Given that it's Wal-Mart...
and that I know people who work in management (store level) and also employees, this fighting has been going on for years. Management changes work rules apparently monthly, and the employees react, usually with bad morale. Right now, it's a lose-lose situation for both sides.
A big part of the problem as I understand it, is that Sam treated his employees with respect. When he died, all that respect did also and the "new" management felt that they didn't need to respect the employees anymore as they were expendable. I would like to think that in this day and age, both sides have respect for the other but given what I've experienced over the years, this has changed and not for the good. The profit motive by upper management has become their total focus and everyone below them is grist for the mill.
We have the likes of various activist investors, boards that don't think anything of massive layoffs and bringing in contractors who make a dog's breakfast of things. Employees so de-moralized they're all looking for another job. Unions are about all that's left to fight back and there's a price for that paid for by the employees and even the companies. Look to the auto industry (it's relatively easier) to find out about restrictive union work rules. A good example is what happened to Saturn automobiles.
But who amongst us has not been in this boat? Or read the articles here on El Reg about employee treatment and upper management manglement?
Biting the hand that feeds IT
