Walmart Staff Asked to Adhere to Their Allotted Hours; Most Find the Mandate ‘Ridiculous'

A Reddit member of the Walmat community shared an image of a sign placed inside a Walmart store, which served as a reminder to the staff not to stay at work past their allotted hours. The sign informed some employees, mentioning their names, that their shifts needed to be adjusted by a few minutes. The reason? People began to speculate that the bosses might be attempting to avoid paying the staff for overtime, which created some conversation.

The picture of the sign, shared by user @Grizzlypupper, says: "Attention all associates...everyone needs to only work as many hours as they are scheduled. (If you are scheduled 5 hours do not go over that)." The notice continues, "These are associates that need to leave early due to going over their scheduled hours yesterday. Make up this time before Friday if you are not here today."

Several staff names are also listed on the sign, but they have been crossed out to protect their privacy. These names designate who must clock out "early" in order to prevent working longer than the five to 15 minutes that make up their allotted shift. These stringent timekeeping guidelines appear to be intended primarily to reduce the store's payroll costs.

The Walmart store that was highlighted in the comments startled a lot of people with how rigorous it was about how much time and money its employees were allowed to work. One person commented, saying, "Getting worked up over just 5 minutes seems ridiculous. If they can't give full hours, why not arrange 4 longer work days instead of 5 shorter ones?"

Another user shared their frustration about having their hours reduced, but what really bothered them was how it was done. They mentioned that instead of giving them a proper chunk of time off, like a half day, their shifts were trimmed by just an hour or half-hour each day. This left them without a proper break. They expressed, "Exactly! When they cut our hours, it's always a bit here and there. Why not just give me a half day off? But nope, that would benefit ME, not them. This way, they save money and still get almost a full week's work out of me." One user also mentioned how their store does something similar but it's not so strict. 

This conduct violates shop policy, as one Redditor noted. They recommended that staff members report it to corporate, which might lead to them getting whatever overtime compensation they are due. They said, "It's actually against policy for them to do that. Associates can report it to the wage & hour hotline, and I'm pretty sure they will have to pay out the OT. I know for such a petty amount like this, it won't make a difference on your paycheck, but it’s about the principle."

According to Indeed, a full-time work week is typically set at 40 hours. However, an employee is officially considered "part-time" if they work under the 32-hour weekly limit. According to the Pechman Law Group, Walmart has been sued by at least two ex-employees who have complained about improper handling of their hours. The complaints, according to the firm, allege that Walmart attempted to underpay employees for overtime by manipulating their work schedules and incorrectly designating assistant managers as exempt from overtime.

Essentially, it was said that the store wanted workers to put in longer hours yet get paid less. Walmart would manually alter their time records if they did wind up working overtime to avoid having to pay the higher overtime rate.  Between April 2022 and April 2023, Walmart earned a profit of over $150 billion, up 4.48 percent from the previous fiscal year.