When I walked into my Walmart in Oklahoma for the first time I thought it was nice. I went up to the service desk and asked where orientation was. The girl behind the desk smiled at me, winked, then pointed me in the right direction. Orientation, which is considered our first day on the job, went really well. My managers seemed really nice. They sent me home at the end of the day with a folder full of cards I could contact people with and a nice yellow lanyard that said Walmart all over it. I couldn’t wait to finish my CBL’s, which are the computerized tests we have to take to prove we are fit to perform well in our departments, and finally start. That enthusiasm was gone, however, by the end of the first week. In 7 days flat I went from looking forward to working to wanting to pull my hair out. It wasn’t my managers I had a problem with, it was my coworkers. To be honest with you, it was only one associate I had a problem with. Every job has one, the person who thinks they know everything and think they run the place. At first we were fine, but she just wouldn’t let me do anything on my own. She made it very clear that it was either her way or the highway. Eventually I just learned to deal with it. 6 months later we got a new kid. My first impression, he was pretty cool. He listened to the same music that I did, hated working just like I did, we immediately got along. Those peaceful feelings changed didn’t last long though when I heard him trying to make the customers laugh by making fun of me. That was the first thing that made me not get along with him. The second thing came when he kept telling people, literally, that we should all treat him respectfully because he is Jewish. I thought to myself ‘here we go.’ Whatever happened to equal opportunity? No special treatment is given to Blacks, Whites, or Asians, so why should he because he is Jewish. Now I don’t want you to think I’m a racist. I’m not. I just don’t agree with the people who think they should get special treatment because of what happened to their ancestors. So now I’ve got a woman yelling at everybody because she thinks she is right about everything, and a kid who thinks he is on top of the world because he is Jewish. I decided it was time to go to management and ask for a transfer. They rejected it automatically. They said that I couldn’t transfer until I have been there for a year. Great, only half a year left to go. I couldn’t believe this. I couldn’t believe that the store I had shopped at ever since I was a kid was actually capable of this much torment. Now, I don’t want you to think that I’m the kind of kid to stay up late at night and cry myself to sleep at night. I just dreaded going to work. They finally moved me out of the deli because I was getting to many customer complaints. They put me on the door. My new job was to greet the customers and say ‘welcome to Walmart.’ I was ecstatic. I am great with little kids and I am a really nice person. I got my yearly evaluation about two months later. They rated my performance as solid and gave me a 40 cent raise. I was really disappointed to be honest with you. Nothing says thank you for all your hard work for a year like an extra 40 cents an hour right? Right after that things went from bad to worse. That Jewish kid that I used to work with came in with his mom one day on his day off. What you need to understand is that I am a really nice kid, but if you make me mad, I won’t even acknowledge you exist. His mom had already verbally told my coworkers that she didn’t like me. I don’t know what exactly I did, but it is what it is. Whenever I saw her come in with him I acted like they weren’t even there so I didn’t have to have a confrontation. It came, however, when my manager, who I respect the most, told me that his mom just complained about me. Her complaint was that I didn’t say hi to her at the door. Give me a freaking break. You really don’t have a life if all you want to do whenever you come in to Walmart is complain on the door greeter for not saying hi. It was on this day that I decided Walmart was not the job for me. To all of the regular customers reading this, please continue to shop with us. Our customer service is great. But if you have heart problems, or are very emotional, I highly recommend that you do not apply. I am convinced though that if managers and employees could come to a mutual respect with each other, Walmart would be a great place all around.