Job Advice
21/F/AZ
So, here is my dilemma. Here is a preface. I have been working at Wal-mart for over two years now. I hate it. I truly, truly detest it. The people who shop there are anywhere from typical middle class mom, to bottom of the barrel crack addicts who haven't bathed in a week. Most people who shop there are very irate, for one reason or another. They don't have enough people, and they refuse to hire more. They don't even have a person in every department, so they force me and other people from my department to cover it. By the end of the day, I am running to the clock to punch out...and I have to.. lest a customer stop me. I have been putting up with it though, and just doing my best between work and school to try and apply for jobs. Of course, this is all to no avail. I haven't received a call back for an interview since November 2008. Just by luck, I couldn't make interview #2 after passing that one, and they didn't want to try and reschedule with me. Recently, I have run into a problem at work where I've been written up; and it isn't really my fault. This might become a bit long, so be prepared:
About two weeks before the college school semester started, I handed a change of availability to my supervisor. I made sure to ask him that he was the person who I gave this paper to instead of the Assistant manager. He said to me "I am your supervisor, so you give it to me.". Weeks later, I am in school, and being scheduled out of my availability. It is showing on my schedule that I am still available during when I am in class. I inform my supervisor. He says he will take care of it, we will talk about it. Apparently, he wasn't there anymore on the days that I was able to come in, so I never got to talk to him. Later, I talk to his supervisor, and the guy takes care of it for me. That was last week. I checked my schedule when I was last there on Sunday, and it is in fact showing my new availability, but guess what? I am still being scheduled even when it says 'N/A day' on the section for my availability. Also, on Sunday, I was written up. I had 17 absences since September, most of them were due to school. I informed the manager reading the write up/policies to me about this, and defended myself pretty thoroughly (without getting rude). She didn't care, just said that if I screwed up again I would be fired, due to the sheer amount of absences. Wal-mart has a pretty strict attendance policy. On a rolling schedule, at any given time within 6 months, you are absent for more than 6 days, you will be fired (unless you have bereavement or something similarly extreme). According to these folks, "I got lucky". It also turns out that when you turn in availability, it MUST be to be an assistant manager, a policy which I had never been informed of.
Another small problem, is that I happened to be extremely late on the day I was written up, but they didn't know about it. I was almost half an hour late. This was actually kind of my fault, but it was incidental that they scheduled me much, much earlier than they had in months. My body just wasn't accustomed to waking up at 7 in the morning to get to work on time, and I accidentally slept in. So, now I am paranoid that they will find that, and fire me when I come in next. If I don't get fired tomorrow, what is your opinion? Should I quit to avoid being fired, and having a bad rep? From my experience, and the experience of other friends who worked at Wal-mart, it is very hard to get a new job after (or while still at) Wal-mart, most people look down on them as a company. I think many employers think that a former Wal-mart might be some kind of creepy, mentally unstable type of person. Most of my friends and family have told me to stay there and then try to collect unemployment if they fire me. I'm worried they will try to make it look like it is my fault for having bad attendance, and I won't get unemployment. What's worse...other companies might see it as really pathetic that I was fired from Wal-mart. Thanks to anyone who reads this, I really appreciate any advice.
So, here is my dilemma. Here is a preface. I have been working at Wal-mart for over two years now. I hate it. I truly, truly detest it. The people who shop there are anywhere from typical middle class mom, to bottom of the barrel crack addicts who haven't bathed in a week. Most people who shop there are very irate, for one reason or another. They don't have enough people, and they refuse to hire more. They don't even have a person in every department, so they force me and other people from my department to cover it. By the end of the day, I am running to the clock to punch out...and I have to.. lest a customer stop me. I have been putting up with it though, and just doing my best between work and school to try and apply for jobs. Of course, this is all to no avail. I haven't received a call back for an interview since November 2008. Just by luck, I couldn't make interview #2 after passing that one, and they didn't want to try and reschedule with me. Recently, I have run into a problem at work where I've been written up; and it isn't really my fault. This might become a bit long, so be prepared:
About two weeks before the college school semester started, I handed a change of availability to my supervisor. I made sure to ask him that he was the person who I gave this paper to instead of the Assistant manager. He said to me "I am your supervisor, so you give it to me.". Weeks later, I am in school, and being scheduled out of my availability. It is showing on my schedule that I am still available during when I am in class. I inform my supervisor. He says he will take care of it, we will talk about it. Apparently, he wasn't there anymore on the days that I was able to come in, so I never got to talk to him. Later, I talk to his supervisor, and the guy takes care of it for me. That was last week. I checked my schedule when I was last there on Sunday, and it is in fact showing my new availability, but guess what? I am still being scheduled even when it says 'N/A day' on the section for my availability. Also, on Sunday, I was written up. I had 17 absences since September, most of them were due to school. I informed the manager reading the write up/policies to me about this, and defended myself pretty thoroughly (without getting rude). She didn't care, just said that if I screwed up again I would be fired, due to the sheer amount of absences. Wal-mart has a pretty strict attendance policy. On a rolling schedule, at any given time within 6 months, you are absent for more than 6 days, you will be fired (unless you have bereavement or something similarly extreme). According to these folks, "I got lucky". It also turns out that when you turn in availability, it MUST be to be an assistant manager, a policy which I had never been informed of.
Another small problem, is that I happened to be extremely late on the day I was written up, but they didn't know about it. I was almost half an hour late. This was actually kind of my fault, but it was incidental that they scheduled me much, much earlier than they had in months. My body just wasn't accustomed to waking up at 7 in the morning to get to work on time, and I accidentally slept in. So, now I am paranoid that they will find that, and fire me when I come in next. If I don't get fired tomorrow, what is your opinion? Should I quit to avoid being fired, and having a bad rep? From my experience, and the experience of other friends who worked at Wal-mart, it is very hard to get a new job after (or while still at) Wal-mart, most people look down on them as a company. I think many employers think that a former Wal-mart might be some kind of creepy, mentally unstable type of person. Most of my friends and family have told me to stay there and then try to collect unemployment if they fire me. I'm worried they will try to make it look like it is my fault for having bad attendance, and I won't get unemployment. What's worse...other companies might see it as really pathetic that I was fired from Wal-mart. Thanks to anyone who reads this, I really appreciate any advice.