A number of Walmart employees have taken to social media to detail their less-than-ideal experiences working for the global retail chain. In one instance, a former employee cursed out their managers via the store’s loudspeaker prior to quitting.
In a recent TikTok, another former Walmart worker, Haylee Mars (@hayleemars), detailed both her time spent working at Walmart and why she eventually quit her “really good-paying job” there. As of Tuesday morning, her video had over 107,800 views.
Mars explained that she got promoted after working as an overnight stocker for roughly a year. “What inspired me to promote to a team lead,” she said, “was the fact that all of the hard-hitting associates, the people that were coming in and putting in 100%, were expected to pick up the slack of other associates.”
@hayleemars I’ve heard past Walmart associate stories on this app and I wanted to share my experience from a team lead/management level 🫢🙄 #quitmyjob #quitwalmart #workingatwalmart #walmartexperience #badmanagement #toxicworkenvironment #whyiquitmyjob ♬ original sound – HayleeMars
With more workplace clout, Mars said she thought she could help address this inequity. For instance, at one point, she said she noticed that some managers were reluctant to ask workers who were slacking off to complete their job tasks. Instead, Mars claimed they would give bigger workloads to more efficacious employees—while simultaneously taking on bigger workloads themselves.
But changing this dynamic, Mars soon realized, was a tall ask. “I soon realized that the other team leads were not comfortable having confrontations with people who were showing up and not doing their jobs,” she said. “But they were comfortable with asking people who are already putting in 100% to put in more to pick up for their slack. … Just the way they went about handling these types of situations, to me, was extremely unprofessional.”
Mars said this, in turn, created a “toxic” workplace environment, and she became disheartened working at Walmart. She also said that working there became “really unprofessional [and] chaotic.”
“I gave the people above me so many different ideas on how to boost morale,” Mars explained. “They all didn’t want to follow through with it.”
And the lack of initiative from management ultimately prompted Mars to quit.
“Even though it was a really good-paying job, and I absolutely miss those paychecks, it just wasn’t worth my mental health at the end of the day,” she said. “It got so bad to a point that I would cry every single day before work.”
In the comments, a number of fellow Walmart workers validated Mars’ concerns.
“This is EVERY Walmart sadly,” one viewer said.
“One thing Walmart taught me: harder you work, more punishments you get,” another wrote.
Another TikToker, meanwhile, urged Mars to not put so much energy into caring about Walmart.
“Walmart isn’t worth caring this much about, put your efforts somewhere else,” she wrote. “I learned this the hard way. People will not change and it’s not worth it.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Mars via TikTok comment and Walmart by email.
