Black Friday ruckus, firing changes 73-year-old Walmart greeter's life

[Tony_FLADEM]

ST. PETERSBURG

Jan Sullivan scoots back on the brown suede couch, and her slippers dangle off the edge. At 4 feet 11, her toes don't quite touch the floor.

She stares at a blue plastic cup filled with unsweet Lipton perched on her lap. Her cheeks are flushed, her eyes bloodshot. Her lips quiver. She's 73, a hard, self-made woman, raised on corn farms and cattle ranches. She is not a crier. But these last seven months have tried her.

Behind the couch, a window overlooks her front yard. Past wind chimes suspended from of a banyan tree, a white 4 by 4 post is dug into the St. Augustine grass. The words on the sign are bold and bright red: "SOLD IN 1 DAY."


http://www.tampabay.com/features/humaninterest/black-friday-ruckus-firing-changes-73-year-old-walmart-greeters-life/1237349

[bluedigger]

1. Sad story.

Never depend on your employer for happiness. To them you are just an asset, like a desk, or a wastepaper basket.

[lonestarnot]

2. Expendable.

[csziggy]

29. Yes, and if she had fallen instead of "touching a customer"

And broken her hip as could be likely for a 73 year old woman, her crappy Walmart health care would not have covered her medical expenses, Walmart would probably have fired her when her recovery took too long, and she would have ended up in the same position - unemployed and in debt. Walmart would have figured out a way to screw her out of workman's comp just so they could get rid of her.

Expendable is right - for corporations every low level employee is expendable.

[laundry_queen]

3. That's for sure.

I know a lot of people who depend on their workplace for a social life (hell, they spend most of their time there afterall). They are going to be sorely disappointed someday.

Sad story. I hate zero tolerance policies. They are only for the feeble-minded. Likely the policy was used, in this case (I think anyway, because I'm jaded and cynical) to get rid of an employee who was too high on the pay scale.

[bluedigger]

4. No doubt.

They cut their costs for that position by at least 50%.

[HiPointDem]

6. she maxed out at $15/hr. omg, they could have been paying someone $8.

dirty pricks.

[PatSeg]

37. Exactly

I've seen it happen many times. They were just looking for a reason to replace her with a minimum wage employee.

[blueamy66]

14. but there are always bridges to burn

my guy is doing it right now....getting screwed by his employer.....FMLA issues.....lucky I have a good friend who is a lawyer and "knows" the right attorney.....and he has good friends in the business

[DotGone]

5. Wally World and their ilk don't like long time employees

She was too expensive so they were looking for anything to fire her for and this was it.

[Selatius]

7. When will people learn that Walmart is no friend to any worker there?

The fact that they're so vehemently against the choice of workers to join a labor union speaks enough about them. Their workforce is so poorly paid half of them draw Medicaid and food stamps on the taxpayers' dime.

[magical thyme]

8. sorry for her...but not

Sorry that her father told her -- like mine once told me -- the education is wasted on girls because they'll just get married and pregnant.
At least my mother, who also beat me, fought to make sure my sisters and I got a chance at education.

Sorry that she has apparently made a lifetime of bad choices.

But, and this is a big but...

"About four years ago, she got $50,000 (profit sharing from Walmart). Sullivan didn't know where to invest the money, so she sank it into her house: Italian wood cabinets, Brazilian wood flooring, quartz countertops."

She's crying because she lost $14K on the sale of her house? I'm trying to sell mine with a $50K loss and can't. Maybe instead of linoleum I should have put in brazilian wood flooring.

She's crying because she has to move into a trailer? How about the people who have done everything right or made a single mistake and lost everything and now live in a cardboard box?

Her salary maxed out at $15.32/hr.

Excuse me, but I just finished a grueling Med Lab Tech program in order to "retrain" myself in healthcare, in a field that supposedly is growing at 14%/year. I have nearly 40 years work experience, everything from flipping burgers to clerk to admin to professional, a BS degree from a good school already, got this degree summa cum laude. And my salary is all of $15.39/hr. I *thought* I'd be doing a worthy job and a classmate and I were told by local hospital HR that starting salary was $20/hour, which justified the student loans I would otherwise have *never* taken out. Oh, and there is no work. Hospitals are cutting back.

People's lives depend on the work I do, I run and care for million dollar scientific instruments, I have to draw blood from very sick, potential infectious and sometimes combative patients, I've been threatened and bullied into working 12 hour overnight shifts. Because of cutbacks, we now run -- and I mean RUN -- from the moment we walk in until we leave. God forbid we should make a mistake because someone could die as a result. I'm lucky some days to get 15 minutes for a meal break. Let everybody ahead of me eff up, and I'm the one who ends up with a doctor in my face yelling.

I can't help but feel that the work I do *should* be worth a little more than a sales person or greeter at Walmart.

[MattBaggins]

9. Me me me.. The real national Anthem of America

Your entire post is the reason why the saying "I can hire one half of the working class to kill the other" holds true.

[magical thyme]

12. sorry you feel that way

But:

1. If I don't take care of "me, me, me" who the fuck is going to?

2. How do you justify paying somebody to do a job that requires no education, minimal training, no experience (every job she's held can be gotten straight from high school) the same wages as a job that requires significant personal investment -- financial, time, effort -- in training? And that is, frankly, far more physically demanding as well.

3. She had a tough start, but then made a whole string of shitty choices throughout her life, according to the article I read. I didn't see a single good choice mentioned there. Did she ever do *anything* that turned out well?

Some people would take that $50K windfall and stick it in a bank account for a while to think things through, so at least they'd have $50K instead of somehow believing, in the middle of a housing crash, that italian wood cabinets and brazilian wood floors were somehow an "investment."

Some people, on leaving a bad marriage, taking whatever job they could get, and opting to stay single, would use their spare time to get a GED, and then maybe go on to vocational school or college to improve their earning capacity. She chose not to.

But it's not as though she was defrauded out of her windfall, or scammed into working at Wallie's World for substandard wages. Nobody lied to her, at least in that article. Wallie's didn't renege on a contract and mock her to go ahead and just try to sue them. Should they have fired her? I don't know...we only know her word against theirs. Maybe they fired her because she was working below her pay grade. Maybe they fired her for making a bad decision and grabbing onto the customer. Or maybe she is facing the same thing that a lot of us are facing in a downsizing world -- backstabbing by one or more other employees trying to hang onto their jobs. For that, she gets my sympathy.

But that $50K was hers to piss away, the $14K loss on her house is minimal in this environment, moving from a house to a doublewide is hardly the end of the world, and her car payment could be avoided as well.

At her age, maybe she should consider renting instead of owning, and living in a small, walkable city with public transportation. At least she still has options available other than a cardboard box.

She gets limited sympathy from me. There are other people who made far better choices, worked hard, saved, and were defrauded and scammed out of everything they worked for, are now living in the streets, unemployable and who may not make it to collect social security. They get far more sympathy from me than she does.

[Chan790]

20. Answers.

1.) This is why labor solidarity and organizing is important. "me, me, me" allows the bossman to fuck you and me. "me, me, me" is a cancer. Having started a union before (twice), it's really not that hard to say "we, we, we" when the bossman is fucking both of you. You don't even have to call it a union or join a union or charge union dues or have the backing of a organized union...you just turn to the worker next to you and say "the next time these motherfuckers mistreat any of us, we both stop working. Pass it on." It's corollary to something Saul Alinsky said about slumlords "They can get rid of one or a few of you, but they can't get rid of all of you if you stick together." Bring production to a stop once even just momentarily and they get the idea. Do it twice and they wonder what's wrong with you. The third time, you don't return to work after a moment...you give them the list of agreed-upon demands. They're going to think they can intimidate you by firing one of you, you add that person's rehire onto the demands list and you walk the fuck out. Together.

2.) Seniority and experience. Otherwise you just have wage-churning that benefits the employers at the expense of the labor. You stand up for the Wal-Mart greeter with years of experience because if they can fire her easily at the top of her pay-scale to replace her at the bottom of the pay-scale...then they can do the same to you when you start to make more than they can replace you for. Your education and training are replaceable cheaply, her seniority is not...she's more valuable in her role than you are in yours no matter what you might think of her education or status level. Your wage is lower because she just got fired in a disparate field, a tactic that allows wage-depression across the board. Seniority protections increase wages of new hires too...if the top CNS in your unit is making $30.75, you're not taking $15.30 even if she started at $12.71. You're pointing to what that CNS is making and saying "No, closer to that." and so is every other new hire.

3.) I see no relevance to this. The right to a fair-wage and labor-protection is dependent upon luck and having made life-decisions you find acceptable...I daresay you're no Democrat or laborer I want to hold the line for. But, I'd do it anyways because it benefits "we, we, we"

[mysuzuki2]

27. I think you are missing the point which is how Walmart does not

valus its employees. Also, I think you are being a bit mean spirited.

[thelordofhell]

10. Maybe someone should write an article about you

So that some internet jockey can post a reply that that basically says, "Screw her, this is what I do!!"

[myrna minx]

11. Wow. Nice compassion you have there, considering people's lives depend on what you do and all.

How do you feel about organized labor? Asset to the working class who raises the standards of all workers, or people who get more then you?

[magical thyme]

13. I never had the opportunity to join a union

I always supported unions.

Unfortunately, whenever I told a union member that I didn't belong to a union, they essentially told me that made me a horrible person. No union member ever once offered a bit of information about how to bring a union to my work, not a lead, not a contact. Nothing but a big fuck you.

Guess that's the treatment you can expect from those who label people less fortunate than they are "scabs."

Oh, and come into my hospital when you are actually sick, and yes, you will have my full compassion. Even at 2am, when I'm fighting nausea and exhaustion. But if you're just one of those whiners looking for attention (they call them frequent fliers there), and you'll only get my pretend compassion. If you're not sick and sufficiently nasty, I'll probably find somebody else to help you whose better at drawing then I am. Maybe the lab assistant I watched deliberately pull out the *biggest* needle in her box.

[myrna minx]

16. I don't even know how to respond to this nasty approach to health care.

Wow.

[obamanut2012]

18. Me either

I wrote and deleted several replies. I have relatives and friends who are doctors, nurses, med techs, etc., and none of them have this POV. I teach classes at a community college where quite a few of my students go on to become CNAs, and some continue their education to become LPNs or RNs. They don't think like this.

I am absolutely shocked at the contempt and loathing for patients, and for that poor woman in the OP.

I also really liked the dig at union members.

[myrna minx]

19. If this person actually works in health care, then the union members they encounter on a

regular basis would be nurses. Are we to believe that union member nurses tell him that he's a horrible person for not being in a union, never had suggestions for becoming unionized and calls people "scabs"?

The contempt for patients and unprofessional attitude is just shocking to me too.

[magical thyme]

34. not to my knowledge

It has been about 8 or 9 years since I've had any sort of union conversation with a union member, that I can think of. I don't believe there is a union at this hospital, but the lab is a separate entity so I don't know details of the hospitals inner workings.

The nurses during the day have been excellent. The night nurses have been mixed. One is very good; the rest at times have been very unprofessional to my way of thinking.

My direct experience was that they (frequently) incorrectly order timed draws. As a result, the draws did not show up in my pending list or print out orders, so I was unaware of them.

Unfortunately, one particularly horrendous night there were 3 times draws for 2am exactly; all 3 were ordered incorrectly and so I was oblivious to them.

I got the 1st call around 2:30. And the next thing you know, I had several nurses and a doctor following me around screaming at me to do theirs next and demanding to know why was I late. They didn't believe that I didn't receive the orders, complained about having to print them out for me (you know, so I could see where to go, who to draw, what to draw), and barely stopped short of accusing me of lying.

In my mind, the professional response would have been to work as a team and offer to help, and sort out the mistakes later. That is their responsibility to the patients as well as mine. They are trained to draw ... all of them. I am 1 person responsible for running qc and maintaining the entire lab alone, and responsible for drawing and running ER stats, and responsible for drawing up on OB without notice.

Yelling at me, following me around and blaming me for not having the orders was unbelievably unprofessional, imo. If they ever complained about the overdue timed draws, I never heard about it. That would be because every keystroke is saved by the system, which would have been investigated and proved that they made the mistakes.

Other fun mistakes are when they order timed draws for the wrong times, and I find myself running up and down floors for no good reason.

[Ikonoklast]

21. You don't how to use a telephone?

Call any Union local about wanting to organize your workplace first.

And you, too, are guilty of 'bad choices' as you failed to fully investigate your potential pay rate before investing in further schooling.

You took their word at face value.

[magical thyme]

25. silly me, silly us

I believed the word of the HR representative at the local hospital. So did a classmate. It never dawned on either of us that we were being lied to and set up. FWIW, I also researched federal government statistics on the salary ranges. Unfortunately, the range is very large due to some states requiring licensing and certification, some requiring only certification, and some requiring nothing but on-the-job training.

I don't know of any local union. There is none listed in the phone book.

[xmas74]

28. I've helped unionize before.

It's not in the phone book. You obviously have internet-do a search. Heck, just pick one and call them. Call information and ask for the local number for the Teamsters, for the local number for ASFCME, for UAW, etc. Guess what? You call any of them, speak with someone and tell them what field you work in and they'll tell you exactly who to contact. They'll also give you the national contact info for that union. Contact the national and they'll pass your info down to your local.

And I would never speak with HR about unions. No way they'll ever tell the truth, even if a union is on grounds.

[magical thyme]

36. thank you, xmas74

Most of the time the subject came up there was no internet. Just phone, face to face.

The last time was 9 or so ago when I hired a friend's husband and his brother for some side work. We built my barn together, I brought them food and drink and we got it up on weekends. I told them to charge me whatever, I just needed to get my old horse home to retire him. They hardly charged me anything and we bickered about it -- are you *sure* this is all you want? -- and then I paid them on the spot.

At that time I was unemployed, so not thinking in terms of forming a union just looking for work.

Unfortunately, his wife was not such a friend after all. It turned out that the anonymous threat I'd gotten in a horse forum when I'd said I was moving here came from her. And after we finished the barn and I paid them, she badmouthed me to my horse cyber-friends. So I never saw any of them again.

[cwydro]

22. Yikes.

I hope you don't really work in health care.

[magical thyme]

26. hopefully not for much longer

Last edited Wed Jul 4, 2012, 12:55 PM - Edit history (1)

I didn't start with this attitude, but I sure have ended hating where I am. My attitude didn't sink down to their level until a few weeks ago when they hired my replacement and cut my hours back. I only wish they would fire me so I would have an excuse to take my experiences with them down to their headquarters. But they won't fire me because I know where too many of their skeletons are buried. If you saw the sausage being made, you wouldn't be too eager to come here, either.

And I am always compassionate and empathetic, or at least make myself act it with patients who are difficult. If they are too difficult and argumentative, I get a phlebotomist or more experienced tech because they are better at it than I am. And yes, I actually had one ask me to hand her the "green one" for a giggling, young woman that insisted she needed a butterfly draw. And yes, the green needle is the big one.

Until a couple weeks ago, I was running myself into the ground trying to be good enough. Even while they were sticking it to me every step of the way. It became clear when I saw how they treated their new night person in direct comparison to how I was treated, from day 1.

Her 1st 2 hours were safety overview and orientation. I got that same overview and orientation in under 30 minutes my 1st day, right when I was scheduled to go home. She was assigned one tech as a "mentor." I was passed around like a hot potato.

We both started with a hematology rotation. The *former* hematology lead tech was never informed I was starting that day, very angry when I introduced myself and refused to train me because they had not hired her back full time when she returned after resigning a year earlier. I spent 1 day/week with that former lead tech who refused to train me. 1 day/week with a tech who didn't speak English. 1 day/week with somebody incompetent and unwilling to train. And 1 day/week with somebody competent and willing to train. (Oh, and the incompetent tech? He is full time, has been caught viewing pornography at work, apparently repeatedly. So they've moved him to another facility most of the time. Now he just goes to medical sites to view his "porn" safely.)

I was handed a bunch of checklists. 2 weeks later, I asked them who was supposed to sign off on them. "Oh, whoever." Seriously. "Oh, whoever." So I spent another 2 weeks begging the various techs to train me officially and sign off on them. They refused because they weren't the lead tech, and they didn't want to step on the former lead techs toes. Finally, the last week she made up an entire new set of checklists and ran me through the training and signoffs in about 3 days. But I was labeled "slow" for taking a month to get through the initial rotation.

For the next new hire, they had finally re-hired the hema tech, and she spent 2 weeks on that rotation with full training willingly given by the re-hired lead

My next 2 rotations went normally. If you consider it normal for a lead blood bank tech to melt down with a typing discrepancy. "I don't know what to do! I don't know what to do? What should I do? I've never been a blood banker! I've always been a generalist!" I kept my head, checked the manual for policy and explained it to her. She wasn't playing a game with me. She was honestly melting down.

Then the final rotation, the lead tech berated me all day, every day. To a point where at least one witness to it complained to management. To a point where a visiting service person for the water supply noticed, commented on it to me when the tech was out of earshot, and was so stressed by it he forgot to re-plug in the water supply, bringing the analyzer down for several hours later that day. And then that rotation ended, and I thought ok, everything will be ok now. And I started my phlebotomy rotation.

And then a phlebotomist told a brain-damaged janitor friend of hers who had fixated on me that I was going to "touch base" and have coffee with him, when I had specifically told her 3 times in a row that I was not interested in dating anybody and that I had just lost my SO to early onset alzheimers. It turned out this janitor has a history of fixating on a woman and not accepting no for an answer (he pestered the last one until she got married), is divorced, has a son who doesn't speak to him, is an alcoholic and more. If you think I wanted to have to file a sexual harassment complaint 4 months into a new job and a new career, you are mistaken. The janitor stalked me around the hallways for months, to the point where I would not leave the lab except to go to my car. He also went to 3 other techs and assistant techs gleaning private information about me, using what he got from one to get more from the next. That's 4 that I know of; I have no idea how many other people he approached or what info they gave him. I do know that only *one* handled it properly and professionally, gave him no info and told him to leave me alone.

When he was unable to get my attention in the hallways by yelling down the hall or across the cafeteria at me, he moved into the lab itself and while I was there alone, with 3 critical patients to test in a row, including: a critical arterial blood gas pre-intubation, a baby's arterial and venal blood gases, a critical potassium, and the first patient's critical blood gas post-intubation, he deliberately slammed me into the desk and computing not once, but 4 times while I was entering and phoning life critical results.

I was alone it was evening and there was nobody to take it to and, frankly, with 3 critical patients, no time. The next time I was at the lab,again alone in the evening, he physically blocked me from entering the lab, forcing me into conversation with him. He got 2 words, "Fuck. Off." He complained about me and they told him to leave me alone. But that didn't stop him from again trying to get my attention in the hallways, when I finally had the opportunity to say to him, "We are not friends. We are not acquaintances. Leave. Me. Alone. Please."

And then came the fight over nights. I had made clear in my interview that it would be difficult, but in an emergency I thought I could. I am per diem. That means I work only when they need me. It also is supposed to mean that I can say no. Apparently I was mistaken in believing that I had any rights. I was bullied and threatened. Quite frankly terrified by the lab manager, alone in her office. I told her I would do the best I could, and I did. I later learned I am not the first. I have seen lead techs with decades of experience leave her office with totally white, frightened faces. They forced me to work 12 hour overnights interspersed with days. Again with minimum training, compared to the training their new night person got (less than half the training, and only with 1 new to nights tech, and not their longtime night tech. I presume because I'd been driven to file the sexual harassment complaint and the long time night tech is male.)

And during that time my horse got sick and I didn't see the symptoms in time because I was working all night and sleeping all day. I had to euthanize and bury him in February.

And then I thought, now everything will be ok. And for 2 months it was, until they brought in a consultant who told them to cut back 2 full time positions. Instead, they closed one open req, hired another per diem and have cut my hours.

As far as I'm concerned, I did my best. I didn't start out with a pissy attitude. My failure here is their failure. They have taught me to hate this work.

So go ahead. Have at it. I honestly don't care.

I'm sorry for all the students who got suckered in and now are financially ruined with no way out and committing suicide. Kicking the can down the road is a temporary reprieve at best. Sorrier for them who believed in what they were doing, and ran themselves into the ground... and were scammed and defrauded. Like I read over at a scamblog earlier, at least with cars there are lemon laws.

[Oilwellian]

23. Oh really?

If you're not sick and sufficiently nasty, I'll probably find somebody else to help you whose better at drawing then I am. Maybe the lab assistant I watched deliberately pull out the *biggest* needle in her box.

Since when did phlebologists diagnose the patients they draw blood from? Perhaps you should realize you too have made a mistake in choosing this type of career. You are without a doubt a danger to the patients who appear before you. Jan, in the article, didn't deserve to be fired. You on the other hand...one can only hope your supervisor will soon recognize your attitude and lack of professionalism is a liability and you are transferred to a different position. You may not be able to maintain your present wage though since you wouldn't be suffering from an injury on the job.

Your responses have been breathtaking and you would do fellow DU'ers a favor by telling them where "your hospital" is.

[Brickbat]

24. One of the biggest misconceptions about unions is that "they" will "come in" and hold your hand

through the organizing process. Nope, you have to want it. You have to want to do the hard work, because the union you're building is your own, it belongs to you, and you are what makes it. They aren't really interested committing their limited resources for people who say "I don't 'belong to' a union" with a smug smile while parceling out pretend compassion.

Organizing is a struggle. It's hard work that is no fun, full of risk, and often comes at a high personal or professional cost. But it's worth it, which is why people keep doing it. No one is going to come and set you in a chair and fan you while they organize on your behalf. But when you're ready to do the work, they are there to stand with you.

[magical thyme]

30. there's a huge difference between holding somebody's hand

and just giving them a contact name or a booklet or some info.

I have freely shared info my entire life. As a student of many subjects, and in my former life as a professional writer (which meant lots of research into the specific areas I was writing about), I accessed tons of info and freely passed it along to colleagues and competitors.

There's an old saying, "You make more friends with honey than with vinegar."

My limited experience in talking to union members was always to be handed a cup of vinegar.

Or, better, an analogy. You're walking down the road. A car pulls over and the anxious driver asks for directions to a street. You know where the street is, you have a couple of choices in how you answer. How do you answer?

1. You can tell them there's a gas station down the street with really great street maps that will show a number of ways to get there.
2. You can tell them to figure it out themselves, what's wrong with them, don't they know how to read a map and nobody's gonna drive their car for them, they've gotta drive it themselves.

I was looking for 1. when I asked. I always got 2. Every. Time.


You can do what you like with that message.

[DisgustipatedinCA]

43. Q: what's the difference between you and a tea bagger?

A: Not sure I can detect any, still thinking about it.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

31. I'm glad this article served as a jumping off point...

...for your own pity party. Guess you're not much better than her, huh?

[ellenfl]

33. what bad choices? i didn't see any bad choices. in fact, i saw very few choices.

in hindsight, working for wally world might have been a bad choice but who else hires the under-educated, especially in a small town that probably got bought out by wally world?

i have a college degree and i will probably end up living in a trailer park (which is where i came into this world) because of lower wages and a single paycheck life. i think that, under her circumstances, this woman has done very well for herself. the sad part is that she never knew she would be a throwaway.

ellen

[magical thyme]

38. I saw a couple bad choices, but I don't think working at Wallie's was one of them

As you wrote, when you are under-educated, you don't have a lot of options of where to work.

But GED's have been available for a long time and I don't believe they cost a lot to get. My point is that without a family to care for, she could have used her spare time to at least finish high school and maybe from there could have gotten some more education. So I think that was a poor choice on her part, because education was much more available (and useful) decades ago.

And I don't understand spending her $50K windfall the way she did. It is a common mistake, I suppose, and easy to make when you've been deprived of luxuries your whole life. But I don't see how those upgrades can be construed as an investment, especially in a crashing real estate market.

I'm reserving my greatest sympathy for those who made what should have been the right choices and are living in cardboard boxes. They may not survive to collect social security. Her financial situation is not great, but not as dire as many.

"the sad part is that she never knew she would be a throwaway."

With that I agree 100%. That is the part that is truly, truly sad. Back in the 80s and 90s, we were all encouraged to think of co-workers as family, at least where I was. She clearly thought she'd found a surrogate family.

It's extraordinarily painful to learn that you are a throwaway. All along the way, you forgive, and forgive, and forgive. And give and give. And then you are dumped, and when the company dumps you so do most of your former co-workers.

[RebelOne]

35. I feel sorry for her because I am almost in her shoes.

I was laid off my job in 2010 because the company was downsizing and they eliminated my job. Fortunately, I received a very generous 6-month severance package. And when that time was up, I collected unemployment for a year. Then I pulled my 401K and IRA and put that money in savings because the stock market was in such bad shape and I was losing money.

I live in a mobile home that I own. Luckily, I do not have any credit card bills, just the usual expenses such as utilities, home and car insurance.

I am also 73 years old and I have not even bothered to look for a job because as that lady said, "Who's going to hire me at 73 years old?"

I am collecting social security of $1400 a month minus the Medicare payment of $110. Believe me, it is hard to live on that amount of money each month because some unexpected expenses pop up, such as the car breaking down.

I do not have that much in savings since the stock market fiasco robbed my retirement accounts of a lot of money and that money is going to have to last me for a few years.

So I have complete sympathy for that lady.

[magical thyme]

40. I'm making less than that

right now, and made only a trifle more over the last year because they only offer part time work and the hours and days change constantly so it's impossible to get another part time job around it.

Too old to get hired, too young to retire. If I hold out for 3 more years, I can look forward to a smaller social security check than that for life. I don't have health insurance, but do have $380/month in school loan payments which have mercifully been reduced to ~$100/month or I would be in the street today and my pets in shelters or dead.

I didn't say I didn't sympathize. I said my sympathy is limited. She still has decent options. Many are running out of options, or already have.

I see and read about people all around me who have lost their homes and are living in the street, too young to collect social security and unable to get any employment at all. I reserve my deepest sympathy for them. I am dangerously close to sliding down that hole myself. I've already lost my retirement savings, and made the mistake of retraining for a new career that turned out to be a scam. They just trade in students every year and lower the starting salary.

Personally, I think the retirement age should be *lowered* and room made for young people to get work. Their entire lives will be damaged by this. They'll never get to own a home, not even a single-wide.

I have mixed feelings about Medicare for all because I know that hospitals lose money on Medicare patients and make up the difference on insured patients. The entire healthcare system is a disaster at this point.

[RebelOne]

42. If you can hold out until you hit 65, you will receive full social security benefits. n/t

[PatSeg]

39. That's pretty cold

She received the maximum salary at Walmart of $15.32 an hour because she had been a loyal employee for 22 years and that should be worth a living wage.

A lot of people are hurting these days. We shouldn't attack other people who are suffering, but instead put the focus on those who cause so much pain.

One person's pain is no less real or relevant just because someone else might have it worse.

[myrna minx]

15. K&R!

[Brickbat]

17. What a company gives to "take care of you," it will also take away to punish you or when it simply

Last edited Wed Jul 4, 2012, 11:11 AM - Edit history (1)

doesn't need you anymore. A union could have helped her with this one; hope she never voted "no" in any organizing drive.

Seems to me the manager should have been fired, putting a 73-year-old greeter in a green vest in charge of guarding a door on Black Friday.

Too bad her "friends" at the store aren't agitating for her return. Better instead to keep their heads down, I suppose, in case they're next.

This woman learned a painful lesson and it's too bad it's come so late in life.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

32. Fuck Walmart, and the cretins who line up there like pigs at the trough

...on Black Friday.

[drm604]

41. K&R for visibility.

There needs to be some public pressure on Walmart and the state of Florida.

[hunter]

44. Why are 73 year olds working at Walmart?

Our retirement systems ought to be paying seventy year olds enough that they can afford to be retired, or, if they want to work, then as volunteers or respected emeritus employees.

A place like Wal-Mart doesn't respect its employees. Employees are disposable cogs in their profit making machine.

Any sociability brought to work is brought by the employees. Employees who are too social at Wal-Mart are fired. Smile, nod, shut up, and get back to work.

Wal-Mart failed in Germany because Wal-Mart employees knew their jobs were crap and didn't feel obligated to bring any false affability to work, especially when they felt they weren't being treated fairly. This created an unpleasant shopping experience. Since base working conditions and salaries are strongly regulated in Germany, Wal-Mart couldn't undercut other retail employers by paying their employees less while expecting more from them. Wal-Mart's business plan of divide, undercut, and conquer didn't work for them.