A few months ago, Walmart announced that it was bringing the greeter position back to all stores, and that the job in more busy locations would change. People standing at the doors would have more responsibilities in addition to greeting customers and checking receipts, and their new title would be “customer host,” with yellow vests to make them easier to spot. At least one longtime greeter reports that the change means that he lost his job.
An employee at the Walmart store in East Stroudsburg, PA has worked as a greeter for 21 years. He has cerebral palsy and uses a motorized wheelchair, but that isn’t an issue in the traditional greeter position.
He loves his job and has a great rapport with customers. Unfortunately, that location is one where the company will have store hosts rather than greeters. The position’s requirements mean that, unlike the store’s other greeters, he can’t do the store host job.
“I just want my job back, and I want to be appreciated,” he told the Pocono Record. “The customers appreciate me.”
For example, part of the store host job description is occasionally lifting items weighing up to 50 pounds into customers’ vehicles, which he is not able to do.
A Walmart spokesman explained to the Record that the company created the store host job in response to the needs of high-traffic stores, and that being in a wheelchair doesn’t necessarily keep someone out of the host job. Employees, he said, were being placed elsewhere in the store or at neighboring stores. The chain apparently wasn’t able to place this employee elsewhere.
Longtime greeter at East Stroudsburg Wal-Mart shown the door by company [Pocono Record]
by Laura Northrup via Consumerist
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