Starting January 1st 2007, Wal-Mart has decided to have all employees dress in uniform. This new uniform is just for a trial period, to see how everyone likes it and to see if it indeed creates a professional atmosphere for Wal-Mart’s reputation.
The new mandatory uniforms consist of Khaki pants and a navy blue top. While Wal-Mart provided some navy polo t-shirts to their employees, there weren’t enough to go around to everyone. So the employees must provide their own navy blue tees’ until Wal-Mart’s stock replenishes, or if the stock replenishes.
Wal-Mart states that there are over 20 different shades and types of khaki jeans available for their employees to wear, so Wal-Mart will not be providing the pants to the employees. Rather they will supply the employees with up to a $15.00 refund of the employees purchase of khaki pants with employees receipt of their purchase.
The goal of Wal-Mart’s new mandatory uniform trial is to diminish the well known “Blue Wal-Mart Apron” for a more professional looking attire.
While long standing Wal-Mart employees have mixed feelings about the change in dress code.
While the majority decided the new look of Wal-Mart is more professional, but still they aren’t to crazy about the change.
New hires of Wal-Mart agree that the new dress code is a very big improvement to the blue apron normally worn by the associates.
The biggest complaint received is that the employees simply do not make enough money to go out and buy all new khaki pants and blue polo’s.
The response was simply to shop at Wal-Mart and use the employee discount.
After this complaint, the second complaint came in. Simply that without the aprons, the employees have no pockets and no where to put their things.
To fix this problem, Wal-Mart is going to be giving the employees a choice to wear a khaki ‘half apron’. This gives the employees the much coveted pockets they desire, but still has a professional appeal to it, keeping both Wal-Mart and it’s employees at a happy medium.
There are many pity complaints on top of the above mentioned, to many to count.
Some being simple and some simply absurd. There are always complaints when people speak of change, people get comfortable and change is sometimes frightening.
But to all of those who dislike the new mandatory uniform, the good news is that it is only a trial. So if it doesn’t work out, you can always go back to your blue Wal-Mart apron.
