? I'm sorry, we're using Pro-E 2006." The program hasn't changed that much. Parametric Technology did make a major change with their Wildfire version but it is exactly like SolidWorks and I could handle that. I would still need some ramp time however.
No one wants to give you ramp time. I have even applied for entry level positions to no avail. Eventually something will come along. The problem is that what has come along has been temp positions which are short term. I can't afford to quit my job and find myself on the bricks three months later with no prospects. I have bills to pay.
So I make the best of what I have and I go in there and bust my ass because that is what I contracted to do on the day I was hired. They pay me a full days wage so I give them a full days effort. I was raised that if you don't, you are stealing.
See Ya.