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Wal-Mart will pay employees to deliver packages on their way home

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Re: Wal-Mart will pay employees to deliver packages on their way home

#241

Post by Spooky23 »

SilasX wrote: post #60
leggomylibro wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ugh. I think that this sort of attitude (which was my initial reaction too) is a big part of what's wrong with our current economy. If you take the concept at face value, this is Walmart offering to let their employees make some extra money in exchange for a bit of extra work, once they've clocked out. What a nice company. But realistically, this is Walmart shunting the costs of delivery onto their employees. Instead…

You don't think you're jumping the gun here, maybe? Do you even know what the compensation will be? >Instead of paying their employees a living wage, or offering benefits befitting a delivery driver, Obviously you can criticize Walmart's current practices. The issue is whether this policy is any worse than what they had before. >they can offset all of the risk, deprecation costs, etc associated with delivering a pack…

They currently don't use retail employees to deliver stuff. So you can't compare these practices.

As someone who is probably a professional salaried employee somewhere, it's hard to think about why this is bad.

When you're stuck in one of these gigs, you need to be in good with the floor managers to get hours -- those folks control you because they have the power to starve you out with limited hours or "on call" shifts (i.e. you wait around and be ready to report to work within 15-20 minutes), or just fuck you over by assigning you impossible shifts and firing you for attendance issues.

So it's pretty much a given that if you are that guy who doesn't agree to deliver crap on the way home, you're not going to be around for long.

They are replacing UPS/Fedex/USPS for a reason -- cutting corners on things like insurance, depreciation, etc allows them to make an incredible inefficient operating model cheaper.

Re: Wal-Mart will pay employees to deliver packages on their way home

#242

Post by icebraining »

knightofmars wrote: post #228
phamilton wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Certainly in a place like Boise, ID. That's $800/month, $704 after tax. Rent with roommates will run around $300/month. Food is $150/month ($5/day). That leaves $250/month for misc expenditures. It would absolutely be tight, but people can and do live on that much.

What if you have a family?

Hopefully you have a second wage earner in it.

Re: Wal-Mart will pay employees to deliver packages on their way home

#243

Post by dragonwriter »

Consultant32452 wrote: post #238
__jal wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, no. If they could, they wouldn't be receiving assistance. Walmart has turned, e.g., food assistance programs into a subsidy for themselves.

If you can imagine a world in which food assistance programs suddenly came to an end, would Wal-Mart raise its wages? Perhaps the workers would demand more. Either way, in the long run it's not possible for any employer to pay wages below the basic survival rate.

> Either way, in the long run it's not possible for any employer to pay wages below the basic survival rate.

Sure it is, if they are willing to accept more rapid turnover and the workers they are competing for have no better offers.

Re: Wal-Mart will pay employees to deliver packages on their way home

#244

Post by [deleted] »

yourapostasy wrote: post #78

Questions I haven't seen answered yet: * Employee gets a destination with no parking available, who gets dinged for non-delivery? * Employee gets a destination with no parking available, but is told to double-park by local manager. Gets ticketed. Who gets dinged? * Does this constitute a non-CDL delivery service, or courier service? Will Wal-Mart handle licensing and insurance coverage of personal employee vehicles?…

[deleted]

Re: Wal-Mart will pay employees to deliver packages on their way home

#245

Post by kinkrtyavimoodh »

sabujp wrote: post #67
basseq wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a pretty well-defined precedent in law to counter this. If an "optional" task is used in performance reviews or to define base pay, it then becomes non-optional and the company is very likely in breach of employment law. Hopefully Wal-Mart tells their managers to tread very carefully.

really? so if the # of (optional) interviews i conduct on behalf of the employer is a factor in performance reviews then the company is in breach of employment law?

Any specific interview you conduct might be optional, but conducting interviews in general might very well be in your overall job spec and may not be optional.

Re: Wal-Mart will pay employees to deliver packages on their way home

#246

Post by frgtpsswrdlame »

SilasX wrote: post #60
leggomylibro wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ugh. I think that this sort of attitude (which was my initial reaction too) is a big part of what's wrong with our current economy. If you take the concept at face value, this is Walmart offering to let their employees make some extra money in exchange for a bit of extra work, once they've clocked out. What a nice company. But realistically, this is Walmart shunting the costs of delivery onto their employees. Instead…

You don't think you're jumping the gun here, maybe? Do you even know what the compensation will be? >Instead of paying their employees a living wage, or offering benefits befitting a delivery driver, Obviously you can criticize Walmart's current practices. The issue is whether this policy is any worse than what they had before. >they can offset all of the risk, deprecation costs, etc associated with delivering a pack…

From further down this thread:

https://techcrunch.com/2017/06/01/walmart-begins-testing-usi...

    Workers also have to ... provide proof of insurance.
This is exactly the same as everything else gig-economy, the money is made by offloading risk onto the unsuspecting.

Re: Wal-Mart will pay employees to deliver packages on their way home

#247

Post by voidlogic »

r00fus wrote: post #222
xienze wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And your assumption that employee is even allowed a cost/benefit option is based on... ? I'm not assuming anything, I'm giving Walmart the benefit of the doubt. As you said, "we'll see", no need to shit on them providing their employees with an additional revenue stream before the program is even implemented.

Giving Wal-Mart the benefit of the doubt flies in the face of historical facts/data. Feel free to argue otherwise. Let's keep it civil.

Are you operating on old assumptions? The average hourly wage is $13.38 for full-time workers and $10.58 per hour for part-timers [1]. Not bad for unskilled labor.

1: http://money.cnn.com/2016/01/20/news/companies/walmart-pay-r...

Re: Wal-Mart will pay employees to deliver packages on their way home

#248

Post by maxxxxx »

SilasX wrote: post #60
leggomylibro wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ugh. I think that this sort of attitude (which was my initial reaction too) is a big part of what's wrong with our current economy. If you take the concept at face value, this is Walmart offering to let their employees make some extra money in exchange for a bit of extra work, once they've clocked out. What a nice company. But realistically, this is Walmart shunting the costs of delivery onto their employees. Instead…

You don't think you're jumping the gun here, maybe? Do you even know what the compensation will be? >Instead of paying their employees a living wage, or offering benefits befitting a delivery driver, Obviously you can criticize Walmart's current practices. The issue is whether this policy is any worse than what they had before. >they can offset all of the risk, deprecation costs, etc associated with delivering a pack…

" You don't think you're jumping the gun here, maybe? Do you even know what the compensation will be?"

Judging from the way most companies compensate their employees for extra work I bet it won't be much. Just a guess.

Re: Wal-Mart will pay employees to deliver packages on their way home

#249

Post by icantdrive55 »

aaron-lebo wrote: post #179
leggomylibro wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're right that I don't know all the details, but I know how Walmart tends to behave with regards to their workers, and I know that the system their proposing looks unusually ripe for abuse, to the point where it seems like it must have been intentional. I'm tired of people wrapping shit in a pretty bow and trying to pass it off as a gift. It keeps happening, and people keep going along with it. Maybe this time we'…

What do you propose? I'm against exploitation of workers, too, but at the end of the day there is only so much you can do with jobs that require relatively unskilled labor. If a 15 year old can do your job as well as you can after a few months of training, it's not a safe job that you can expect anything out of. It's gonna get automated away anyway. But here Walmart (whatever their other faults), offers a way for wor…

Wallmart cleaned up their act a bit. They start their employees off at $10/hr.

That said--they have a long way to go to reverse their past behaviors, in order for myself to drive 40 miles to their store.

My best friend, who passed, used to work at Wallmart. They have Managers training programs. It's kinda the only way to make more a bit more money. They basically want the candidates to go way beyond what they are paid for in order to get into the program. Very few have a shot at becomming a Store Manager, but they try very hard. Many will become associate Managers, or some other rediculious title. A slight bump up in pay, and a title.

I have a feeling those that don't offer to drive packages will be looked down upon. "She's/He's not a team player?"

On selfish note, I don't want anybody who isn't trained/bonded to knock on my door. I don't mind UPS, or USPS on my property. If they lose their job, it's a big deal. They like their jobs. They are treated fairly, or used to be treated fairly? I don't want to take the chance on any random retail worker on my property.

I want a bonded/insured delivery person knocking on my door.

"But Dude, you have no problem with the pizza guy?" No because, it's usually a temporary job, and the job hasen't disenfranchised the employee yet.

I understand the predicament retail is in. Bestbuy has a similar program. I had some dude roll up--rap blaring, and banging on my door. He had my Christmas gift, that was bought online. At first, I thought he was a process server.

I'm not sure how they can compete with Amazon. If Wallmart decided to hire/train/bond/insure professional delivery drivers, I would pay a bit extra for a home delivery, and more importantly start shopping their again.

Re: Wal-Mart will pay employees to deliver packages on their way home

#250

Post by bluGill »

rbanffy wrote: post #139
choward wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Before graduating college, the most money I made was working for Walmart at a distribution center. I made $19.20 an hour which was pretty good considering minimum wage was just over $5.

Can anyone actually live on $40 a day?

Yes. Most people want a higher standard of living, but if you live in a small enough apartment, walk everywhere, cook your own meals, have only minimal utilities (your furnace exists for the pipes not for your comfort)... it can be done.
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