3rd Shift, or the Red-Headed Step Child

I have spoken with dozens of people who work for Walmart on third shift. Not surprisingly, they either love it or they hate it completely. Of the ones who love it, the thing they seem to love the most is the lack of customers. I can understand that. I have had to deal with the customer who was angry because they were charged 33 cents for something that was 3 for one dollar. I have had to pull out the piece of paper and actually do the math for them. But customers not withstanding, third shift is expected to do ALL of the things that didn't get accomplished during the day with the multiple code purples,(That's a store wide meeting for all associates who can get away-to the uninitiated)and general lack of ambition. From an earlier post, you may run into someone going to a Bar-B-Que or have other pressing matters at hand. But now that Walmart has this policy of holding you to task for every minute that you take to work the freight, what are you supposed to do about those pesky customers that insist on coming in to the store any way? If you stop to help them, you are going to be behind on your count for the night. And what if you are one of three people in the store who knows how to mix paint on third shift? Well, in a nutshell, you are screwed. But don't despair, I'm certain that there is a helpful support manager ready and willing to pick up the slack, right? Not according to Tina, an associate who spent a lot of time complaining about her support manager team. In this particular store, the two support managers spent five hours of every night walking around the store. Not working, mind you, or even following the Walmart policy of being out on the floor for customers and associates to approach. No, these two jewels were just walking around, looking at merchandise and having a big old time. One of the two jewels has been fired. It seems he found more money making illegal drugs, but his replacement is even less prepared to work than he was. He was replaced with a long term associate who is grandfathered in to many of the wonderful benefits that Walmart used to offer. She gets double time for working Sundays, not just an extra dollar. She also has an amazing knack of finding the least amount of work that needs to be done in an area, and staying there. Her compatriot is very popular with the management team, and goes out of her way to stay that way. All of this is just office politics, to be sure, but it puts a huge amount of pressure on the people who need this job for all those silly things, like food and shelter. I'm a bit of a night owl myself. I've always preferred staying up to getting up, but it seems to me, that there are 16 other hours for Walmart associates to get their work done. If you can find out why they push it all off on third shift, you just might thank me later.