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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

#61

Post by zeroonetwothree »

notdang wrote: post #57
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.

In some contexts yes but I think the idea is to teach the employee that they can answer with a different option. But it does depend on their relationship and personality.

Re: A day in the life of a Walmart manager

#62

Post by bee_rider »

notdang wrote: post #57
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.

CEO/COO instincts, just needs to refine the trap to be more subtle.

Re: A day in the life of a Walmart manager

#63

Post by BeetleB »

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.

If you're in SW, you probably will need to think about your job off work: They usually don't work in shifts, and will have deliverables in a timeline of months. They need to plan the work, and always adjust to hit the deadlines.

If you're a doctor, then you probably don't have to think about your job off work.

Re: A day in the life of a Walmart manager

#64

Post by zeroonetwothree »

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

I would imagine most people would rather do the Walmart job. It would probably be like 90/10 or something.

Re: A day in the life of a Walmart manager

#66

Post by loceng »

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.

Akin to the golden rule of "use your own product."

Re: A day in the life of a Walmart manager

#67

Post by mvkel »

Credit to Walmart for creating an environment where a person can still love their job after years of service.

That stuff can't be faked, even with a high salary. Before you say, "it's easy to say when you're getting paid $240K a year." Nah. A person needs challenge; a purpose. Lots of FANG ICs making $500K+ who hate their job. Why? No challenge or palpable purpose.

To create a scaled corp structure where a person can ascend from the bottom is also tough to do.

Re: A day in the life of a Walmart manager

#68

Post by cscurmudgeon »

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.

If salaries are based on effort and not on what *relative* value they produce, people can just move rocks up and down a hill all day and become billionaires.

Re: A day in the life of a Walmart manager

#69

Post by zeroonetwothree »

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.

Pay isn’t really based on how “hard” a job is (and I don’t think we would want it to be!)

It does factor in to the demand side but clearly it’s not the primary factor or else there wouldn’t be any high-paying “easy” jobs.

Re: A day in the life of a Walmart manager

#70

Post by zeroonetwothree »

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.

Even in software engineering it’s “easier” to be higher level (staff, principal) because your output is more fluid, you delegate more, and command more respect. Yet the vast majority of engineers are incapable of reaching those levels because they don’t seem to have the mindset for it. So I’m not sure I agree with this, it seems to just be selection bias.
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