Monday, February 6, 2012

Necessary Changes?

This article is about Walmart, one of the nation's biggest multi-purpose retailers, changing the duties of it's greeters. Some people may shrug at the thought of the greeters having to move into the store and help customers. It is more than just their move into the store, it is their abilities. Most of the greeters are retired, aged people trying to bring in a little extra money or help pay something an expense. Perhaps they are retired from their former occupation that they could no longer do because of age, and now Walmart wants them to do strenuous tasks instead of happily greet customers? While in the article, Walmart says that they asking for physical effort from these elders, but only to help customers find items. Is taking this relaxing job away from our nation's senior citizen's worth the customer service? If they cannot do their new job properly, the nation risks many elders to lack income and possibly not have enough to get by with medical bills and other necessities.
Whether or not what Walmart is doing is right, there is still question on why so many retired-aged people are in the work force? If people of these ages are still having to work now to pay mortgages and put grandchildren through school, what will happen when the "Baby Boomers" get to the age of retirement? The time is quickly approaching, is it a Social Security issue that older people are still working? This article brings up more than only the controversy of Walmart's changes, but also older people taking up jobs and what may cause them to do so. There are many possible reasons for this, all of which come from the economy. Lack of means in Social Security which causes older people to find jobs, but also takes job opportunities away from working aged people.

3 comments:

Smith said...

I don't understand why Walmart is changing the greeters duties? I find the friendly retiree door greater heart warming.

Sarah Craig said...

​If I was the owner of Walmart and it came down to hiring someone that was physically capable to walk around and help people find certain things or someone that could only fill one purpose, to greet people, I would hire the person that could fill multiple positions. Yeah I guess it would be cute to have a old guy welcoming you into your store but I would find it a little annoying if I asked an employe to help me and they couldn't. But that would only make the demand for social security increase with less elderly people working. Walmart shouldn't have to be, I guess you could say, the answer to this problem.

Aditya said...

From Walmarts point of view, it makes sense that they would want employees that could do physical things like help customers find products. If elder people are looking for less strenous jobs to support themselves, their children, or grandchildren, perhaps they should look at different places than Walmart. If Walmart wants to use its employees to their maximum efficiency, using some to say 'hi' to people on their way in is not very beneficial.