Walmart Ruins Another Life: 73 Year Old Woman Who Worked There for 22 Years Loses Everything After Being Attacked By a Customer

From AOL:

It isn't easy working in retail on Black Friday, the notorious shopping day following Thanksgiving. Big-box retailers offer their top discounts, and shoppers respond with mad rushes through the check-out line.

So Jan Sullivan, who stands 4'11" and is 73, was hardly in an enviable situation last November when her employer of 22 years, Walmart Stores Inc., assigned her the task of stopping customers from leaving through the exit door at a branch in Bay Pines, Florida.

Sullivan, who normally worked as a Walmart greeter, says she tried to stop one customer from taking the wrong exit, when she was pushed. She then says she lost lost her balance, and grabbed onto the customer's sweater. The customer proceeded to leave the store, and Sullivan thought that was the end of it.

But three days later, Sullivan was fired, according to the Tampa Bay Times. And now, she finds herself in dire straits. She's burned through her savings, and owes $3,000 on her Discover card. "I'm 73 years old," she says. "Who's going to hire me?"

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It's been a dramatic fall for the Walmart employee who once proudly wore a vest with the words stitched on it, "20 Years of Dedicated Service." She's twice divorced with no kids after both her fallopian tubes burst during two failed pregnancies. A nephew makes sporadic visits.

Her story has touched a chord with her neighbors in her community, in which she just sold her two-bedroom cinderblock home. (She's moving to a nearby mobile home, which cost her $3,000.) One neighbor, Jeff Wetherbee, was so moved about what happened to "the little old lady across the street who makes peanut brittle for the neighborhood every Christmas" he contacted the media on her behalf.

For its part, Walmart says it was forced into action by its rule forbidding employees to touch customers under any circumstances.

"Regardless of her intentions, her actions put her own safety and possibly the safety of a customer in jeopardy," Walmart spokeswoman Kayla Whaling told the Tampa Bay Times. "We can't condone behavior where associates take matters into their own hands."

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The company wouldn't comment further on the case's details. But the experience of workers finding themselves overwhelmed on Black Friday is not limited to Sullivan, or Walmart. A 36-year old female worker of Target, also in Florida, was so exhausted last November she lost control of her car and drove it into a canal, according to Florida Police, which didn't name her. She was able, however, to swim to safety, according to the Miami New Times. Back in 2008, a worker died at a New York Walmart after being trampled in a Black Friday stampede.

Sullivan, meanwhile, hasn't totally given up on her own job search, and sends in dozens of applications to sporting goods stores her area. And while she says obviously misses the paycheck, she's also grown nostalgic about the camaraderie at work. She says, for example, she'd like one more chance to cook chicken for the company's All Children's Hospital Fundraiser.

"Walmart was like my home," she says. "Like my family."

via jobs.aol.com

Comments

[Fortune Cookie]

So she was fired because she grabbed onto something to hold herself steady in a REFLEX?

[Pagemaster]

Walmart in a never-ending string of wonderful ideas fires one of the few people who actually enjoy working for them.

[The Last Archimedean]

Would Wal-Mart have been happier if she had fallen to the floor and been stepped on by the customer going the wrong way? And after the customer trips over her prone body, they sue Wal-Mart? And she also sues Wal-Mart, for workers' compensation to recover from her trampling injuries?

Give me a break. Why the hell don't these idiot companies employ logic and common sense? There should be a federal law banning companies from firing employees unless they first prove to a neutral arbitrator that the firing is justified. Caught smoking crack in the bathroom? You're history. Tried to avoid getting trampled by a customer? You can't be fired and you're awarded $5,000 from Wal-Mart for putting you in a dangerous situation.

[Hiedi]

So glad I'm no longer a hell mart employee. Hell mart is its own circle of hell, very close to the flame. I would love to have the 8 months I spent working at hellmart back-I feel horrid for this lady.

[Wastelander]

Actually, one of the other news articles mentioned she had been making the maximum allowed for a rank-and-file employee ($15 and change an hour)...so I'm thinking that (sadly) this may have been a convenient "out" for Wal-Mart to fire her and replace her with someone who they can pay MUCH less.

[trekkiebabe31]

I think Wastelander might be right, I mean her job was to stop customers from exiting the wrong door, how the heck was she supposed to stop them without touching them? I've seen custys in huge crowds, they are bloody insane, one way or another she would've at least been brushed up against! This is why I will never shop at Walmart!

[DrugStore Diva]

I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't do this as a way to fire her without it being age discrimination. Even if she tried to claim it was, their documentation says she accosted a customer.

[Becky]

I can't believe there are people who still shop at WalMart and aren't ashamed of it. Why do people still shop at this God-awful company?

[Sallly]

Walmart is totally evil in this situation, that is undeniable. My heart breaks for this poor lady, and I pray she finds her way.

There is a lesson here though. If only she had put that 50k in a Roth IRA, she would have some other income now. Putting it into her home was an understandable, but terrible, mistake. Now the home and the money is gone. Don't think Social Security will cover your bills in your old age. Don't think you will work at Retail Hell forever. Plan for the future! If you don't get a retirement plan from your employer, start your own. Don't end up like this poor soul. I hope and pray her community comes through for her. God Bless her.

[Chuckles]

This is reason #3,821 why I would NEVER shop at Wal-Mart. They are the most disgusting company in the history of the USA. I don't care if their prices are half what other stores charge, I will never set foot in one.

[Aunty]

"Regardless of her intentions, her actions put her own safety and possibly the safety of a customer in jeopardy,"

This is the part that pisses me off the most. Fuck that customer - she's the one that started putting safety at risk! RRRR!

[Queer Geek]

Wal-Mart's new slogan:

Dropping prices and dropping employees like flies.

[Adamsy]

How about a medium-sized store that sold staelps at competitive prices along with a selection of ethnic and unique specialties and freshly prepared foods for the lunchtime crowd. There would be the convenience and pricing that downtown residents demand. And an incentive for those living outside the downtown area to visit for items that wouldn't be available anywhere else. Think Trader Joe's on a much smaller scale.

[Erica]

Well why just fire this 73 year old lady for touch people. Ok then well I say fire every person that works at Wal-Mart threw out America. Because when I go shopping at Wal-Mart I have seen the workers touch people when someone took a bad fall. I seen a work give my dad a hand shake when they where helping out my dad find something. Yeah I tired of hearing about dumb things like this. If Wal-Mart does not what to be nice to their workers. Then I say "Too Hell With Wal-Mart." They may have the better low sell price then another shopping centers. But I really don't like how nasty they treat their workers. I think America will be much better off without Wal-Mart. Yeah that means more people lossing their jobs. But I'm sure onces me remove the problem that Wal-Mart is giving their workers then America will be better off with Wal-Mart gone for good.