Walmart is urging employees to clock out few minutes before time, sparking debate

Nobody loves anything more than leaving a few minutes earlier than one’s working schedule. While many employees look forward to the same, it is on the company to ensure that the same is proportionate so customers don’t face problems. However, Walmart has been upsetting quite a few customers after requesting employees to not work overtime. u/Grizzlypupper shared a post with a picture of one of the store’s announcements that backfired. The store requested employees not to work overtime and urged them to leave early during the week if they had put in even just a few more minutes.

The notice read, “Everyone needs to work only as many hours as they’re scheduled.” To clarify any doubts, the notice shared an example explaining that if a worker was scheduled to work 5 hours, they should not exceed the limit. To add to the same, the notice​ also shared names of associates who had worked longer than their scheduled time and the extra time they had put in and requested that they leave early to make up for the same. “These are the associates who need to leave early due to going over their scheduled hours yesterday. Make up this time before Friday if you are not here today,” the notice read. This was followed by 6 names of employees who had put in extra time and had to clock off early. “Clock off 10 minutes early,” was written for one of the employees on the post.

The most baffling part was that even employees who had worked 5 minutes over were told to leave 5 minutes early. None of the employees had put in a tedious amount of overtime but even then all of them were told to leave early if they had worked extra. Given the problem of having short staff and the fact that Walmart is a store requiring the employee's services consistently, people were not too happy about having workers leave early. While many people agreed that it was fair for employees to work the stipulated time, customers found it absurd that they were being encouraged against working even a few minutes over. Some workers found the idea unusual and suggested it would be better if they got a longer period off than just a few minutes.

They thought that a few minutes would make no difference to their schedule. u/Wooden_Tomato919 remarked, “This! When they cut our hours, it's like one or a half an hour each day before or after. Just give me a whole half day off. But that would benefit me, not them. This way they get the money saved and me working my almost full five.” u/LifeCanBeADream wrote, “All corporations are currently trying to get labor into the range that they want but not what they need.” u/JediFed said, “If it's slow I let my folks know they can head home early. If it's busy, I want the floor clean, and everything done. It doesn't take a genius to realize that if I need another 10 minutes to clean everything up, I should take that 10 minutes and clean everything up.”

Editor's note: This article was originally published on April 19, 2024. It has since been updated.