Wal-Mart: YOU'RE FIRED!!!

[gblowfish]

This story was in the KC Star this morning. Wal-Mart fired a brain damaged cashier who worked there for almost 20 years for discounting a jug of sweet tea for a customer by fifty cents. I hope he sues their ass off. Story is here:

Thousands of people are rallying behind a brain-damaged Walmart worker who was fired last week.

Frank Swanson was a cashier at a Walmart in West Plains, Missouri for nearly two decades.

He was well known in the local community as an enthusiastic worker who loved to hug customers.

He was fired just 20 days short of his 20-year anniversary with Walmart.

A Walmart spokesman said he was fired for violating a pricing policy.

"Letting an associate go is never easy," the spokesman said. "For this associate, point-of-sale policies had not been followed in some instances. A recent violation of those policies moved the associate to the final step of our discipline process, resulting in his dismissal."

Swanson's supporters claim he was terminated for giving out hugs, and they are planning a protest at the West Plains Walmart on Saturday to show their support.

More than 1,500 people have committed to attending the rally on a Facebook page called "Hugs for Frank" and another 3,100 said they are interested in attending.

"Walmart has decided to fire Frank, the sweetest employee you'd ever meet, for hugging a costumer," the page reads. "So we're going to gather at Walmart on Saturday April 9th with signs or t-shirts offering free hugs. Let's do this for Frank."

The workers' rights group Making Change at Walmart also released a statement on the matter.

"It appears Walmart fired workers for being decent and kind. So, if you believe in hugs or being nice to customers, don’t apply for a job at Walmart," said Jess Levin, communications director for MCAW.

Swanson's bosses cited his hugs as inappropriate, but that's not why he was fired, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Swanson broke store policy on at least one occasion by discounting a jug of tea by 50 cents, after a customer told him a competitor was selling the tea for 50 cents cheaper,the Post-Dispatch reports. He took the customer at her word, but under store policy, he should have asked her to produce a printed circular proving the competitor's price.

Swanson's sister, Babbi Marsh, confirmed that Swanson was terminated for excessive price matching.

"He never let anyone walk out without paying for their merchandise. What he was told was that he was being let go for excessive price matching," she told the West Plains Daily Quill.

Swanson suffered severe injuries including brain damage following an accident when he was young that left him in a coma for six weeks and temporarily paralyzed, his family told KSPR TV.

Walmart customer Jenn Harper called Swanson a "sign of hope."

"I feel like one of our own has been hurt," she told KSPR. "He's a sign of hope, he made your day better. If you were having a bad day at Walmart, he would light up your whole trip."

http://www.businessinsider.com/walma...0-years-2016-4

[Toby Waller]

thats him

[Valiant]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

Do the workers get health benefits while they're working? Or is that benefit just for people higher up the ladder? It seems surprising to me that a cashier would get that kind of benefit given what I hear about Walmart.

Walmart makes sure employees are not full time, or direct them how to get benefits from the government.


But I did not know about the 20 year full benefits thing, that is an interesting twist to the story.

[Toby Waller]

[loochy]

Originally Posted by Toby Waller

thats him

ding fries are done

[Valiant]

Originally Posted by lawrenceRaider

They used to, granted it's been 20 years since I worked at Walmart.

awe, that would be an interesting thing to add to the story.

But it makes sense, they have crap benefits now at Hallmark for all the remaining workers. So I would guess most businesses are that way now.

[Ming the Merciless]

Originally Posted by vailpass

What's the whole story? Was this a one-time incident or had he been disciplined and written up for similar violations prior to this one?

^this

Whats the whole story...

No company is going to fire anyone over a 50 cent discount

[mikeyis4dcats.]

speaking of, where's Brad been?

[gblowfish]

Here's the story as presented in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

WEST PLAINS, MO. • Frank Swanson loved to hug his Walmart customers, specifically the women. He said it was his way of saying “thank you for your business.”

But on Saturday, three weeks shy of his 20th anniversary with the store, he gave his last hug. Three of his bosses called him into an office. The hugs were inappropriate, they said. They also said he broke store policy by selling a gallon jug of tea 50 cents cheaper than the list price. Such a transaction is allowed if the customer has a circular from a competitor showing that they are selling an item for less. But in this instance, Swanson took the customer at her word.

Swanson’s bosses wrote him a check for unused vacation and personal days and showed him the door.

Word of his firing hit social media, and as things can often do when they hit the Internet, support came fast and furious for Swanson, along with stinging commentary for the country’s largest retailer. A Facebook page, Hugs for Frank, was set up, inviting people to a protest outside the store this Saturday. As of Tuesday afternoon, more than 1,000 people had indicated they planned to attend.

“Walmart was blessed to have Frank as an employee, not the other way around,” store customer Melanie Vincent said in a Facebook post. “I sure hope another business will leap at the chance to hire Frank so that they can also be blessed. Whoever made this decision at Walmart made a very bad mistake, and I hope Walmart corporate will see that.”

The company released a statement, saying, in part, that “part of being a cashier is making sure customers are paying for their merchandise before they leave the store; in many instances, this was not happening.” As a result, Swanson was let go.

Swanson, 52, said Tuesday that Walmart made it sound as if he had been letting customers walk out without paying for items, something he would never do. But he did admit to not following store policy, which requires that the customer present a competitor’s ad showing the cheaper price. At that point, Walmart will sell the product for the lesser amount.

“They said I was making the price up out of my head. They made it sound like I was giving groceries away,” Swanson said.

Swanson also said managers had warned him about the hugging, which he said he started back in November, around Thanksgiving. After about three months, he said, managers told him he had to stop giving hugs without asking permission from the customer first. From January until his firing, he said, that’s what he did.

Though the online support for Swanson has been overwhelming, not everyone came to his side.

“My husband was a department manager for Walmart,” Stacy McCallister said on Facebook. “He has told Frank not to be hugging on people. He even heard Frank joking around with customers about not going to give them their change back until he got a hug from them.

“My husband has also heard other people try to tell Frank that he was going to get into trouble with this. Whether anyone likes it or not, under normal circumstances, that is considered sexual harassment.”

Under normal circumstances, there would probably not be such a groundswell of support. But Swanson is not your typical 52-year-old man.

When he was in the eighth grade, and a star defensive football player, he and his younger brother, Drexel, were riding in the back of their grandfather’s pickup after delivering a load of wood.

The brothers, standing up in the back of the truck, began throwing the leftover wood at signs alongside the highway. Frank fell out, fracturing his skull. He was in a coma for six weeks. The accident left him with brain damage and partial paralysis on his right side. He could no longer play football, but he became the team manager for the next four years.

“My brother doesn’t have a mean bone in his body,” Drexel Swanson said in a Facebook post calling for a boycott of the West Plains Walmart. “His purpose in life since his accident has always been to make other people feel good about (themselves) and to bring a smile to their face.

“He loves to hug people, especially the older generation. He says they don’t get enough hugs in their life.”

Frank said Tuesday afternoon that he had just finished a job interview at the Ramey’s supermarket store. It went well, and he was en route to Hirsch Feed and Farm Supply for another interview. He is confident he will get a job soon, but he is following Drexel’s advice to hold out for the best offer.

“There’s going to be a picket line in front of the store on Saturday. I can’t believe they are going to do that,” Frank said of his supporters.

Asked if he supported the protest, Frank hesitated.

“I guess,” he said. “There will be hot dogs and hamburgers.”

Link:
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/m...7563629e8.html

[Beef Supreme]

I'll protest anything for free hot dogs and hamburgers.

[Pitt Gorilla]

Originally Posted by Toby Waller

Hey, how about stop shopping at Walmart?

[Dayze]

Originally Posted by BigChiefTablet

I'll protest anything for free hot dogs and hamburgers.

This.

Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk

[jspchief]

Yeah, some Walmart employee tries to hug me or my family and we're going to have some real problems.

As for the attempt to strike an emotional chord with this sob story... Walmart treats all their employees like garbage. But when you want to save .33 on a bag of nacho chips, no one gives a shit.

[ct]

Originally Posted by Donger

Why was a brain-damaged employee working the check out line in the first place?

it's in the job description

[notorious]

Originally Posted by Pitt Gorilla

Hey, how about stop shopping at Walmart?

Yep.

Everybody bitches, but few actually take action. My family took action.

[Rausch]

Originally Posted by Pitt Gorilla

Hey, how about stop shopping at Walmart?

Done...