An Analysis of Poetry by D. H. Lawrence, 1916

Autumn Rain

D.H. Lawrence

THE plane leaves
fall black and wet
on the lawn;

The cloud sheaves
in heaven's fields set
droop and are drawn

in falling seeds of rain;
the seed of heaven
on my face

falling--I hear again
like echoes even
that softly pace

Heaven's muffled floor,
the winds that tread
out all the grain

of tears, the store
harvested
in the sheaves of pain

caught up aloft:
the sheaves of dead
men that are slain

now winnowed soft
on the floor of heaven;
manna invisible

of all the pain
here to us given;
finely divisible
falling as rain.

An Analysis of Poetry <Autumn Rain> by D. H. Lawrence, 1916

Sung Jiyun

“Art is form of religion without dogma,” said David Herbert Lawrence, a well-known British poet and novelist. He is famous for his criticize of the industrialized society and religious philosophy. His obnoxiously-drinking-miner father and an intelligent mother constantly had troubles, which resulted in his mother putting a limitless care for him. He became a very sensitive and religious person. He grew up in a Christian culture, and his ultimate goal of life was immediate communion with God. Such attitude of him is very unique, considering the time of his life, when there were movements to “see poems as they are.”

           This first impression of the poem is that it uses quite a bit of sensory imagery. With a specified persona exposed, he is standing alone under the autumn sky. He imagines the heaven above the sky, and heaven becomes the place where he stands. Plane leaves and cloud sheaves, which blocked the sunlight, are dropped to the ground now. Raindrops hit his face and the ground gently. There are golden harvests on the floor. A sudden gust of wind blows some harvests of pain and tears off. He winnows the empty heads of grain. From the crops, he thinks of manna- the grain of the heaven.

           It is astounding to see how the speaker derives such a delicate image of a simple autumn sight. The fact that he is a Christian helps- we learn to be thankful for the goods the God gave us. If it hadn’t for our Father, we wouldn’t live to this day at all- the daily bread we are given, not just manna. The speaker feels gratitude at the sight of harvest and simultaneously, develops a critical mind on it. He knows that the store is made of pain and tears, and feels they need to be treaded and blown away. In a way, he criticizes the real world by comparing it with the utopia- the heaven.

However, the poet moderates himself and does not get overwhelmed by emotion by structural means. Let’s look at the rhythm first. He uses a structure of iambic diameter, and sometimes adds variety by putting spondees. In other words, he mostly puts a stressed word after an unstressed word, which makes a serious tone. If I read it aloud, I can feel the flow of such things. Rhymes appear regularly, and some of the two words that rhyme have a correlation. For instance, there are ‘leaves and sheaves,’ ‘pain and slain,’ and ‘invisible and divisible,’ which contains a similar meaning. Also, he breaks the lines in the middle of a sentence. By controlling the syntax short, he visualizes the rainfall.

This poem feels like a admiration of the autumn raining view at a glance, but we should know that it has a more profound meaning inside the content, and a carefully calculated structure to transport that meaning to its readers. As a whole, this poem helps us appreciating what we already have; in the old times, when the store was literally harvested in the sheaves of pain of the rabbles, there was no escape of that faith. They had to work endlessly like a mere part of a giant machine, and the tiny pay they got was never enough to make things better. Grateful we should be, for the fact that as long as we work hard, our works pay off.  

Three-Side Story Brainstorming★

          One thing you shouldn’t do is, drifting off to dreamland while driving- then you might stay there forever more. No matter your excuse is, no one’s able to help you if you just jump off the cliff, right? The tragedy it brings… oh, you wouldn’t want to miss this.

1.     There’s an innocent young deer, coming out of the nest for the first time out of curiosity. ‘I’

2.     . ‘She’ who worked till late last night, dozes off while driving. When she wakes up, it’s too late.

           3. Hunter who was chasing the deer. ‘You’

-Bam! Deer gets severely injured. He might die in a few hours, if not treated well.

           1. The deer screams in agony, and faints.

           2. The driver is at first terrified, thinking she hit a human. When she finds out that it’s merely a deer, she gets frustrated and takes off.

          3. The hunter, who was watching all of this, feels pity for the deer and thinks hard. After making up his mind, he takes a step forward- who knows what he’s going to do?

Gay Marriage?

           While I was reading my U.S. Politics and Government book, chapter 16, Civil Rights, there was a section on equal protection, especially Homosexual Marriage. It is almost impossible in current Korea, which is conservative, but in US, the book says that there are already some states which had made it legal, such as California, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont, and New Hampshire. Several months have passed since this book was published, so there might be some more. I was a bit proud to see California, where I lived for one year, to be one of those few states. So the question is, should marriage be limited to heterosexual couples? Personally, I could think of no reason why it should be, but as I read some articles related to that matter, I could understand the problem a bit more, although I approve of Gay Marriage still.

           Through this essay, I want to answer the ‘Critical Thinking Questions’ the book provides. Firstly, why are state courts such an important part of the debate on same-sex marriage? In most of the states that have legalized same-sex marriage, it is done by Supreme Court decision. In other word, the state Supreme Court simply decided that banning homosexual marriage is contrary to the fundamental right of equal protection. However, many opponents of the decision argue that same-sex marriage is not an issue for the courts to decide; instead, they contend, it should be decided through the democratic process- ballot, as it was in Vermont and New Hampshire. I read this statement and thought, it does have a point. I understand that homosexual couples can evoke discomfort to some people used to the traditional concepts, and if such people are more than the majority of a society, it should at least be unofficial. Even though state legislations cannot prevent couples from ‘being’ couples- and doing whatever they want as a couple- there is a huge difference between officially approved and not. Public approval almost feels like promotion of same-sex marriage, which might endanger the traditional notion of marriage and the value of the family unit, according to the opponents.

Dover Beach

Assignment for Mr. Tame's English Literature Class


Dover Beach

by Matthew Arnold

The sea is calm tonight,
The tide is full, the moon lies fair
Upon the straits; on the French coast the light
Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand,
Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay.
Come to the window, sweet is the night air!

Only, from the long line of spray
Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land,
Listen! you hear the grating roar
Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling,
At their return, up the high strand,
Begin, and cease, and then again begin,
With tremulous cadence slow, and bring
The eternal note of sadness in.

Sophocles long ago
Heard it on the Agean, and it brought
Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow
Of human misery; we
Find also in the sound a thought,
Hearing it by this distant northern sea.

The Sea of Faith
Was once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore
Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled.
But now I only hear
Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,
Retreating, to the breath
Of the night wind, down the vast edges drear
And naked shingles of the world.

Ah, love, let us be true
To one another! for the world, which seems
To lie before us like a land of dreams,
So various, so beautiful, so new,
Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light,
Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain;
And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight,
Where ignorant armies clash by night.

An Analysis of <Dover Beach> by Matthew Arnold, 1867

Sung Jiyun

            Close my eyes and I become the poet, gazing at a distant glimmer. The deep black water reflects the pale moon. A dim sound of the waves breaking hits my ears and knocks on my heart. I suddenly remember Sophocles and his thoughts about human misery flows, and feel my heart drop. I fall in the swamp of melancholy. Sad it is, the fate of humans, swaying and shaking endlessly like the waves. We cannot resist the moon’s power.

Once, there was a time when all people believed firmly in God; humans believed to be under protection of God, comforting and assuring. Yet doubts, especially raised by scientific challenges in the Victoria Age, destroyed that comfort with throwing pebbles. The only way we get out of this is true love. And we need not worry, for when there is an ebb, there is a full; the right time will come someday. The world up front is full of lies, but we must dream of bringing back joy, love, light, certitude, peace, and help for pain we lost.

           Now, to raise such emotions, the poet does not just say so; he uses description of metaphors and many other figures of speech and links to his own memories and thoughts. He carefully places the most appropriate vocabularies to derive the flow he intended. For instance, throughout the poem, if one reads it aloud, there are certain strong metres that come right before normal weak ones. Such technic is called ‘iambs’, referring to ‘an unstressed syllable flowed by a stressed syllable’, often used in a serious tone. With repetitive combination of iambs and anapest- two unstressed and one stressed syllable- the poet succeeds in creating a melancholy tone, making our minds solemn at the heavy fate in front of us.

Apart from such linguistic skills, we can find some efforts of figurative speech, such as alliteration, parallel structure, rhyming words, metaphors, or anaphora. The poet is exceptionally skilled in metaphors, which helps us imaging the sight he sees. For example, when he says ‘“Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight where ignorant armies clash by night’, we can refer that there are people fighting without evening knowing what are they fighting for. What touched my mind the most was the phrase ‘With tremulous cadence slow, and bring/ The eternal note of sadness in.’ I could feel the beat of the waves coming in and out, making a melancholy melody.

           For better understanding, we also need to interpret the poem from an external perspective- in other words, not just reading the poem by itself, but with the background knowledge about the poet, the society at that time, etc. Matthew Arnold, the poet, is known to write his poem during or right after a honeymoon with his wife to Southern England region where Dover is located. It was a time known as the Victorian Era, right after romanticism, when the Industrial Revolution and other scientific developments were going on, and artist of the time are well-known to be decadent. Matthew Arnold is especially famous for his sharp criticism along with extreme solitude and sorrow.

           The first time I read this poem, I did not have a clue what it is talking about. But as I tried to feel the poem for what it is and sense the images it provides, as I examined the poem thoroughly so that I could find some techniques of writing a poem, and as I looked up for Matthew Arnold and his ethnic background, I started to understand the poem inch by inch. What I learned is if there is an abstruse piece, it helps to analyze it into different aspects so that once all of it is combined, a reasonable interpretation is created. The poem is indeed very solemn and depressing. However, surely what the poet intended is not all that- at least, I understood that way. He leaves it to the readers.

Catfish: About Online Behavior

              Catfish, 2005- this documentary certainly caused a great deal of controversy on whether it is real, people involved, film-making integrity… but I don’t care much whether it is a true documentary or not; I know there are some factors that indicate stages made by Nev and his friends, but there are more important, profound themes in this film that make me ignore minor matters. Personally, as an active Facebook user, I want to focus on just one thing: online behavior. I first saw the movie Catfish virtually knowing nothing about the film in my English Composition class. I was playing around on Facebook just before class and then there came this movie related to Facebook… I got very intrigued. Time was not enough to watch all of it, though, so I had to wait a few days to watch the rest half of the film, which I couldn’t bear. Although I could guess the ending quite thoroughly, I couldn’t wait to test my hypothesis. I simply looked it up on the internet right after class to see how the movie ended.

           The main character of the movie Catfish is Yaniv ‘Nev’ Schulman, a young and good-looking New York photographer. At the beginning, he receives an e-mail from Angela Faccio, which contains a drawing of his photograph by her 8-year-old daughter, Abby. He is soon fascinated by this little genius and get to know Abby’s family- Angela, her husband, her two sons, and lastly, Abby’s 19-year-old stepsister, Megan Faccio. He and the family befriend on Facebook, exchange presents, letters, notes, and even contact by phone. Nev’s brother, Ariel Schulman, and his colleague, Henry Joost, become interested in this unique relationship and decide to film it; they are running a small film company.

           So, about online behavior. Angela had like, 13 Facebook accounts online- I’m not sure though; it just seems like a reasonable number for a handful of family and friends. She creates a fake ‘society’ in a small town of Michigan. She uses other people’s pictures online and enrolls as 13 people. I don’t know, really…. it seems to me an awful lot of work to do. She must be quite a writer to make up all those things to talk about on Facebook by herself alone. Why would Angela do such a bothering work? I would never do that, I have only one Facebook account and still find myself devoting too much time and effort into it. But Angela… I think she was lonely, with two disabled boys and a stoic husband. She has no one to reside in, and there she is in a quiet countryside, doing nothing but painting and internet surfing. She must have wanted to interact with people as someone she isn’t, someone still beautiful and talented. She fabricated all that, getting ready to invite someone into her fake society. And as Nev comes near her, she is simply thrilled… to have a handsome, successful young man whispering that he loves her, even though she knows all of it might disappear like a mirage in an instant.

           Does this have a certain meaning? This whole situation indicates how powerful Facebook and other social network sites are. All there is on Facebook are some simple biography, several pictures, likes and dislikes and a few links they put on their walls. But these trivial factors are enough to approximate the actual personality of the uploader. A complete stranger can judge the person by Facebook, like Nev’s case. The problem is, it can be a fake. Facebook requires nothing to prove their users’ identity. Even I can make up an account right now as a 40-year-old man, and no one will know whether it is true or not. Consequently, when accepting friends, Facebook tells me to be careful and only befriend someone who I really know. People use Facebook to seek their clients, too; it is full of all kinds of advertisements. One day I was shocked by a stranger who sent me a nude picture of herself- I didn’t even know she was a friend! After that, I never befriend someone I don’t know in real life.

What Angela did was morally wrong, of course. She stole someone else’s pictures. And she played with Nev’s feelings. But other than that, I can’t really find anything… and as for Nev’s feelings, I think she meant her comments, in a way. Only that she is not a pretty 19-year-old girl. Disguising on Facebook is acceptable because nobody really trusts what they see on the internet. Most people are well aware that it can easily be a fake. And what is internet for, anyway? Don’t people want to be someone else for a while? To escape the reality? I mean, if it goes too far and gets to a state which hurts the person and close others, it had to be stopped, for certain. But going a bit off the line seems okay to me.

The Morality of Wal-Mart: Having a Critical Mind

Synthesis Essay on Wal-Mart

Submitted to: Mr. Garrioch

By: Jiyun Sung

Student ID: 111163

For: English Composition

On: Wednesday, Mars 7^th, 2012

The Morality of Wal-Mart: Having a Critical Mind

Ⅰ. Introduction

Wal-Mart, starting from 1945 as a small ‘variety store’ selling cheap panties, is now the biggest retailer in the whole world. And it has its own reasons for that- actually one single reason: low prices. From the beginning, Wal-Mart’s sole goal has been keeping the price low, lower than any other competitors. Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart, scrutinized every step to minimize factors that might increase the final cost, and most of such low price is achieved by cheap labor. And this fact caused a great controversy among people about what kind of influence Wal-Mart has. Is it beneficial, since it can save people’s money by keeping the price low? Or, is it unethical because of the low, ‘under minimum living’ salaries of the ‘associates?’

To answer this question, I synthesized three sources: an essay ‘The Price of Pickles’ by John Lanchester, 2006, ‘Notes form the Presentation- an Ethics at Noon’ by Bob Brownstein, 2004, and lastly, an article ‘Does Wal-Mart Destroy Communities?’ by William L. Anderson, 2004.

Ⅱ. Body

           Firstly, the most important aspect of Wal-Mart’s morality is whether it provides proper salaries for the work, or, at least, ‘some basic level of material life for all people.’ As for that matter, Bob Brownstein directly states it does not, giving specific data for its support. An average Wal-Mart worker earns $8.00 per hour for a 32 hour work week, which is less than the Federal poverty level for a family of three. The essay by John Lanchester says pretty much the same thing, mentioning the numerous ongoing lawsuits accused of underpayment and underpromotion of 1.5 billion female workers. It is even worse in other countries- for example, a seamstress in Bangladesh gets between 13 and 17 cents per hour. However, the article has a different point of view: payment for services involves mutually agreeable exchanges. No one is forced to work at Wal-Mart, it is their own choice.

           But the notes argue that the existence of Wal-Mart lowers the area standards by putting pressure on local markets to lower the prices, thus making them to lower the wages, and in some cases, even force them to close themselves. This means, the workers have no other choice but to work at Wal-Mart. There is a mention of that aspect in the essay as well; citing the book ‘The Wal-Mart Effect’ by Charles Fisherman, the author describes an incident relating the title- a gallon jar of Vlasic pickles on sale for only $2.97. The result was immediate and obvious- people buying 200,000 gallons of pickles a week! No wonder other stock markets are under heavy influence of Wal-Mart. ‘Wal-Mart is so big and so powerful that it is in effect defining its own reality,’ from the essay. It is causing wage stagnation, spreading poverty and making inequality more severe.

           Then exactly how Wal-Mart influences the community? The article says, ‘Wal-Mart enters a geographical area, and people stop shopping at little stores in order to patronize Wal-Mart,’ which is very true. A lot of mom-and-pop stores go out of business, incurring more and more empty boarded-up buildings. What the author remarks about this phenomenon are simple: it is a free market, people shouldn’t interfere such fair competition. He asserts that the hardware owner simple chose to shut down business because they were not compatible enough and thus unable to make profit. He even mentions that Wal-Mart actually improved people’s quality of life by providing a wider variety of products at a lower price. And during the process, the consumers are guaranteed of free will. However, just not breaking the law is not enough. According to an economist Stephan Goetz, cited in ‘The Price of Pickles,’ the presence of Wal-Mart unequivocally raised family poverty rates in US counties during the 1990s, which implies that the damage Wal-Mart does on the local shop owners is greater than the amount people can save due to the cheap cost. In short, Wal-Mart does more harm than good to the local community. Again, in the notes of the presentation, the author gives statistical data. Wal-Mart grocery prices are 14% on average lower than where Wal-Mart competes. Through reasonable calculation (I will skip the specifics), it turned out that money Wal-Mart takes is much greater than the money people in the region can save. The look of the empty, deserted streets does not really look good either.

In addition, Wal-Mart affects not only the economy, but also people’s minds. The biggest retailer in the world has the power to ‘destroy other institutions based on relationships of human connection and solidarity’, according to the presentation. People abandon their neighborhood businesses or unions because of Wal-Mart and its 14% cheaper products. Wal-Mart’s motto, ‘Always Low Prices,’ has stroke people’s mind hard. It can be easily seen on videos of Wal-Mart on sale season common on the internet; crowd rushing in the door like a group of hungry monsters, trampling a woman in their desire to purchase a $29.00 DVD. Wal-Mart debases the important values in the society.

Ⅲ. Conclusion

           People should restrain themselves from shopping at Wal-Mart. Overall, William L. Anderson, the author of the article, advocates the principle of global capitalism. It can be easily derived from his mention of ‘purposeful behavior.’ As long as Wal-Mart acts within the boundary of law, things Wal-Mart do does not matter to him. It is a fair game. However, there are more important values in this society than free competition.

           In the essay ‘The Price of Pickles’, John Lanchester refers to the need of an ideological antagonist- in this case, Communism. Are we ethically superior to Communism? The society became a lot richer, but we haven’t improved morally from the point Communism collapsed; people simply sought their way to make more money. And Wal-Mart can be a symbol of such. What he tries to say is that we should not be so complacent- it is necessary to question our ethical backgrounds over and over again, considering Communism and ways to adopt its advantages. If people let Wal-Mart get bigger and bigger and do whatever they want- and they are already a great latent threat to our society-, things will get out of control. We should protect the lower class people, giving them the opportunity to change their social status by improving the salaries, health care, and other basic form of life supports.

           To achieve that goal, simply not buying things at Wal-Mart is not enough. The notes from the presentation mentions the specific methods, such as supporting local efforts to keep Wal-Mart out of communities, like Inglewood, and supporting legislation that levels the playing field and prevents Wal-Mart from forcing down standards for wages and benefits. What’s more is to have a critical mind on such inhuman policies of Wal-Mart and other extreme-capitalist companies and seek for new solutions. That would be enough.

Some First-Hand Reviews of Wal-Mart Workers

Overall, they're not really satisfied- but so is many other grocery store workers, aren't they? Maybe it's just not Wal-Mart which has these problems, it's a common feature of avoided jobs... What is to blame, really? And you see, even if they have the same conditions, how they feel about it varies greatly from person to person.

Working For Walmart

Job Rating 

Salary Rating 

13 reviews so far

"I rather work at Best Buy."

POSTED FEBRUARY, 2012

COMPANY RATING

POSITION

Electronics Associate

WORK DATES

-

LOCATION

Jasper, AL

SALARY RATING

WORK ENVIRONMENT

strict, cut-throat, fast-paced, flexible schedule, disorganized, political, high-pressure, unprofessional

WORKING AT WALMART:

Wal-mart, beyond a joke of the work force.. you have way to many chiefs and not enough Indians, one they need to get RID of the ZMS hold. our ZMS doesn't do crap but boss everybody around and make people do his job. the hours suck, the pay sucks, benefits suck to me. this the time of year for Inventory and its beyond awful. We are pretty always under handed, and what pisses me off is they want you to get something done and then send you up front to run a Register. Then they stay on us about customer service and how we should improve, their are times, I want to ball up my fist and bust my ZMS right in the mouth until he understands hes not a Store MANAGER.
honestly I would love to work at Best Buy. I went to a Best Buy the other day and bought a laptop, (walmart laptops are not worth buying. processors SUCK don't last long either) I told the guy that I was looking for a laptop for School, he showed me the HP dm4 told me everything it had in it, intel core i5 processor, 640GB, 8GB DDR3 memory, what software he thought was good with it and everything without even looking at the tag. He also did this with my laptop i bought which was the HP dv6. I asked him how long hes been working there he said 4 months, which to me is really impressive, he knows his products, willing to help, and very friendly.
People at walmart, not so friend, over night managers are assholes, overnight associates are lazy, to all associates we are mustly under paid, no benefit employees, that bust our as and still don't the recongiztion like we should.
I rather work somewhere were the companies care about their people and their families.

WAL MART SALARY AND BENEFITS:

Pros... hmmmmm.... none.
Cons. ZMS lazy, product tags never right, even though I'm a Electronic associate, I also get sent to run a register, pull fright off the trucks, and work in toys, grocery, pull in buggy's, and garden center.(this is why we are all under paid), PDQ's are always in the way of the customers I've had some many people complain about them. Scheduling sucks they never have enough people working on sunday or sometimes saturday, and during the week, I went there to buy something and their were two people working and 6 customers that wanted something unlocked or a tv from the back.
Bounses-24$... really? been their a year.
Current Salary..7.65... still no raise.

"Hated it "

POSTED JANUARY, 2012

COMPANY RATING

POSITION

All over

WORK DATES

Jan, 2012 - Jan, 2012

LOCATION

, RI

SALARY RATING

WORK ENVIRONMENT

casual, open-door, team-oriented, fast-paced

WORKING AT WALMART:

I worked for Walmart twice at two diffrent stores and let me tell you the first time I worked there the girls there mostly women were itches expecially the HBA ones I have another name for that H**s ,Itches,A*****s. There were two women there lets call them "Kelly" and "Karen" all they need was one more K and they could of been the KKK. They were so mean to everybody "Kelly" no longer works there but I heard she never changed and "Karen" NEVER" changed still a 45 year old living in a 16 year olds head. Anyway then I went to work there years later and I loved it then after awhile new mgrs came in and then I hated it cause they didnt want to work with your schdule and tried to put the morning people that were there for a long time on some nights and I had to quit cause I couln;t work nights.

WAL MART SALARY AND BENEFITS:

Nothing

""Walmart Austerity""

POSTED JANUARY, 2012

COMPANY RATING

POSITION

worker

WORK DATES

Dec, 2008 - Jan, 2012

LOCATION

Alberta, Canada

SALARY RATING

WORK ENVIRONMENT

cut-throat, fast-paced, disorganized, political, high-pressure, bureaucratic, unprofessional

WORKING AT WALMART:

"Walmart Austerity"
To put it bluntly
This Walmart MOSTLY sees what is wrong with the quality an individual's work rather that praising that individual honestly for all the good work that associate does. It is an extremely malevolent corporation to its own employees. Those who work hard are either led by the carrot, or do advance, but basically sideways, not up. The pay scale is really weird. The department managers (really glorified general supervisors, not really "Manager" by definition) often make less than many of the associates underneath.
Team leaders are often given the carrot on the stick treatment, but often not allowed to use any supervisor authorities to direct their own teams. Many team members fear the assistant managers opinion on what their own supervisor ordered them to do. If a department head directed their team, the team members were sometimes told by the assistants to run to the assistants and verify it with them before proceeding. The department heads were told by the managers that they are in charge of their own department, but then a lot of times the team members are also told by the same managers that the department heads have no authority to direct them and are not their direct supervisors. Very contradicting. I saw this with many department managers, supervisors, and leads. The assistant managers just love to micromanage associates by undermining the position of the department heads. Rather than follow chain of command down, the assistants bypass the individual in charge and give direct orders to the associates doing the actual work. But, if something went wrong, was not completed, or backfired, the department head or team leader was blamed, and often criticized in front of the team, and customers. This power hungry practice just adds stress to all associates under the assistant managers.
All of the former associates who had my position prior to me taking over had the exact same issues. Told to do "extra" tasks at spur of the moment while not given time to complete their regular duties. Then, when the regular duties cannot be completed, they would either get "coached" (forms of Walmart discipline that really degrades the associates pride in their job) or severely criticized for it.
Never enough staff to do the work, and severely underpaid for one's own abilities. I have ten plus years of experience in doing my type of work for this job, but get paid just over $12/hour, which is really pretty high for a regular associate at Walmart. I got that much because I became a squeaky wheel about it, and got some oil back.
Very many times I had been "TALKED DOWN" to or destructively criticized in front of other associates by some (not all) supervisors and all the current assistant managers. I was very embarrassed each time and pushed to the point of inner rage and physically shaking where other associates had to comfort me and calm me down. Once, I tried very recently to stick up for myself to a supervisor over me who was putting me down in front of other associates but that only ended up backfiring against me. I wasn't even allowed to make a formal complaint against that supervisor, just allowed to vent out about what happened. This story is just one of dozens of incidents that happens weekly at my store, one store in hundreds of stores around the world. Oh wow, I could go on.
There is a difference between a boss who directs by superiority, and a supervisor/manager who actually leads. All of the current assistant managers here are bosses and think they are in charge of everything that each associate does to the point of sometimes not allowing the associates to do their jobs by the job description, or for the jobs they were hired for. The only thing that the assistant manager's job has to do with our positions is giving us the opportunities to do the jobs we were hired for. Yet, they just order us around like robots and expecting us to act like drones to do their bidding. But this just proves the level of character some of these managers have when it comes to how they deal with other associates. They would rather make someones job harder by giving them more stress in the workplace than actually helping to relieve stress and promoting that someone with encouragement and praise.
We did have an assistant store manager who was forced to transfer to another local store because he was considered too "human" in this work environment. He would give praise and encouragement where it was needed and never negative stressing remarks about any associate's work who would do their job. In place of negative comments, he used constructive criticism. When an associate was upset at his decisions, he listened, but kept his authority as a manager while trying to find a compromise to help everyone involved. The only thing I had against him was allowing the then store manager to force him to another store.
Why was he transferred to another store? Because he was just a regular worker like all of us, and used his authority as assistant manager for the good of the store. Yet, the other managers seem to think that once they get that big pay increase and title of assistant manager or store manager, then the rest of us little people are expendable, and helpless without them. It is these managers of Walmart that are eroding the very structure of the work place that our ancestors fought hard and long to protect. Those workers many decades ago fought for equality, better work atmosphere, better wages for our abilities, higher standard of living and to be able to afford it, more verbal expressions in the workplace without retribution, and a safe and happy working environment. The new system is being championed by Walmart and its store managers who want to erase all the hard work of those before us that gave us a sense of belonging to our job and the company that took us in. There was once a time when the worker could feel part of a company family where that worker could be molded into a productive individual and in return give loyalty to the very company that was so good to give them a place to accomplish something good. Now, we are lucky to have all of our limbs (metaphorically) and sanity (not metaphorically, but truly) when we end our shifts each day. I know I have a lot more grey hair (literally) and mental stress in the few years I have had the austerity of being part of Walmart.
This company is far different and worse to be in than any other company I have ever worked for, even more so than a company I worked for a few years ago for a day rate of $70, doing hard physical labour, for 12 to 18 hours per day, with no day off, and no overtime pay. It equalled out to about $4.00 to $4.50 an hour when at the time minimum wage was above that. I did that for months. Walmart is now THE worst place I have ever worked at.

"Disrespect"

POSTED SEPTEMBER, 2011

COMPANY RATING

POSITION

Overnight Stocker

WORK DATES

-

LOCATION

, TX

SALARY RATING

WORK ENVIRONMENT

hierarchical, strict, team-oriented, fast-paced, high-pressure

WORKING AT WALMART:

Most of the time I felt incredibly disrespected while working at Walmart. I worked as an overnight stocker and there was much pressure, especially around the holidays to get everything done in a ridiculous short amount of time. I was also put in a department that required me to lift large home appliances when I am a small person with a bad heart (which they knew of as I told them again and again yet they only moved me to a different area twice and then moved me back again).
There WERE a few good things about working for Walmart. During Thanksgiving and Christmas we had a large feast provided by Walmart with lots of food and time to chat. I did appreciate that extra special thing they did for all of us. I also enjoyed that occasionally the bakery would bring us donuts and coffee in the morning or other almost expired baked goods.
I wasn't happy with the pay or the long overnight hours and I was keen on how if you accidently got an hour or two of overtime you got in a lot of trouble.
Definitely wasn't the worst job I've had, but I wouldn't say it is the best job I have had either.

WAL MART SALARY AND BENEFITS:

Starting salary: $8.20

"Not bad to earn a few bucks"

POSTED JUNE, 2011

COMPANY RATING

POSITION

Sales Associate

WORK DATES

Apr, 2011 - Present

LOCATION

Mesa, AR

SALARY RATING

WORK ENVIRONMENT

hierarchical, supportive, fast-paced, high-pressure

WORKING AT WALMART:

I'm in this position solely to earn a little money while at college, I can't imagine making a career out of working at walmart, nor would I recommend it as a good option to do so.
But, for what it is, it's not bad. Yes, it's fast-paced, under-staffed (I commonly work weekends, and I'm more often than not the only associate covering ~4 departments, all of which are in need of my work constantly) and hierarchical, but, in all honestly, I don't mind it. I like that there's always something to do, I'm seldom left wandering around with nothing to do, I'm often allowed to make my own decisions and I don't have a manager breathing down my neck all day.
Most of the managers are kind and approachable, there are a few bad apples who are slightly demeaning, but I haven't been yelled at, nor have I been threatened, if I have qualms with a manager, it's usually because they're a little passive aggressive, not a big deal.

As for hours, I have bad weeks and good weeks, my schedule's very sporadic and all over the place. More often than not, if I approach a manager and ask if (s)he has any extra shifts going, they'll give them to you (I was cross trained across the store, so I can also work as a cashier and so on).
It's not a bad job.

WAL MART SALARY AND BENEFITS:

My WalMart pay is$7.70 an hour, 10% discount after 90 days of employment.

""

POSTED MAY, 2011

COMPANY RATING

POSITION

WORK DATES

Nov, 2006 - Present

LOCATION

massena , NY

SALARY RATING

WORK ENVIRONMENT

fast-paced, disorganized, high-pressure, unprofessional

WORKING AT WALMART:

In this town there isn't many jobs , so walmart takes advantage of that, with big time hour cuts and wants twice as much from the workers your treated like crap, the store use to be top store in the region and now will drop , because of the hours cut and items not getting onto the shelves customer upset because we dont have things they want on the floor , hardly any cashiers the line ups are crazey custumer walk out and line ups at the deli are crazy, most managagers are hiding in the back very rarely do you see one. so all assocaites get the crap from custumers. with the big cut backs managment get the big bonus.

WAL MART SALARY AND BENEFITS:

8.40 starting , current 10.30 4yrs , 32 hr week vacation only NOT 2 weeks paid , i get 32 hrs vacation. small bonus every 4 months maybe. Working at walmart certainly doesn't have any perks.

"Avoid this company-as an employee or a shopper."

POSTED JULY, 2010

COMPANY RATING

POSITION

Overnight stocker

WORK DATES

Apr, 2010 - Jun, 2010

LOCATION

Tomball, TX

SALARY RATING

WORK ENVIRONMENT

strict, cut-throat, fast-paced, disorganized, political, high-pressure, bureaucratic, unprofessional

WORKING AT WALMART:

Hard to go into so much detail in so little space. Store was intentionally understaffed to keep costs down, me, as an electronics sales associate, had to stock four departments all over the store, solo, which was impossible with the time limits they set down. Managers would get mad and say you have 'no sense of urgency if you didn't meat every single one of those time limits. As well as other abusive things-in front of customers.

Co-workers were usually in their 40s and 50s, and were quite mean and cranky. One occasion, someone came to give me keys to the electronics case, and rather then hand them to me, glared at me and threw them on the floor (man was 50 years old, by the way.) Just like the managers, very unhelpful and condescending, But they expect you to help them at the drop of a hat. And will throw a fit if you don't, even if the reason wasn't entirely up to you. Doing something with a manager isn't a valid reason to not drop what you're doing and run to them, either. But hey, that's working at walmart for you.

And yes. The rollbacks and everyday low prices do come at great cost to the employees. Overtime is forbidden, and hours that were worked are erased in the computer to lower the pay of the employees to help keep the costs down. Avoid working here, and avoid shopping here and supporting this madness is the best advice I can offer.

WAL MART SALARY AND BENEFITS:

Starting salary-$8.90. Vacation time-none. Bonuses-none. Other perks-aside from the low-quality storebrand snacks in the lounge on Friday, none. As you can see, walmart pay isn't great.

"WAY OVER WORKED N WAY UNDER PAID"

POSTED JANUARY, 2010

COMPANY RATING

POSITION

3RD SHIFT STOCKER

WORK DATES

Jan, 2009 - Present

LOCATION

RADCLIFF, KY

SALARY RATING

WORK ENVIRONMENT

WORKING AT WALMART:

LOTS OF FRIEGHT TO RUN AND BEING HELD TO TIME LIMITS THAT ARE IMPOSSIBLE. IN ONE BREATH OUR "COMANAGER" SAYS HE REALIZES OUR TIMES AREN'T ACCURATE AND IN THE VERY NEXT BREATH HE'S GETTING ON TO PEOPLE FOR NOT MEETING THEIR TIMES. ALL OF THE PERKS WE HAD FOR WORKING 3RD SHIFT WHEN I STARTED HAVE BEEN TAKEN AWAY FROM US.
ALSO GET THIS WALMART MAKES THIER ASSOC. PAY FOR TRIER OWN CHRISTMAS PARTY BY RAISING MONEY DURING THE YEAR AT POT LUCKS, ECT. THEY DIDNT GIVE ANY DOOR PRIZES FOR CHRISTMAS, NO GIFT CARD, NOTHING. AND AGAIN WE PAID FOR OUR OWN PARTY!!!! BREATH TAKING IF YOU ASK ME. WALMART COULD GIVE A $10 GIFTCARD (TO SPEND IN WALMART OF COURSE) NO HAM NO TURKEY NOTHING....CRAZY

"Wal-mart is a dead end road"

POSTED OCTOBER, 2009

COMPANY RATING

POSITION

Third-shift Stocker

WORK DATES

-

LOCATION

Lexington, KY

SALARY RATING

WORK ENVIRONMENT

WORKING AT WALMART:

I worked the graveyard shift at walmart for a few years; I know generally how the system works. You are asked to work a insanely large amount of freight in a very short amount of time. Like, for example, the guy who works paper goods is supposed to get his job done before lunch time - and it's usually 10 hours worth of freight! If an associate took those times seriously they would end up having a heart attack in no time. That's just one example. There are many examples in each department. They usually have one manager to be a blunt jerk and another manager to pretend like he's on your side. Every few months the first manager calls you into the back office and literally drills you like you're in the marine corps. The purpose behind having this lousy times is to (A) prevent you from getting the top raise you more than deserve, and (B) to get as much work done as is physically possible in a short amount of time. If you're going to work at walmart, then avoid third shift. That is where all the work is done, and they aren't afraid to crack the whip!

"Most unprofessional and unpleasant work place"

POSTED OCTOBER, 2009

COMPANY RATING

POSITION

WORK DATES

-

LOCATION

denver, CO

SALARY RATING

WORK ENVIRONMENT

hierarchical, strict, disorganized, political, high-pressure, unprofessional

WORKING AT WALMART:

I only worked there for about 2 weeks. It was starting to cost me money to work there because the pay was so little. The managers of my department were horrible and would constantly wonder off during my training week. They taught me nothing except how to do the very basics. When they would leave for an hour or so, I would be alone to run the photo lab by myself with no register access. They never did fix my code for the register so I always had angry customers because no one could pay for their stuff.

WAL MART SALARY AND BENEFITS:

pros: i learn a few things about cameras

cons: unprofessional, low pay, lack of training, not a lot of hours.

I don't remember there being many perks. You have to work there a while to get anything, but there seems to be a high turn over rate. You can't live on walmart pay. They start you at minimum wage.

"this place sucks"

POSTED JUNE, 2009

COMPANY RATING

POSITION

department manager

WORK DATES

Jun, 2009 - Jun, 2009

LOCATION

bogalusa, LA

SALARY RATING

WORK ENVIRONMENT

strict, cut-throat, fast-paced, disorganized, high-pressure, unprofessional

WORKING AT WALMART:

lots of work little pay.

WAL MART SALARY AND BENEFITS:

I get 17,000 a year to bust my a**..walmart pay is terrible.

"Work your butt off"

POSTED MARCH, 2008

COMPANY RATING

POSITION

Assistant Manager

WORK DATES

Oct, 2005 - Present

LOCATION

Raleigh, NC

SALARY RATING

WORK ENVIRONMENT

fast-paced, old-fashioned, high-pressure

WORKING AT WAL-MART:

$42,000 a year base salary with a bonus based on how much profit we earn. We get a 10% off discount and 2 weeks paid vacation.

"A good place if you can handle very fast-paced work"

POSTED DECEMBER, 2007

COMPANY RATING

POSITION

Department Manager

WORK DATES

Feb, 2004 -

LOCATION

Lexington, KY

SALARY RATING

WORK ENVIRONMENT

hierarchical

WORKING AT WALMART:

Lots of management positions always opening up. This is because of new stores opening but also because of turnover. It’s a fast paced job- answering customer’s questions, managing inventory, working with planograms, managing associates, and so on. It’s not for everyone. It is quite stressful at times. I like working here despite the stress. Some people enjoy hard work like myself. Like I said, you have opportunities here.