Wal-workalldaylong

I'm not one of those people with some huge grudge against Wal-mart. Yeah yeah I know, they kill small towns by making everything too cheap to compete, then move out once everyone leaves / goes broke from being unemployed. I know, that sucks. But hey, they have remarkably cheap gummi-bears, and I'm not made of stone. That said, there is such thing as going too far.

According to USA Today, a Wal-Mart manager has recently told his 400+ employees that they all have to be available to work any shift, any day. That means being available from 7AM-11PM every single day, or risk being fired. Now call me nuts, but that's nuts. The reasoning?

The new "open-availability" policy at the Wal-Mart store in Nitro is needed to ensure there is adequate staff during peak hours, said John Knuckles, a manager at the store. "We have many people with set schedules who aren't here when we need them for our customers," Knuckles said. "It is to take care of the customers, that's the only reason.It shouldn't cause any problem, if they are concerned about their customers."

What a total ass. It's not the employee's responsability to ensure enough people are around to work peak hours, ITS YOURS. Whoever determines the shifts should be smart enough to allow for higher numbers at peak times. That's the essential point of setting shifts. If you really want to be a hardass, you could just force some people to be available during certain off shifts, just in case of sickness, or whatever. Maybe pay them a couple more bucks a week for bing "on call" for those times. But honestly, total availability for all employees? Then questioning their commitment to the customer if they balk at that? Recall that you're paying these people minimum wage, and recall that this isn't exactly a plum job to begin with. Then screw your head back on straight, and get reasonable.