Big Brother Is Watching You How many miles away from your store, is safe? "Big Brother" may be watching you. If someone just does not like another associate and can find someone to back up an allegation true or not it can cause an associate to be terminated.

Termination due to Gross Misconduct is something that can be used to rid a store of anyone for any reason as long as someone backs the allegation. You can say a bad word in California, or not, if you work in Jersey and if someone knows you work for Walmart and turns you in you can be terminated. You can be terminated for any negative comment about any thing. You can be terminated for foul language even if it is not used in association with the company. It only has to be heard by an associate or person who wants to make you crawl. You can be coached or terminated for not standing up for a salaried member of management. If you hear any kind of negative remarks about one you have to tell that person immediately that it has to stop. You have to remove yourself from the area. Your personal feelings about a coworker or manager have to be held silent if you value your job. You can know they are lying. It makes no difference. Surveillance tapes that are fed through any number of cameras to tapes in the security office in each store are sometimes used to document not only the customers and possible shoplifters but are also used in some of the stores to find associates that in that store's opinion are not being productive enough or to trace their steps. I have seen supercenters with as many as twenty-eight recorders in the security office. Usually these are not manned, but changed daily by management staff and saved for at least a month or longer. Any day that is questioned is put aside and saved to be reviewed. A newer system is currently being sent into new stores and stores being remodeled and will consist of dvd disks that do not have to be changed as often these will be able to be accessed and used for documentation. I have seen stores where a monitor would be in the store manager's office purely for watching a specific area of the store to see what the associates may or may not be doing.

Being off the clock means nothing as far as your personal Big Brother is concerned. You are considered guilty until you can prove you are innocent for anything a store manager or salaried member of management may think is inappropriate.

I have witnessed what would be considered to be inappropriate behavior by a co manager and it was not dealt with as gross misconduct. I don't think Big Brother was watching him. The report associates and I gave seemed to accomplish nothing.

I am quite sure if I showed any part of my undergarments to associates male or female on the sales floor I would be terminated. When you are given too much work to do within a specific time frame how do you handle it?

In reality some hourly associates wonder if it is better to say yes I will, even when they know the assignment cannot possibly be completed within the timeframe given to them.

It is usually at a time like this, an associate may take it upon themselves, to punch out and complete an assignment. Many fear they might be coached for poor work performance when they are doing more work than most.

Where is Big Brother when you need him?