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A day in the life of a Walmart manager

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Re: A day in the life of a Walmart manager

#51

Post by 4star3star »

pixl97 wrote: post #21
avalys wrote: post #6

$120k base and $120k bonus, but okay. I don't like shopping at Wal-Mart but you have to respect a company that's operating a real business at massive scale and about a 2% -3% profit margin. And Nichole seems to be good at her job. It's interesting how the bulk of the decisions about displays, ordering, stocking, are apparently made in each store and not centrally.

Having worked around a particular system of Walmart I have to say they are brutally efficient and typically hire good people to run their internal systems. This would be at the corporate level and not store level, can't say much about that myself. When working with them in measuring the efficiency of the software they were using they were getting significantly higher throughput at significantly lower hardware cost th…

Walmart is a well oiled machine. Not saying there's nothing to improve, but in the context of the overall system in which it operates, it's crushing it.

Re: A day in the life of a Walmart manager

#52

Post by paulpauper »

doytch wrote: post #9

She runs a shop that employs 300 people; needs to worry about short-term and long-term logistics and planning; works cross-functionally with the trades; probably frequently needs to manage upwards; interacts directly with customers; etc etc... Damn, she deserves that $240k more than a lot of us software developers. This is a hard job.

Devs are paid so much because the skills they posses are precise, not fluid. managing a store is more fluid not precise. Coding, like surgery, requires precision, like the syntax. Get one character wrong and the whole thing fails. This entails having a high IQ. Being a store manager is hard work, no doubt ,but the skill set is less IQ dependent, so it can be done by more people. A dev is paid so much because when you need a product to ship, the syntax has to work, and finding someone who can do it is hard.

Re: A day in the life of a Walmart manager

#53

Post by damidekronik »

newsclues wrote: post #22
havaloc wrote: post #10

"Walking every aisle is a new practice for store bosses in her area, implemented by their regional manager. It helps managers “see what your customers see,” says Hart, and pay attention to details. It also keeps her employees on their toes." I can't believe this wasn't policy already. Seems like good practice.

I had a great manager that did similar things. His education was the navy and he ran a store like a ship, and everyone loved it.

Would honestly love to know more. What activities which are not common for a store did he bring from the navy?

Re: A day in the life of a Walmart manager

#54

Post by applied_heat »

karaterobot wrote: post #25

> “I love my job,” says Hart, but “it doesn’t turn off. That is one of the hard things about it.” I'm lucky that in my industry I can make a good living as an individual contributor, because having to actually think about my job when I'm not at my job sounds like a living nightmare.

There are a lot of jobs that are 24/7/365 without proper coverage from coworkers so people are always available and can’t turn off.

Other jobs won’t call you off shift but if you just had to deal with something traumatic like a car wreck it’s hard to leave that at work as well.

Re: A day in the life of a Walmart manager

#55

Post by insensible »

damidekronik wrote: post #53
newsclues wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a great manager that did similar things. His education was the navy and he ran a store like a ship, and everyone loved it.

Would honestly love to know more. What activities which are not common for a store did he bring from the navy?

You’d probably enjoy the book Turn the Ship Around about a Navy submarine captain who transformed a low-performing crew into a strong, cohesive, autonomous crew.

Re: A day in the life of a Walmart manager

#56

Post by pavlov »

svnt wrote: post #11
olddustytrail wrote: post #4

> Near the cereal aisle, a customer walks up to Hart while recording on his cellphone. >“Hi! Can we get some Snoop Cereal here on the shelf?” asks the man. Earlier that month the rapper Snoop Dogg sued Walmart, claiming the retailer, along with Post Consumer Brands, had worked to suppress sales of Snoop Cereal. Some fans were recording videos related to the dispute for social media. It's like you think you know Ameri…

There are few things more American than the passage you just quoted. It is about a fan of an aging stoner/rapper talking to a Wal-Mart employee about the fact that he wants cereal.

Indeed, but it's an example of the kind of real America that doesn't feature in Hollywood scripts very much.

Re: A day in the life of a Walmart manager

#57

Post by notdang »

switch007 wrote: post #14

She's giving CEO/COO vibes. I bet she would crush it in either of those roles. It would be amazing if this article catapulted her towards running her own business. Loved this: > Hart gets to the front of the store, a product-display area in between banks of registers known as the horseshoe. “So what are you thinking here?” she asks Wright. “Easter or summer toys?” > Wright suggests summer toys and T-shirts. > “I thin…

That was a trap, she, as a boss gave 2 options for the answer: "easter or summer toys" then she proceeded with the 3rd option: eclipse.

That gives bad vibes.

Re: A day in the life of a Walmart manager

#58

Post by Rury »

bigyikes wrote: post #16
ldjkfkdsjnv wrote: post #7

Unpopular opinion, more people are capable of doing well at higher level jobs than they are at low level grunt working jobs.

Wouldn’t you expect higher level jobs to pay less then “grunt” jobs then?

Only if you assume that pay is a matter solely determined by how difficult a job is (which it isn't).

Re: A day in the life of a Walmart manager

#59

Post by evan_ »

prh8 wrote: post #32
varispeed wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Damn, she deserves that $240k more than a lot of us software developers. This is a hard job. Wow, this is such a nonsense view. Software development may seem easy to you, because you know how to do it and probably have been doing it for a long time. But I can assure you, software development is a hard job. If it was easy, everyone and their dog could do it. Have some respect to your profession!

If both options paid you 240k a year, would you rather be a software engineer or do the exact job the Walmart manager does? I'm guessing you'd rather do SWE

and plenty of people would rather do the job where you walk around and talk to people all day, folks are different

Re: A day in the life of a Walmart manager

#60

Post by skydhash »

outime wrote: post #48
icedchai wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This would be like asking the average corporate "software development manager" to actually look at the code/product developed by his reports. Except for early stage startups where the person is truly in a player/coach role, it rarely happens.

Or making developers run the app/website on average laptops/phones that users commonly use, rather than on the most expensive MacBooks/iPhones.

I have a 2011 mac mini I'm using as home server. It had Linux Mint for a time (this year) and it was snappy, except for browsing the web. Everything else work fine, even LibreOffice and playing videos. But load youtube and you can see the stuttering.
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