I am an external hire ASM. After two years of treating people like garbage, in a sad attempt to achieve the unrealistic goals that the regional and market managers have set out for me; I have landed up burning myself out, and accepting that I'm done with it. After finishing my rotation from overnights, I have been closing since October with not a single opening shift. All of the daytime management leaves on time at 5pm after their respective 7am-5pm shift. My shifts are scheduled from 12pm-10pm, but O/N Co-manager sees fit to keep me there till 1/2am in the morning at every night. I have had nights with CAP2 Where we finish the freight at 100% and bin 90% of it, but he sees fit to tell me to stay to finish binning the rest of it, then to zone all the registers, and to explain why I can't ever get my CAP2 team to zone dry grocery. I live approximately 35 minutes from my store, and have at times gone multiple days without eating in order to not stay later into the night. My latest night was me leaving at 4:30am, then getting chastised the next day for showing up 20 minutes late.

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On average I'm working 60 hour work weeks. I just got told by my SM that our management team is not working enough, despite me staying later than everyone, despite me skipping lunch, and despite me being the only manager to work an average of 12 hour days. Now the expectations are raised and I'm scheduled for the next 13 days in a row with the 14th day "off" being scheduled for a 12pm-7pm "half day". Followed by another stretch of 6 closing shifts after that. I have ruined my relationship with my parents and most recently my girlfriend of 5 years over me working so much; that they believe that the job is more important than them. I've missed weddings, funerals, family events, and recently I messed up my car falling asleep on the drive home from a late shift, resulting me in severely messing up the front end of my vehicle's suspension. When I notified my superiors, all I got was a text saying "You better get an Uber, no call ins". I've thought about transferring, but I don't possess the energy to continue my duties in another location. I have never acted negative on the job, I've always maintained a positive attitude, and a smile on my face. I stock with my CAP teams, I get carts in the lot, I am on the registers to cover breaks, and I even zone whole departments before O/N comes in, and it's never good enough.

I can say that my associates are great people and they are the only reason I've chosen to stay as long as I did. I'm going to find a place that appreciates what I can bring to the table, instead of extracting it from me in the form of 12-16 hour long days 5/6 days a week. This company isn't worth the stress, isn't worth the money, and sure as hell isn't worth half the effort that the associates put into the job. This is a company that treats you like a number. When you get exhausted and have a bad couple of days, assholes like me are then supposed to hold people accountable, and terminate what little livelihood they earn from busting their ass in their underpaid position. Sam Walton's dream has long died. But I can't help but think if it ever existed in the first place. In the end, my message is to do what you can at the end of the day and go home.

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To all associates, especially other ASMs: Don't be like me, don't burn yourself out, and don't get stuck in this nasty position for long. Walmart taught me a lot. But the cost was certainly not worth the trade off.