Pros
Easy to promote if you are in management and to step to another company or vendor with the experience. Great compensation package if you are in management. For the lazy worker: high pay for doing little. Make sure strategy is in your job description. Walmart Home Office wastes a ton of money on redundant tasks and duplicated job duties. There is no structure in promotion so make sure your manager likes you. There can always be an exception made to promote you or to compensate you at a higher rate. Also, the VPs change so frequently that before you are finished with a 2 year project its scrapped and you start a new one for the new VP. Yearly goals come out in about November (fiscal year is Feb.1 - Jan. 31) Some associates, a few, are caring, supportive, team members but they are never in positions to improve the world around them in ways that matter for more that one associate interaction at a time. To sum up: If you are looking for a stepping stone to another job outside of Walmart, Walmart is your place. But be strategic, you never know when the axe will fall.
Cons
I had the dream when I walked in the doors that this would be a Great company to work for. The culture, the cheer, the values; I was hooked. And then reality set in and I saw what I saw, heard what I heard and learned what I now know and the dream vanished. I believed in Walmart. I worked hard. They let me down. There is no more Walmart culture. It's about how much money I can save the company not the consumer. Acquisition after acquisition. Failed venture after failed venture. Money that could have been spent in better ways, gone, Wasted by another new SVP or VP to prove their own worth rather than putting back into the workforce via compensation (pay, healthcare, bonus, etc.) or into simple process improvement or system integration. Hourly associates are poorly compensated overall, looked down-upon, and are viewed as people who have to prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, they might be able to someday become a management associate. Poor health coverage, poor bonus for hourly associates, and many employee expenses are never reimbursed as an associate is just expected to pay for it themselves (i.e. gas, mileage, pens, paper, etc.) The hourly s (yes they are called that, even within earshot) are segregated, receive less training opportunities, and are cause for an uproar when a 15 minute mandatory break interrupts a meeting. And everyone has their hand out for donations!! Argh! And speaking of opportunities... in no other company has opportunity been a bad word. Think about that for a moment. It's difficult to be a long-term associate as there are cliches and favorites and other landmines that must be avoided. For the hard worker the Home Office is frustrating. Time and money are wasted hand over foot. Meetings upon meetings to meet about meetings, projects are created for the sake of creating a project or spending a budget, not really adding value. Tasks are duplicated, systems are handmade, not many systems communicate with other systems. Decisions take teams of people who are never in the same room because they are in another meeting. Days and weeks and months wasted on waiting for someone else to do something, say something, or sign something. I have never worked for a company that said this more, "Its not my job". Silos and more silos. Departments upon departments that never communicate. Also, the Home Office is severely Top Heavy in management. If you think you are going to get an assistant you are out of your mind. You will be making that presentation until 2 AM, vacuuming your "pod", taking out your own trash, making those calls, handling your travel and expenses, etc.etc.etc. all with a blackberry glued to your hip. You will work nights and weekends to get it done. 45 hour work week for some, 50 hours is more the norm for managers. Hourly associates not a penny over 40 hours unless approved. Grassroots is simply a joke and a waste of time and money. I never saw one useful change come from it. Managers, VPs, and SVPs do what they have to do to keep their own jobs. Period. Survey me and then survey about the survey. Have coffee with your leader once a month... more like once. To sum up: If you are looking for a true career, to feel valued, or to be adequately compensated overall, Walmart is Not your place.
