I think you'd find it extremely apropos, given your current situation. The only job that seems to make her crack is Wal-Mart.El Vez wrote:We picked up Nickel & Dimed the other day but I still haven't gotten around to reading it.
Possible E.C. board book club
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miss buenos aires
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Yeah, I read a summary where she had to fill out a job questionnaire that asked "Sometimes employees work better when they're a little high." I remember when the book came out that the reviews focused on what a beating Wal-Mart took. Being watched by surveillance cameras for signs of sloth and drug abuse at the work place being the tip of the iceberg.
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Misha
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Unfortunately in a bad phase of my life ten years ago I worked at Walmart...I haven't read Nickel and Dimed, but I can tell you that you should not spend your money there. I worked there for a year and a half in the garden department cause I love plants. Found out that WM doesn't give a shit about life, plant or otherwise.
The would hire the disabled and then work them too many or too little hours, and they were always in the display position of People Greeter, so that way you knew that they were hiring the disabled. I knew the disabled at our store and they were at the mercy of disabled bussing systems, of which they would be late, then WM would get pissed. They treated them like cattle. Also, old people....they would hire them and put them in highly physical positions, now, I'm not against a 75 year old working, but he shouldn't be hustling his ass all damn day to get stuff done, much less working off of the clock so he doesn't get fired. They don't say stay after off the clock, but they do tell you to clock out at 8 hours, no overtime, not even one minute, but if it isn't done, you are toast.
Now, to the worst thing about wm. They are jerks. If you have Spiderman baseball cards, you can't sell them there unless you give wm a better deal. I bring this up in particular, cause it happened when I worked there. The spman guys wanted to sell their baseball cards at wm, wm said sure, but you have to do something that is just for us, that people can't get anywhere else, or fuck off. They haggled, and then finally gave in to wm. You could only get a special card if you bought your packs at wm.
They do this with most things. They have fabulous prices, I agree...but you should see what they pay for things. If deodorant costs 2.97 on the shelf, you can bet your butt they paid 1.00 for it. Sure they discount, but they are so hitleresqe with their control of the people's products they sell, they can afford to.
Check it out next time you go...you will find all sorts of products have a buy this and get this free thing, or special package stuff....the companies don't come up with this idea...wm does....you wanna sell your toaster,,,,give us a whisk in the package for free...it's crap.
Also, a LOT of their products come from China and other places, they just promote the ones that come from America. Oh, and lots of their stuff comes from America, but they control those companies too.....
Geez, I just realized that I'm on a soap box....I'll step down now...sorry, but try not to shop at wm.....
The would hire the disabled and then work them too many or too little hours, and they were always in the display position of People Greeter, so that way you knew that they were hiring the disabled. I knew the disabled at our store and they were at the mercy of disabled bussing systems, of which they would be late, then WM would get pissed. They treated them like cattle. Also, old people....they would hire them and put them in highly physical positions, now, I'm not against a 75 year old working, but he shouldn't be hustling his ass all damn day to get stuff done, much less working off of the clock so he doesn't get fired. They don't say stay after off the clock, but they do tell you to clock out at 8 hours, no overtime, not even one minute, but if it isn't done, you are toast.
Now, to the worst thing about wm. They are jerks. If you have Spiderman baseball cards, you can't sell them there unless you give wm a better deal. I bring this up in particular, cause it happened when I worked there. The spman guys wanted to sell their baseball cards at wm, wm said sure, but you have to do something that is just for us, that people can't get anywhere else, or fuck off. They haggled, and then finally gave in to wm. You could only get a special card if you bought your packs at wm.
They do this with most things. They have fabulous prices, I agree...but you should see what they pay for things. If deodorant costs 2.97 on the shelf, you can bet your butt they paid 1.00 for it. Sure they discount, but they are so hitleresqe with their control of the people's products they sell, they can afford to.
Check it out next time you go...you will find all sorts of products have a buy this and get this free thing, or special package stuff....the companies don't come up with this idea...wm does....you wanna sell your toaster,,,,give us a whisk in the package for free...it's crap.
Also, a LOT of their products come from China and other places, they just promote the ones that come from America. Oh, and lots of their stuff comes from America, but they control those companies too.....
Geez, I just realized that I'm on a soap box....I'll step down now...sorry, but try not to shop at wm.....
Where are the strong?
Who are the trusted?
Who are the trusted?
It's kind of an important soap-box, though, Misha.
The getting the special deal thing seems okay at first blush. Or maybe not. It's pure capitalism in action. It's just that it forces the companies they deal with to do more with less and you can bet that it's the employees who bear the brunt of the cost cuts. This is most serious in the food industry where, as per the author of "Fast Food Nation" (haven't read it, just read brief excerpts, heard long interviews), McDonalds and Burger King artificially have forced the price of meat way, way down. The result is that the meat-packing industry has gone from being a pretty reasonable way to make a living to a really dangerous (they have to cut the meat at insane speeds), really poorly paid position.
This is why we need a lot more regulation in this country. Reagan "got the government off our (i.e., big business's) back. Now, the corporations on our backs, our heads and every other part of our bodie! Businesses are amoral engines and need to be watched like hawks. I'm not saying they are evil or should be abolished, it's just like they're little children who have no moral training, they should be supervised and kept away from sharp objects!
Also, this working off-the-clock business is a national sickness. To me, there are few things nothing more disgusting than forcing poorly paid people to work without getting paid at all...forget overtime, they're not getting paid at all! Apparently, slavery didn't end with the Civil War.
Seriously, folks, try not to shop at Wal-Mart! (For myself, I did buy my TV there in more innocent days, but that's all! Hated shopping there,too.)
The getting the special deal thing seems okay at first blush. Or maybe not. It's pure capitalism in action. It's just that it forces the companies they deal with to do more with less and you can bet that it's the employees who bear the brunt of the cost cuts. This is most serious in the food industry where, as per the author of "Fast Food Nation" (haven't read it, just read brief excerpts, heard long interviews), McDonalds and Burger King artificially have forced the price of meat way, way down. The result is that the meat-packing industry has gone from being a pretty reasonable way to make a living to a really dangerous (they have to cut the meat at insane speeds), really poorly paid position.
This is why we need a lot more regulation in this country. Reagan "got the government off our (i.e., big business's) back. Now, the corporations on our backs, our heads and every other part of our bodie! Businesses are amoral engines and need to be watched like hawks. I'm not saying they are evil or should be abolished, it's just like they're little children who have no moral training, they should be supervised and kept away from sharp objects!
Also, this working off-the-clock business is a national sickness. To me, there are few things nothing more disgusting than forcing poorly paid people to work without getting paid at all...forget overtime, they're not getting paid at all! Apparently, slavery didn't end with the Civil War.
Seriously, folks, try not to shop at Wal-Mart! (For myself, I did buy my TV there in more innocent days, but that's all! Hated shopping there,too.)
http://www.forwardtoyesterday.com -- Where "hopelessly dated" is a compliment!
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selfmademug
NICKEL & DIMED is a good read. The best lesson from it is this: it is really, really expensive to be poor. Contingent services like check-cashing centers rather than bank accounts, or housing that rents by the week or even day, are hugely more expensive than the services available to you if you have a bit of dough, just to cite two examples.
Another intersting tidbit: all the places that do drug testing only test for weed. If you're a crackhead or a heroin addict, no prob. But a few tokes the previous weekend and you're a depraved addict who deserves to be out on the street, which is where you'll get your ass kicked...
As to WalMart, I only read this part of the thread quickly but you know they are the target of a class action discrimination suit being prepared which would be the largest in US history. The suit regards systematic pay and promotion discrimination against female employees. Literally MILLIONS of women would be covered by the suit. I've long been contemplating a t-shirt that uses the WM smileyface logo but with a tiny change:
We pay women less.... always!!
Another intersting tidbit: all the places that do drug testing only test for weed. If you're a crackhead or a heroin addict, no prob. But a few tokes the previous weekend and you're a depraved addict who deserves to be out on the street, which is where you'll get your ass kicked...
As to WalMart, I only read this part of the thread quickly but you know they are the target of a class action discrimination suit being prepared which would be the largest in US history. The suit regards systematic pay and promotion discrimination against female employees. Literally MILLIONS of women would be covered by the suit. I've long been contemplating a t-shirt that uses the WM smileyface logo but with a tiny change:
We pay women less.... always!!
Last edited by selfmademug on Thu Sep 25, 2003 7:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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LessThanZero
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LessThanZero
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Had a bone-chilling conversation with one of my managers last night on the subject of Wal Mart. I told him that I had picked up the book and that WM takes a pretty nasty hit in it. The reason I broached the subject was because I know that his previous job was as an assistant manager over at our Maryville Wal Mart and that he has never had anything especially nice to say about it.
According to him, he was a very evil guy over there and that he (along with every other manager there) was pushed pretty hard to get in touch with their inner asshole. He talked about how, despite having a few token female managers, Wal Mart was ESPECIALLY not a good place to work if you were a woman and looking for any kind of advancement. That the author of Nickel & Dimed was a highly educated and accomplished woman who could barely score a bottom-scraping gig there did not suprise him. "Women don't advance in Wal Mart" were his exact word. He then told me about how they would hire a ton of people for Xmas and then fire them all shortly after the rush was over. His nickname there was "The Terminator" and once he made a deal with the other managers that he would get rid of all 30 employees on their "See Ya" list that very day if they would see to it that he didn't have to answer any floor calls for the entire work day. They agreed and he called them in one-by-one and systematically canned them without blinking an eye.
He also told me, to reiterate an earlier post, how Wal Mart would bully vendors and MAKE them accept what they want to pay and then turn right around and sell their products at prices lower than what their competitors were buying them for. Losing tons of money was not a problem as long as competitors were run out of business.
Wal Mart scares the shit out of me.
According to him, he was a very evil guy over there and that he (along with every other manager there) was pushed pretty hard to get in touch with their inner asshole. He talked about how, despite having a few token female managers, Wal Mart was ESPECIALLY not a good place to work if you were a woman and looking for any kind of advancement. That the author of Nickel & Dimed was a highly educated and accomplished woman who could barely score a bottom-scraping gig there did not suprise him. "Women don't advance in Wal Mart" were his exact word. He then told me about how they would hire a ton of people for Xmas and then fire them all shortly after the rush was over. His nickname there was "The Terminator" and once he made a deal with the other managers that he would get rid of all 30 employees on their "See Ya" list that very day if they would see to it that he didn't have to answer any floor calls for the entire work day. They agreed and he called them in one-by-one and systematically canned them without blinking an eye.
He also told me, to reiterate an earlier post, how Wal Mart would bully vendors and MAKE them accept what they want to pay and then turn right around and sell their products at prices lower than what their competitors were buying them for. Losing tons of money was not a problem as long as competitors were run out of business.
Wal Mart scares the shit out of me.
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martinfoyle
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NICKEL & DIMED sounds like a fascinating read.El Vez wrote:Had a bone-chilling conversation with one of my managers last night on the subject of Wal Mart. I told him that I had picked up the book and that WM takes a pretty nasty hit in it. The reason I broached the subject was because I know that his previous job was as an assistant manager over at our Maryville Wal Mart and that he has never had anything especially nice to say about it.
According to him, he was a very evil guy over there and that he (along with every other manager there) was pushed pretty hard to get in touch with their inner asshole. He talked about how, despite having a few token female managers, Wal Mart was ESPECIALLY not a good place to work if you were a woman and looking for any kind of advancement. That the author of Nickel & Dimed was a highly educated and accomplished woman who could barely score a bottom-scraping gig there did not suprise him. "Women don't advance in Wal Mart" were his exact word. He then told me about how they would hire a ton of people for Xmas and then fire them all shortly after the rush was over. His nickname there was "The Terminator" and once he made a deal with the other managers that he would get rid of all 30 employees on their "See Ya" list that very day if they would see to it that he didn't have to answer any floor calls for the entire work day. They agreed and he called them in one-by-one and systematically canned them without blinking an eye.
He also told me, to reiterate an earlier post, how Wal Mart would bully vendors and MAKE them accept what they want to pay and then turn right around and sell their products at prices lower than what their competitors were buying them for. Losing tons of money was not a problem as long as competitors were run out of business.
Wal Mart scares the shit out of me.
10 years ago I was a trainee manager at an Irish version of Wal Mart. I knew I was'nt going to progress too far from day one when I saw the neanderthals that were my fellow trainees. Crass manipulation of all resources, not clever, was the order of the day since it got good short term results, never mind it created an unpleasant atmosphere and high burn-out of labour at all levels. Of the 15 trainees that started with me, less than 5 were still there a year later. I managed to stick it for 3 1/2 years until I got my student loan paid off. It's hard to describe how unpleasant the job was and while it gave me a good grounding in practical retail management, it was truly awful at the time.
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Misha
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Bobster,
I've got Fast Food Nation, it is burning a hole in my bookcase....I'm going to buy Nickel and Dimed, along with Dude, Where's My Country? I just got Lies and the Lying Liars...or whatever by Al Franken. I sense a theme in my literature...
I would get in on the lawsuit w/wm, but I also detest lawsuit parties. I was (ok still am) a female in wm. I was an assistant manager that didn't get promoted, while lots of men did. I figured it was a thinking thing, as I spent a lot of time saying, why? I spent a lot of time telling people to go home if they were sick, etc.......possibly a thorn, and figured that was it, now I know it was the twins......hmmm......money from wm? Not a bad deal.....
hmmmm......
Bobster, please don't forget to vote!!! Or, he'll be back....
I've got Fast Food Nation, it is burning a hole in my bookcase....I'm going to buy Nickel and Dimed, along with Dude, Where's My Country? I just got Lies and the Lying Liars...or whatever by Al Franken. I sense a theme in my literature...
I would get in on the lawsuit w/wm, but I also detest lawsuit parties. I was (ok still am) a female in wm. I was an assistant manager that didn't get promoted, while lots of men did. I figured it was a thinking thing, as I spent a lot of time saying, why? I spent a lot of time telling people to go home if they were sick, etc.......possibly a thorn, and figured that was it, now I know it was the twins......hmmm......money from wm? Not a bad deal.....
hmmmm......
Bobster, please don't forget to vote!!! Or, he'll be back....
Where are the strong?
Who are the trusted?
Who are the trusted?