Walmart's stingy reward for employees who showed up to work despite the blizzard sparks fierce debate

As the Arctic blast is tormenting several states in the U.S., not everyone has the option to work from the comfort of home. Some frontline workers have no choice but to show up to work somehow no matter how bad the blizzard gets. That was the case for the Walmart employees in Rockford, Illinois recently and what the retail chain did as a token of appreciation became a highly debatable topic online. Millzy @hiitsmillzy, a radio personality from the area, posted on TikTok how unfair Rockford Walmart's reward was to its hard-working employees and this video sparked a debate online.

Millzy began the video by saying, "I can't believe this is real," and pointed to the video's background which was the Facebook post that Walmart shared boasting about their reward to the employees. The post read, "Brrr, it is cold outside. We appreciate our associates for braving through the cold to be here. Stay warm with some ramen noodle soup and crackers." Frustrated by the retail chain's lack of concern, Millzy said, "Walmart, you are a Fortune 500 company. Then at the top of the list, you are a multi-billion dollar corporation and your way to show your appreciation is to give your employees 55-cent ramen?"

Millzy then pointed out, "People are walking to work in negative 18-degree weather. Some people don't have cars, some people's cars didn't start and they still showed up to work somehow, some way, so they can get a paycheck." They shared how unimaginable it was to show up at work in such dangerously cold weather while the whole city was shut down. "They say they're having a party and it's this," said Millzy and added, "I would be so mad. I would clock out and go home." Apparently, Walmart took that post down because they received a huge backlash as many shared the same opinion as Millzy.

The video gained nearly 660K views on TikTok with more than 4400 comments. Many users commented on how ungenerous the organization was and some even shared their own experiences similar to this. "I worked at Walmart up until a few weeks ago. we had to work on Christmas, and our Christmas 'bonus' was a ten-cent Temu pin," wrote @_beachyy_bum_0. "This year my store made like 2 million or a huge amount for black Friday. We got three boxes of Krispy Kreme donuts that were gone by 11 am. And yes, it was supposed to be for everyone for the whole day," wrote @jodevereaux. "I’d drive myself home. They should be getting double pay not just ramen in my opinion," wrote @opaquelace. 

Another set of users felt that employees should appreciate that the store at least took that effort and some said that they would be happy if they got ramen at their workplace. "I work for Walmart. Every store has its own budget. The profit margins the store has is what’s used for the budget. The stores don’t get revenue from the whole company," mentioned @stellar_64. "At this point, I didn’t even get anything. I didn’t even get a 'Thank you.' Shoot, the Ramen is a step up where I work," wrote @hexdeadmeme5506. "Honestly, at least it's something. In most of the places I worked I was lucky to get a free cup of coffee," commented @thmswlkr.