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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

#81

Post by mitthrowaway2 »

icedchai wrote: post #41
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.

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.

That's exactly what they should be doing though.

Toyota calls it a "gemba walk" -- managers and even executives need to walk the factory floor and see problems with their own eyes, not through hearing reports.

With software, the codebase is the gemba, not the office. Managers don't need to be writing code, but they should be reading it. Otherwise it's like a production manager who has never seen the inside of their own factory.

Re: A day in the life of a Walmart manager

#82

Post by no_wizard »

kenjackson wrote: post #72
rhelz wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its just supply and demand, like anything else.

And ability differences. For example there is a ton of supply for basketball players. But the product is magnitudes better with Lebron James than it is with me on the court. Is the best garbage person in the world that much more productive than your average person (not even versus another garbage person, but someone you randomly pick and train them for a couple of weeks)? Based on my years interviewing there are huge…

So much of being good at software engineering is non technical though, in ways I sometimes don’t feel things like how interviews are conducted don’t do a good job of screening for.

Re: A day in the life of a Walmart manager

#83

Post by bee_rider »

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 don’t really understand what this looks like. I mean, when I worked in retail, I was at a place smaller than Walmart, so, maybe Walmart managers tend to be more hands off and need to make a show of actually knowing what’s going on in the store.

But I’d typically get some instructions and then be left to clean up or stock things. Tidying up isn’t that complicated or high stakes. Normal people know what messy and clean look like.

My favorite managers were aware of what the store looked like and could say “tidy up the pillows” or whatever if something needed particular attention. But the manager that came by with attention to detail and an intention to keep me on my toes? Nah, that’s annoying. And even in a pretty small store, there are a lot of aisles to tidy up. If a manager is known to be annoying they’ll also have to waste time looking for me.

Re: A day in the life of a Walmart manager

#84

Post by beej71 »

paulpauper wrote: post #52
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…

The best devs I know possess the skills to be both fluid and precise in the proper circumstances.

Re: A day in the life of a Walmart manager

#85

Post by doytch »

CPLX wrote: post #74
doytch wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Time-management is probably the single most important skill in these higher-paying jobs and...well...given the amount of self-help books there are on this topic, I'm not so sure I'd agree. People who do well in higher-level jobs know /exactly/ what they're best at or uniquely positioned to do, and do that. Meanwhile, you need to delegate the rest to whoever's in the best position to do so (growing people if there are…

Disagree. The most important skill as you go up higher in the ranks is emotional regulation. Many, many people simply aren’t able to do that. You can’t manage complex organizations that include people without that ability.

That's a really good point. After reading your profile, I'm tempted to ask if you've bookmarked any articles/books about that topic?

Re: A day in the life of a Walmart manager

#86

Post by devdiary »

jeroenhd wrote: post #45
devdiary wrote: post #20

How come a paywalled content gets to the top of the HN front-page?

Probably because a significant portion of HN readership already subscribes to the websites that commonly make it to the front page, and others know how to bypass the pay wall (i.e. https://archive.is/lk15F if you want to read this without a subscription). I can't remember seeing any pay walled article on HN that wasn't bypassable using popular free services online. Usually, someone will also link one of the bypass we…

thank you for sharing the archive link. Didn't know it is possible to archive a non-public/paywalled content.

Re: A day in the life of a Walmart manager

#87

Post by lawgimenez »

newsclues wrote: post #27
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.

I think there are lots of hard jobs that go under appreciated in our society. I think about people playing pro sports for millions and then minimum wage labourers, drivers clerks, cleaners and cooks who make minimum wages. One group are celebrated and the other are essential to society continuing to function.

My parents currently works at Walmart, they’re the one restocking supplies in the shelves. They are in their 60s and 70s, immigrants that became US citizens just last year. Also, they work night shifts.

Based on their feedback, Walmart is a very kind and good employer.

Re: A day in the life of a Walmart manager

#88

Post by _dark_matter_ »

BeetleB wrote: post #63
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.

That is not true about doctors at _all_, especially inpatient. They have so many hours in a day to spend on patients. They are checking on them after hours, fielding calls, looking at lab results, responding to messages, preparing for the next day, filling out notes, reading new notes. So not only do they think about the job off work, there is lots of job to do off work as well.

Re: A day in the life of a Walmart manager

#89

Post by bicx »

mvkel wrote: post #67

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…

Yeah, after a certain amount (like enough to cover expenses, have a little fun, and build savings) and a certain amount of time, your income stops being something that makes you excited. This is especially true if you’re around other people who make the same as you do. If becomes normalized in your mind. Everyone needs a challenge and some goals. Something to look forward to.

Re: A day in the life of a Walmart manager

#90

Post by angmarsbane »

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

Depends. Walmart manager could be one of the highest salaried roles in a LCOL area enabling an early retirement or better quality of life than a SWE stuck in a HCOL.
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