{"id":928,"date":"2015-06-04T20:27:34","date_gmt":"2015-06-05T03:27:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/re-tales.net\/?p=928"},"modified":"2015-06-09T08:31:44","modified_gmt":"2015-06-09T15:31:44","slug":"walmart-adjusts-the-thermostat-to-warm-worker-relations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/re-tales.net\/?p=928","title":{"rendered":"Walmart Adjusts the Thermostat to Warm Worker Relations"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u00a0 So this strikes a familiar chord for me, except instead of needing the thermostat set higher, we need it set lower. \u00a0 My employer has apparently calculated the savings if it has their energy management system crank the temperature up in all 7500+ stores by 1 degree, which doesn’t sound like much until you’re trying to stock shelves or rushing around in a store that’s increasingly uncomfortable. \u00a0 \u00a0In the past we’ve complained, and on occasion the company that runs the EMS would adjust it down, but it was only temporary (they’d crank it up the next day, until we complained again.) \u00a0Eventually you give up. \u00a0 \u00a0They have apparently decided that 78 degrees or so is a “comfortable” working environment in the middle of the summer.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Fortunately, we discovered a workaround which helps us not feel like we’re in a sweatshop \u00a0(a heating pad on the thermostat works wonders!) but at least Walmart is starting to pay attention more to their employee’s satisfaction and perhaps more companies (including mine!) will take notice.<\/p>\n

Walmart Adjusts the Thermostat to Warm Worker Relations<\/h1>\n
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BENTONVILLE, Ark. \u2014 When the weather gets sultry here at company headquarters, Walmart<\/a> workers everywhere brace for an icy blast.<\/em><\/p>\n

Because temperatures at Walmart stores across the United States are controlled remotely by the retailer\u2019s centralized systems here, employees stock shelves and tend to customers under conditions that, by many accounts, tend to be on the chilly side from one city to another.<\/em><\/p>\n

So at an employees\u2019 rally held here on Wednesday ahead of the retail giant\u2019s annual shareholders meeting this week, company executives made one of several concessions by agreeing to raise average store temperatures by 1 degree for the majority of Walmart locations.<\/em><\/p>\n

From adjusting the air-conditioning to relaxing the dress code and even jazzing up a store\u2019s music, the overtures \u2014 however small they seemed \u2014 are part of Walmart\u2019s effort to project an image of a more caring employer.<\/em><\/p>\n

A day earlier, Walmart, the country\u2019s largest private sector employer, said that it would raise the starting hourly wage for more than 100,000 managers<\/a> in the United States. That was the second wave of wage increases at Walmart this year, after it announced in February that it would raise the pay for a half-million entry-level store workers.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI love to listen to you, I love hearing what\u2019s working, what isn\u2019t. I want to hear your ideas. I even like to hear your frustrations,\u201d Greg Foran, the head of Walmart\u2019s United States division, told about 3,000 store workers.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cOur job, my job, is to make your life easier,\u201d Mr. Foran said.<\/em><\/p>\n

Long a target of protests over low wages and rigid work schedules, Walmart is appearing to appease employees in the face of rising competition to hire and retain workers as the job market rebounds. Other retail chains, like Ikea and Gap, have also started to offer higher wages for store employees.<\/em><\/p>\n

Walmart is also trying to cast off an image as an exploitative employer with an army of minimum-wage workers, some of whom reportedly depend on food stamps or other government aid. Now, after the latest wage increases, all Walmart workers make above the minimum wage, the retailer says.<\/em><\/p>\n

Walmart also is trying to improve customer service as it struggles with sluggish sales at its supercenters and neighborhood markets.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sales at stores open for a year or more grew by just 1.1 percent from a year earlier in the first quarter, though its performance over the last few quarters has improved slightly after a period of sales declines.<\/em><\/p>\n

Not all workers were impressed with the changes. And not all of them were in Bentonville at the company\u2019s invitation.<\/em><\/p>\n

Cindy Murray was in town with the labor union affiliate, Our Walmart, to speak in support of a resolution the group will be presenting on behalf of an activist investor at Friday\u2019s meeting that calls for giving shareholders the right to nominate board candidates.<\/em><\/p>\n

Ms. Murray, who said she earned $13.20 as a fitting room clerk at a Walmart store in Laurel, Md., and struggled to pay her medical bills, said the retailer was skirting its workers\u2019 most pressing concerns.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAnything Walmart does to makes life better for workers is awesome. But these changes are also basic things we need to do our jobs better and sell more,\u201d she said. \u201cHire more workers and better pay \u2014 those are the biggest things. I think they should stop dancing round the boat.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Kristin Oliver, Walmart\u2019s executive vice president in charge of human resources, acknowledged that workers harbored remaining concerns, and said Walmart was working on more flexible scheduling.<\/em><\/p>\n

She also said the company hoped that the combination of higher wages and friendlier policies would make its work force less transitory, and more likely to build careers with the retailer.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019ve seen in the last few years is people jumping for small wage increases. People will move from one retailer to another for 25 cents an hour,\u201d Ms. Oliver said. \u201cWhat we hope is going to happen with the investments we\u2019ve made is to slow that down.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

To entice workers to stay, Walmart on Wednesday announced a number of other changes to its employee policies.<\/em><\/p>\n

The retailer will ease a much-criticized dress code that had required store workers, even those in physically intensive jobs, to wear shirts, vests and khakis. Now, stockers and other back-of-store workers will be allowed to wear jeans and T-shirts. Service-oriented workers will also be able to expand their choice of pants to black or khaki-colored denim.<\/em><\/p>\n

On special occasions, like days with sporting events or seasonal holidays, workers will be invited to wear team jerseys, ugly Christmas sweaters or pink shirts to support breast cancer awareness, said Deisha Barnett, a Walmart spokeswoman.<\/em><\/p>\n

The retailer also said it was bringing back an in-store broadcasting service called Walmart Radio, with a D.J. who broadcasts music to stores, to address numerous complaints from workers about having to listen to the same Justin Bieber and Celine Dion albums all day.<\/em><\/p>\n

And temperatures at stores in the East and central regions will rise to 75 degrees from 74. (In stores in the West, average temperatures will fall from 76 to 75.)<\/em><\/p>\n

To acknowledge employees\u2019 complaints, executives at the rally used an imaginary Walmart worker, a puppet they called Willy Sellmore, who offered a surprisingly frank take on the retailer\u2019s policies. When an executive explained that the temperature changes had been discussed for a year, Willy appeared understandably baffled.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cA year? A year? How long does it take to adjust a thermostat?\u201d he said. \u201cThis shouldn\u2019t be so hard.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 So this strikes a familiar chord for me, except instead of needing the thermostat set higher, we need it set lower. \u00a0 My employer has apparently calculated the savings if it has their energy management system crank the temperature up in all 7500+ stores by 1 degree, which doesn’t sound like much until you’re Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-retail-companies"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=928"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":946,"href":"http:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/928\/revisions\/946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}