January 7, 2021 I ended my layover and put myself in an “On Duty” status in Rockford, IL
Before I did a quick pre-trip in the 3 degree weather I noticed I’d received some texts throughout the night. I responded to some of them, totaling I think 5 from about 0730-0759.
I did a quick walk-around and got moving.
At 0959 (I think) I stopped in Poynette, WI and put myself in another “On Duty” status to fill one tank of fuel in order to make it back to Menomonie. Apparently I sent a text here also.
I did my drop and hook at the Sams in Eau Claire then went back to Menomonie.
About 1245 or so while waiting to drop my empty at Menomonie, and anxious to start on my Bismarck that I’d been dispatched on, I got impatient at a couple new guys making a ceremony of dropping other empties. I decided to try to back in next to a trailer that was sticking very far out into the lane and quite crooked. This trailer was obviously dropped by someone who needs to see lines in order to do things fairly straight, and who is terrible at lining up the nose of the trailer with the other noses. Snow removal at Menomonie has been severely lacking for probably four of my five years there now, while Walmart incessantly pounds the drum about snow cleats.
In my haste and irritation I put a scrape in my hood by striking a trailer directly across from me that was also terribly dropped that I’d failed to notice before attempting to grab my spot. I struck the nose of this trailer with the front right fender of my truck.
I told the shop and they took a few pictures and explained that we now simply wait on a repair estimate and from there any number of things can happen. This truck is a 2018 and due to be taken out of service this summer and has over 660,000 miles on it.
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The repair estimate finally came in. One was $1500, and the other $1300. They informed me they'd go with the lower estimate.
According to Walmart policy, because this tremendous damage was over $1000, I’m require to take a whiz quiz and submit my cell phone records for 24 hours either side of the accident. If it’s under $1000, it’s an “incident”, otherwise it’s the more severe “accident”, which then goes to the Accident Review Committee to determine this or that, etc.
We never got that far.
On January 18 (my day off) I get a call from our safety guy telling me I’m parked while this process begins and don’t even bother coming in on Wednesday to start my week as I’m not allowed to drive until the whiz quiz results come back, and my cell phone records exonerate me.
My cell phone records instead condemned me and we will never know if I’m a rampant dope addict because I never took the whiz quiz. On Wednesday the safety guy calls me again and tells me he’s completed my audit and “it doesn’t look good”, and at this point he's required to pass it on to my GTM as it’s become “an operations issue” - whatever that means. Apparently I’d sent 7 texts on January 7 while driving. Those would be the texts I mentioned from 0730-0759, and the other at 0959 while fueling. During our conversation I say this is not possible as firstly I’m not that stupid, and secondly any texts I sent would have been in accordance with policy while at least in an On Duty status, with the truck at 0 mph.
The safety guy also wonders about the accuracy of the time stamps and offers a possible life line. He says to open the Verizon site and have my wife text me. Then text my wife. Then to screenshot the times on our phones, and compare them to the Verizon website. We also discussed the fact that two of the numbers I’d texted were east coast numbers and perhaps that's why they showed up as being from 0830-0859 when I was on the drive line. At some point while at home pouring over the Verizon .pdf statement I realize the entire thing is one hour off, and in fact on Eastern Time.
The texts from the experiment show on the website as being 9 minutes ahead of our phones, and the Verizon records are listed in Eastern Time. My wife and I send a few other texts regarding some issues in the house which I delete individually.
The method proves an inaccuracy in Walmart policy.
Friday, January 21st I’m called into the office. The first thing my GTM says is that he “doesn’t see any alternatives aside from immediate termination”. I tell him his method is inaccurate. The experiment performed, that was recommended even by his own office staff, should have been sufficient. The 9 minute discrepancy should have been sufficient. I tell him if he were trying for a conviction of murder in a court room and presented evidence that was 9 minutes off, he’d likely get laughed at. He blinks and stares blankly.
He replies that the picture of the Verizon website when compared to the screen shots of our phones from the experiment are not good enough because the website shows 5 texts while our phones show three. Those would be the ones I deleted individually which were none of Walmart's business. I incredulously ask why an experiment that came from an idea originating in his office that proves this method is not accurate is not good enough. His reply was some canned bullshit but by this time I was pretty much seeing red because I realized this was a circular argument and he was unyielding in his stupidity. He asks me to prove that Verizon issues .pdf of all calls and texts in Eastern Time. Or maybe I could get the folks I texted to send me screenshots with time stamps on their phones.
I ask him if he knows where his boundaries end because he's not getting screenshots from my friends phones, and ask exactly what am I going to do to get Verizon to prove to Walmart which time zone they set their reports up in. Am I supposed to call up the CEO of Verizon? I fulfilled your requirements. I’ve proven your method is false. I’m PISSED at this man. Truthfully I never liked him anyway. It doesn’t take much to read between his lines and see when he’s delivering a line of shit. It really doesn’t.
At this point I simply tell him I'm not fighting with him anymore and I’ll go to the grave knowing I’m correct, and sleep just fine at night with my integrity fully intact. Since we like to preach ethics and all so much. I then stare him in the face and he repeats his opening line of no alternative besides termination. I scoff dismissively and raise my hands in surrender. I ask him what other hoops we’re going to jump through because it’s a long drive home, and I’d like to get started. 122.6 miles to be exact and I've already done it once today. I have applications I need to fill out.
It was here I realized this meeting was over before it started. This wasn’t a chance to defend myself. It was an exit interview, plain and simple.
The HR lady was sitting there the whole time. She hands me a bright yellow folder I only now realize she’d been holding since the moment I sat down. The folder contains a few packets on COBRA insurance, etcetera. I inform them that now, as from the beginning, I don't take any major health insurance from Walmart and they just dismissed a very reliable low maintenance employee. I tell them in more than 5 years I’ve had zero lates, zero coachings, zero incidents, and managed to get 500,000 accident free miles in 3 years 11 months while slip seating for four and a half years. I tell them I’ll sleep just fine knowing I did my part.
I removed my few belongings from the truck which the GTM had graciously moved into the wash bay during the meeting because it was well below zero outside. The HR lady supervises this and helps me carry the few armloads of stuff into my pickup.
I tell her thank you for the help, and that she has in fact been one of the nicer, more fun people to work with as she’s actually managed to retain a sense of humor and her personality somehow even past more than two decades of employment at the place. That’s a rare trait indeed.
And somewhere around 1045 am, with 658,657 safe miles in 5 years and 3 months, zero incidents and accidents, zero coachings, zero lates, and having made $117,000 in 2021, and over $100,000 every year previously, I get in my pickup and make my last ever exit out the gate at 6825 in Menomonie, WI.
Nothing in this post is untrue or exaggerated. It doesn’t have to be. If I can be fired from a policy like this then so can you!
Apply today, they’re still hiring!
But tell them your burner phone number. I already pay for 5 cell phones and 2 tablets so I wasn't interested in a burner phone. Plus, I thought I was doing everything correctly.
In fact, I’m positive I was.
It should however be noted that I was never actually shown my logs from that day, and I don't recall if that occurred to me during the meeting or after on the drive home.
In the words of my GTM as I exited his office, to which I did not respond, "Good luck to you."
