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A day in the life of a Walmart manager
191–200 of 266 posts
Re: A day in the life of a Walmart manager
#192Earlier quoted context omitted.
I hate my job. I've never been close to 7 figures. I'd love to have a job I'd hate and make 7 figures for a year or two.
Yes, please. I think a lot of HN people have lost all sense of proportion. A 7 figure job is $1M plus--a year. That's financially life-changing, no matter how much you hate the content of the work. Grin and bear it for a couple of years, and then... do anything you like for the rest of your life. Maybe 0.1% of the population gets an opportunity like that.
Would you take it if it means a marriage breakup and illness?
Re: A day in the life of a Walmart manager
#193>Hart has seen that change firsthand. About 20 years ago, then 19 years old and a mother of two, she started part-time at the same Walmart she now runs. Her first job was cooking live lobsters pulled from a tank in the deli. Was definitely expecting this to be a story about someone who graduated college and walked into management. I have respect for anyone who could rise though the ranks of retail. She deserves every…
This reminds me of a very interesting interview I've listened to a while ago (It was posted on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38924101 ): https://inpractise.com/articles/aldi-culture-and-operations-... There they talk about the Aldi culture and how "walking into management" isn't possible there, as everyone goes through the ranks of a store. That means of course that hiring someone from outside is almost no…
So the main qualification for being an Aldi executive is years of experience throwing people's groceries from one side to the other, never making eye-contact? And this translates to the skills required to run a multi-national business how exactly?
Don't get me wrong, sounds like a great deal for mediocre 'lifer' employees, but seems like a terrible deal for anyone bright (years stuck 'waiting the ranks' - or more realistically a massive brain drain for places that do let them 'walk into management'), or just corporate strategy in general (the skills required to run international JIT food logistics and the skills required to mop a spill in aisle 12 don't exactly have the greatest overlap.)
Re: A day in the life of a Walmart manager
#194She'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…
Impossible, she doesn’t have an Ivy League MBA! She janky worked at MBB!
You are not allowed to be a CEO unless you use "summer" as a verb.
Re: A day in the life of a Walmart manager
#195Earlier 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.
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 o…
FWIW, in Japanese, gemba/genba/ 現場 just means location (as in "on location")
Re: A day in the life of a Walmart manager
#196Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 o…
FWIW, in Japanese, gemba/genba/ 現場 just means location (as in "on location")
Yes, walking the place where things happen.
Re: A day in the life of a Walmart manager
#197[flagged]
Re: A day in the life of a Walmart manager
#198Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 o…
User experience and observing how they interact with the end product of software development is the true version of walking the aisles. What to find improvements, just be the person that trains and teaches the administrator, the general user, the maintainers, and the installers. For example, I documented how to load an OS image for assembly. Watched them use the guide and saw they flipped through the document. Afterw…
That's looking at the car and driver, not the factory. That's important too! But the gemba walk is about seeing the factory floor where the car is made. If your cars are shipping late and there's lots of defects, you have to look at the factory to find out why.
Re: A day in the life of a Walmart manager
#199Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 o…
Would you compare "walking the floor" to doing some PRs or improving test coverage? Neither of these specifically delivery features, but they keep a close eye on the software.
That's going a bit above and beyond a gemba walk, but certainly a good thing!
Re: A day in the life of a Walmart manager
#200Earlier quoted context omitted.
This reminds me of a very interesting interview I've listened to a while ago (It was posted on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38924101 ): https://inpractise.com/articles/aldi-culture-and-operations-... There they talk about the Aldi culture and how "walking into management" isn't possible there, as everyone goes through the ranks of a store. That means of course that hiring someone from outside is almost no…
So the main qualification for being an Aldi executive is years of experience throwing people's groceries from one side to the other, never making eye-contact? And this translates to the skills required to run a multi-national business how exactly? Don't get me wrong, sounds like a great deal for mediocre 'lifer' employees, but seems like a terrible deal for anyone bright (years stuck 'waiting the ranks' - or more rea…
I’d suggest you listen to the episode, and it’s obviously not about transferring grocery stacking skills to running a logistics company but steeping people on the culture of treating suppliers well, saving costs, paying above market salaries etc.
I think their success speaks for itself and people who want a long term, stable job are not necessarily “mediocre lifers”, which is a pretty ignorant thing to say.