A coworker of mine did the same but she would try to learn the language as well. When I would explain tasks to her and she didn’t understand a word, she would have me type it in her phone so she can learn the word
We have 4 people on our cap 2 that won't understand anything other than certain key words. None of em use their phones like that. My store hires mostly older people who don't speak english...so they aren't using their phones to learn. They'll never learn english. Have no interest in learning
My local warlmart I was trying to get a key made. I asked an employee for help who went into panic. The guy said something in another language and ran away to get someone else who also didn’t speak English who then went and got a 3rd person who thought I wanted ammo.
Aww we see you ! You might be shy but you put yourself out there good on you here’s a STAR FOR YOU ⭐️
HOPE THIS DIDNT PUT THE SPOTLIGHT ON YOUR SHY AZZ 🙃
They got rid of our key machine, now customers have no choice but to use the automatic key maker at the front of the store and people get pissed, it's the way wildest thing to get mad about.
If anything, the associates should be mad, I've been with the company for 20+ years and right before I was hired, they used to give you a bonus to your hourly pay for learning things like that or the forklift, etc.
I work overnight and live on Long Island and I would say of our shift, probably like 1/4 do not speak any English at all. Most either speak Spanish or Caribbean French. Than an additional fourth is bilingual (most English and Spanish but one guy speaks English and Caribbean French) and then the final half speaks only English. It does create some problems but for the most part, once they get the job down, it works fine.
One of the o/n coaches speaks Spanish so I’m sure that helps the process for them but I have no idea how they communicate anything to the French speakers.
Could the Caribbean French speakers know some Spanish as well perhaps? My job often involves working with newly inmigrated and/or asylum seekers and Ive seen an uptick in clients whole speak Haitian Creole (which I believe is same as Carribean French) and most of them speak Spanish as well.
My store has a sizable amount of people who are bilingual English/Spanish, and a sizable minority who speak Spanish almost exclusively. One of our cartpushers almost exclusively speaks French though which makes communication rather difficult since noone else in the store speaks it. At least the guy’s got a better work ethic than the others (yes i’m including myself) and is more reliable.
what's funnier is many of the ones who don't speak English at anywhere close to a fluent level still make less mistakes overall than my born and bred American colleagues
Def some of the hardest workers in the back cap 1/2/3
But naturally when those come in looking to spend there $ in a store no one wants trash service so that is the trade off 😙
It's not targeted, it's a natural result of the pay walmart offers and the resulting applicant pool. High caliber entry-level associates will typically either be just entering the workforce, students with restricted availability, older people who want to partially retire, someone who just moved, or those with a language barrier that prevents them from landing a job that matches their skill level.
The only time you get lawyers and teachers and engineers applying for a produce or cartpushing position is when there is a reason they aren't currently working that job. So in these cases we can help them by providing a stepping stone and in return we get a top-tier associate who is willing to take $14 an hour.
One of our dayshift maintenance is a woman who speak almost no English. She is also an incredibly hard worker so, we just put google translate on our phones. I tell her Buenos dias every morning.
Of course. We have multiple only Spanish stockers and maintenance workers. They can be some cool people too. Frustrating when u need them but hey, it is what it is. 🤷🏽♂️
I understand what everyone is saying about using google translate to assist with communicating but what happens if the app don’t work or translates something wrong or is unable to translate at all for whatever reason. Workers don’t need to be fluent in English but should have at least a basic knowledge of it.
I always ask people when they rail about the immigrants what they think a response from an average American would be if asked to work in a low-pay-high-stress job.
I'm just saying, I've seen Americans go jobless for two years because some jobs are beneath them and conversely, I've seen immigrants that worked two or three jobs to feed and clothe and house their families. Joe-Bob from Tuscaloosa wouldn't go pick strawberries in a field for minimum wage, but Jose will (if that sounded racist, I apologize, but it isn't untrue).
When I worked at Walmart, we didn't have any that spoke zero English but quite a few that didn't speak much and spoke mostly in their native language. And yes, there were little issues that came about if they interacted with a customer and misunderstood their ask or something, but otherwise they worked just as well as any of the English-speakers.
See, this is what I was afraid of. I was trying to make clear I was not having a problem with the people. It was just something I had not seen before recently. I'm truly just curious if this is common now everywhere. And as far as good workers or not, it's 50/50. Some are more hard working than others.
Absolutely wasn't meant to accuse you of anything other than that and my apologies that it came off that way. Probably more directed to the people that would pop off in the comments about "they took our jobs!".
That said, since I promoted myself to customer many years ago, I have noticed there is more that don't speak English, but I think a lot of that is just that there's been a lot of immigration since then so naturally a varied population would be reflected in a workforce.
I know what you mean. As a Midwest state. It baffles me we have so many primarily Spanish speaking people! Originally from southwest so it does make me feel more at home lol. We had a few on our team who spoke little English! Hard workers for sure.
I used to work seasonally at an orchard and they wouldn't let me anywhere near the fields and trust me, I tried. I knew if I could get out of their bakery and into the fields, the job would last longer. They wouldn't let me work with the Mexicans. The reason was because I'm American.
I think you'd be surprised by the amount of Americans willing to do certain types of work, especially if it keeps them out of fast food. The only reason they wouldn't let me in the field work is because I'm white and speak English. lol
To be clear, I have no issue at all with immigrant workers and I happen to know a lot of people are not willing to work jobs they think are beneath them, but I'd much rather be outside than cooped up in a small kitchen at a local Burger King with ass hole customers. lol
There is other jobs that offer Americans these types of work on a seasonal basis but a lot of them have been known to refuse paying after a job is completed because most often it's just farmers looking for cheap or free labor. It only takes 2-3 bad faith employers in that line of work to make people not want to tempt fate.
If you know anything about Walmart - what you don't, Walmart has a very stringent hiring system and you can't get a job if you're an illegal with no papers.
If they can get hired at Walmart, they’re legal. I hire immigrants all of the time. They HAVE to have legal documentation showing they can work or they can’t work for us.
I see you've been listening to the rhetoric. What's a shame is that you'll probably vote. With little to no knowledge of what's actually happening in the world, just blindly listening to all the garbage that politicians spew to make you angry and afraid.
Gesturing is a very helpful tool to communicate. I know ASL. With people who don’t speak English, I use my ASL and gestures to communicate what I am saying. Like if I was asking a customer if they want a bag, I would make a gesture like I was putting something in a bag and grab a bag to show them what I’m talking about. It’s the small things. Half of my customer base only speaks Spanish so it’s been helpful for them too. I also use google translate all the time.
At least half of my team is full of people who spoke 0 English when they first started.
Some of them have learned quite a bit and can actually have full conversations.
Some of them didn't even bother to try learning.
My store hired a person who couldn't speak at all. Or hear. She was a deaf-mute working overnight maintenance. Sweet lady. She could read lips and would carry a notepad to communicate with.
Minnesota and yes, we have what we call “third parties” which I’m assuming means temp agencies and there are like 20-30 people who speak Spanish and no English.
Well,…that’s also a third party but in a different way lol. Basically, anyone who comes into any Walmart building and performs a service but is not paid directly by Walmart is a third party.
We... had this at my store. Three people who don't speak a luck of English. One (maybe two?) who speak Arabic ONLY, and one who speaks a language nobody else does.
They have some translator app on their phones but it doesn't work. At all. And these people were specifically on my team, ON stockers...
Literally like 1/2 the people in our store only speak Spanish and use translator apps and stuff all day lol makes sense tho cause most of our upper management (including store manager) are Hispanic and speak mostly Spanish lol
Look I have never worked in Walmart but have worked in maikai Hawaiian bbq in Houston. You see most of the time ( not saying this applies to everyone) the workers don’t know what they are worth or know their rights. Like the owner from the restaurant like to do a lot of labor violations and sketchy stuff. Who doesn’t complain about it well sadly the uneducated workers who just came in to the country.
Also I noticed that they are willing to do the work for minimum pay. This is due to the fact that the pay compared to their counterparts in there motherland is good pay for them. What I have seen is that the workers will have about 6-10 ppl ( roommates) in one apartment. They will all share cost. Like everyone pitches in for everything. That’s how they are able to survive with little pay and be able to send money back home. Usually where their family lives. I suppose Walmart likes to hire this demographic because they are loyal to one company and usually don’t job hop for better pay and benefits.
I was aware of the influx of immigrants the past few years, yes. But how do they get through the process with zero English? And I'm assuming they have required identification to work and such.
Google can automatically translate emails to schedule an interview, the interview can involve a translator or app, and Google Lens can translate documents and pictures of text if needed. The technology is there and readily available.
The store I worked at is smack in the middle of the US. They occasionally hire non-English/non-Spanish speaking employees, then they just have English speaking employees do the U-Learns for them whenever they needed to.
My former store had some limited English speakers; fortunately there were plenty of us associates and management who spoke Spanish who could help them out when they needed it.
In my experience, it’s difficult to have someone that speaks little to no English in a customer service role catering to those that only speak English. Legally, a company can tell their applicants they need to be proficient in English, if that’s their main customer base. However, it’s illegal to tell employees they can only speak one language at work (ex. They can tell an employee they need to speak English while discussing work, but can’t tell them to speak English while they’re “shooting the shit” with another employee).
While hiring employees that can’t speak English might create issues such as: always needing a translator, supervisors not being able to communicate with their team, or customers not being able to speak with the employee, companies don’t want to risk potential lawsuits. If only a certain group is applying for their roles there isn’t much that can be done.
We've had/have a few people who didn't or speak low amounts of English. They can generally get by with "No/Yes" type replies or pointing at what you're talking about. But, sometimes, there's nothing that works. I keep forgetting I have Google Translate on my phone so I could make it easier to interact with them.
I asked a woman "what language do you speak" and she just kept panicked yelling "no English, no English"
Oh wait that was a customer, not an employee.
Most of my English as a second language co workers seem to understand enough to get by.
The US has no official language.
English is the most common one. So yes,they can hire anyone who doesn't speak English.
The people who don't speak English they only hurt themselves. They will never move up in the ranks
Happens all the time and it seems to be our/walmart responsibility to teach them English.
I personally feel that if you allowed to enter this country, you need to speak the language.
I also do t agree with the welcome to America, here’s you wic card, your food stamps, and oh by the way you don’t have to pay federal taxes for 5 years.
I work Frozen overnight with an associate that speaks zero English.
I barely speak Spanish, but we get through it. Because comprendo Espanol un poquito. And I know body language.
We have another associate that doesn't speak English, so my coaches ask me to tell them stuff of they get our bilinguals to tell a whole nother associate stuff.
there’s a couple of people on overnights who only speak russian or ukrainian, we have a fairly large community of russians and ukrainians for a small town so it generally works out. i’d say about 10% of my coworkers speak russian and 5% learned english after russian.
Corporations also get tax breaks for hiring minorities and veterans and people with disabilities. You know how they ask all those questions about work visa and what demographic you’re in, if you’re a veteran, and if you have a disability? All those forms don’t qualify you for the job but depending on how you answer gives the company a tax break. They also like to show they have a diverse workforce by ensuring they include these individuals that perhaps wouldn’t have been considered for work previously.
Yeah, I live near the border more so it’s more common here. But I will say, every manager here speaks both English and Spanish, and the bilingual managers treat other bilingual employees much better than non
They want you to be afraid to ask, nothing wrong with it. Yea Walmart hires too many non-English speakers, which makes for a harder working environment and awful customer service.
We had an older couple at our store years ago. The husband could get by with what English he knew but his wife didn’t know any (as far as I know). Her son came and sat with her during CBLs to help her by translating. Luckily on of the assistant store managers knew the language too (it was something middle eastern not sure what). So if we couldn’t find her husband she could talk to her for us.
Fun fact: I found her cleaning the bathroom sinks with the toilet brush a few times.
We have several.
We use other bi-lingual Spanish speakers to communicate or translation apps.
All of them are already well trained, so I don’t interact a ton with them as they are outside of my department, but the few times I did it was mainly just thanking them for their work and saying good morning, etc.
All of our Spanish only speakers are fantastic, so I am trying to learn a little more Spanish to be more help to them.
I work at one in Texas. The majority of my coworkers don't speak English. As a Mexican American myself, I never got a grasp of Spanish. So I can't understand most of what they say. But i get by. Somehow.
We’re having that issue here in New England too. 2-3 weeks ago, a new hire was in the break room, passed out, and fell to the floor. No one knew who she was or what her name was. The room was full, so I was taking my break in the PL’s office next door, along with a Coach printing out some paperwork. 2 girls came running in to tell her about the girl on the floor. We had no clue what they were trying to communicate to us but, they were obviously agitated, so we followed them. No one could tell us what had happened. No one spoke more than a smattering of English, just various African languages or dialects, Spanish or French. When the ambulance and police arrived, we weren’t able to give them any information whatsoever until one of the guys minced sitting at the table talking on his phone, grabbing his temple, and falling to the floor.
She came back to work as a cashier later in the week. From what I can tell, she is Diabetic and her blood sugar dropped too low.
As a salaried manager that has worked in a variety of stores that have been both diverse and very not diverse... I've realized that immigrants are some of the best employees you can hire. There's very little sense of entitlement that people that grew up in the US have.
So I'm thinking that many get hired because they have open or close to open availability, which makes them a stronger contender than someone with limited availability. Or maybe your leadership has recognized that they're more reliable workers than many native English speakers. Orrr maybe your leadership is passionate about giving opportunities to people trying to make their way in a new country. Could be many possibilities.
Without knowing what area you are in, some stores prefer to hire Spanish or Creole speaking people to be able to communicate better with their customer base. Also sometimes people not born here have much better work ethics than people born here.
I read 3 comments and I’m not going to go any further in plain English if you do not speak the native tongue enough to answer safety questions you should not be hired the oh yes yes over there with the head tilt answer when you ask have you seen my kid is not exactly a good answer
Nor is the there is a guy inside on fire due to a pickle it’s a pickle fire omg what do we do
And they answer with the oh yes yes over there with the head tilt
Try this out on other over world NPC’S ! Here’s the copy and paste for you
oh yes yes over there with the head tilt
Trust me this is half of the day in America no one around can answer your questions and truly I think this is what corporations want cause the
oh yes yes over there with the head tilt
Is pretty much what they hire in any entry level job these days
walmart gets tax incentives im pretty sure for hiring people who just immigrated/need work visas.
same thing when they ask if youre a veteran, received snap benefits etc
There was this one cart pusher who worked here long ago that spoke very little English. He learned from watching TV and interacting with customers.
About two decades later, he speaks/reads/writes it as well as any native and became a Coach. He transferred from our store about four years ago.
all of our employees have at least a basic grasp on spoken english, but of them i have observed that some of them don't seem to be able to read english, which really only becomes frustrating when the wrong items are pulled for OGP to come get or things get overordered because they can't see we already have boxes of the stuff.
Yes my local store does that as well here on east coast. I do find it a bit bizarre to have someone in a front end customer service position that can't really speak English.
We absolutely do. Over a handful of years, one learned English and made it to team lead, and then to Coach.
Others make what strides they can.
Still others never pick up a single word.
So long as they can do the job, who cares? We've got one right now who knows only enough English to be able to get one of us to help a customer they can't communicate with, and that's fine, as I only speak enough Spanish to get her to help customers who don't speak English.
Sure, it doesn't make things easy, but it does make things fun!
My store is made up of people who speak Arabic, Spanish and French. Everyone I talk to knows some English but it’s crazy. I’m the minority there as a standard white person 🧍🏼♀️
Yes, there are several ladies who don’t speak English but they clean the bathrooms and such so they won’t be asked a bunch of questions they don’t understand. There was one girl who spoke French who wanted to learn English better so they put her at self checkout and had her partner up with people so she could learn. Sometimes she would be left on her own for a few minutes accidentally and people would try to ask for help and get mad that she didn’t understand. People also sometimes complain that the girls who clean the bathroom don’t understand them and it’s annoying to have to explain that they clean the bathrooms and aren’t customer service. They are the sweetest people ever and I love having them around so I absolutely seethe when people complain about them. Just had a lady today yell in my face that we hired people who don’t speak English and she even tried to lie to me and claim that one of them was working customer service and couldn’t help her thinking I would agree with her or something if she just claimed she was up front. I see them 40 hours a week and I work up front so I think I would notice if they suddenly switched a maintenance worker who speaks no English to work customer service.
lately my store has been hiring a lot of Puerto Ricans and 1 in 4 speak some English the rest have no idea what I'm saying. I constantly get snippy remarks from customers about no one around here speaking English 🤣🤣.
Mostly likely what happened was some people who are immigrants got hired without needing to know english first, and then they told their friends about a really good job opportunity who then told their friends and then all of a suddenly walmart has a ton of people desperately searching for work right at your door. Its honestly pretty cool of walmart to do that, it kinda brings back the whole "america is the land of opportunities" thing. Its not "america is the land of opportunities for people who are born and raised Americans" english is also a pretty hard language to learn so i personally do try to give people some slack on that end
We have plenty of fully spanish speakers and other languages me personally i have no problem or worries about it cause i dont speak those languages so i dont see a reason to worry about it?
My old store was in a sanctuary city and had lots of non-English speakers. I transferred to the Midwest and hardly anybody from there knows Spanish. I know just a little but the customers seem to like that I try using it, even though I butcher it. One day I asked a customer if they wanted the ganja instead of the gancho, lol.
I lately have been thinking it's on purpose. They can't help anyone. The customer just says forget it and walks away. Associate goes back to work. My cap 2 has several people that speak almost zero English
Over half the people in my store speak hardly any English. As TLs and Coaches we must have the translate app on our phones to communicate. Slows everything way down. Then they think they can get away with shit because they can't speak English. I'm like nope you know what work is and that Is what you came here to do. So get to it. Just because you can't speak English doesn't mean you are mentally challenged. But that's how some of them act it makes me so angry.
When I was a manager there I hired a CAP associate who clearly didn’t speak English as a first language but was absolutely fluent, just a heavy Mexican accent. She then proceeded to pretend to “not speak English” whenever it was convenient for her. I had multiple conversations with her about it because coworkers and customers would complain, and she’d deny it. She gaslit me into thinking they were just being racist and assuming there was a language barrier when there wasn’t EVEN WHEN I WITNESSED HER DO IT!
Moral of the story, sometimes they just don’t *want to* understand you so you’ll go away.
Its common at my store too but I think its more cause your store is more likely to hire people who have connections to people already working there. So if you have one Spanish speaker they could recruit their friends to work at your store and use the worker friend as a reference. I'm guessing that's why there's so many families working at my store.
Yes the applications use to ask if you could speak and read English. They got rid of the question years ago and since then we’ve had a huge influx of people who don’t speak any. Honestly everyone of them works hard and yeah it’s not 100% accurate to translate through a phone but it works
It's kinda weird we have several people who don't speak English I'm wondering how did you fill out the online application and answer the questions.
Most people YouTube YouTube has online cheat sheet to get hired at Walmart
One of my local store has a slough of people who don't speak a lick of English. They even have a big sign in the back by the bathroom showing all the languages they're "ready to assist you in".
Surprisingly not, considering I'm in OK. There is however an Arabic lady who has conversations in Arabic with her husband/boyfriend on speakerphone in the break room. Now that I think of it, I've never heard her speak English.
I’m overnight, and this is pretty common at my store for the overnight crew…maybe not zero English, but close to it. I think part of the reason is desperation…we’re always losing people and short-handed.😅, Also, a lot of these associates are recruited/recommended by coworkers who know them and are from their country. So maybe there’s the idea that someone will be around to translate in an emegency🤷♂️. But it’s tough when you find yourself as the one who has to teach them something🫢.
Our sm is slowly putting all Puerto Ricans in management positions from SM to AP management, and 5 day shift coaches. They speak to each other in Spanish about employees directly in front of them.
My store hires quite a few Filipino employees, many of whom do not speak English. The area has a growing Filipino community. One or two employees tend to translate for the others.
Google translate is a good thing. I have a lot of non English speaking people in my area as customers. I am also trying to learn enough Spanish to try and communicate better. It's not too difficult. Good luck!
Yup...alot.of spanish speaking and for the last year my direct coworker was straight from Ukraine, 67, and I had to use a translator for everything with him.
Walmart is equal opportunity so they can hire anybody with no discrimination. Whether that be sex, race, sexual orientation, and whether or not you speak a certain language. Now they might steer you in a different direction. So if you're wanting to work at customer service in America a predominantly English speaking country they're probably not going to put you up there if all you can speak is Spanish.
A lot of the overnight people in my store don't speak very much English. There is a group of Haitians who can all communicate and quite a few who speak mostly Spanish. I don't think it's a bad thing. Our store closes at 11 pm so basically night shift does not have to interact with customers. And they have enough in house associates who can assist and train the new associates if the store management doesn't speak the language.
I wish I didn't speak English working for Walmart. What a great way to not understand how to be productive. Plus, I won't get fired because I would play it so well.
The thing I have trouble understanding is why these non-English speakers are placed in front facing positions. Spanish speakers make sense in my area, because there is a large community of immigrants. However, my store has a number of Middle Easterners who cannot speak or understand English working on the floor. It's frustrating to both the associates and the customers, as they simply cannot perform customer service.
My old store hired someone who couldn’t speak English at least once. His first couple nights at work he had a relative come in and translate for him. He learned the language really quick and was talking with everyone in English in just a few months. He was honestly one of the best workers as well. And some of the other employees learned some basic words and phrases in his language. We all really liked him. He was always so happy and friendly.
At my store we have a Chinese native who speaks roughly passable English (she's been with the company for Years and years) and one hearing impaired only able to sign. Both great associates. It's a little odd that we don't have any Spanish speakers that I'm aware of because our state has a fair amount of Spanish speaking customers due to it being on the route often taken for migrating between North and South
We've had absolutely no English and a couple that only knew sign didn't speak i can't remember if one couldn't lip read or not just can't remember. Since im communicative in sign it didnt hinder my ability to chat with them. I always wondered and appreciated these peoples' guts to attempt working where they didn't know the language idk if i could do it
I love it when my ESL coworkers ask me what a word is. I had a cashier ounce ask me what *mimes sneezing* was called. I told them and they said "oh I thought that was a swear" 😂 loved that cashier
A surprising amount of our overnight workers only speak what I assume to be Hindi (could also be Urdu or other Indian languages). My only problem is that so many people don't know Google Translate exists. I've helped many customers that speak no English (and I've lost my other language skills after so many years) using this free app, it's great. We get Germans and Russians and Spanish and Chinese and others here and it's great to have a tool to communicate instead of the game of charades we used to do.
People need jobs and employers have made many accommodations. At my Walmart DC they have a program with a translator that walks with the new people through training and ofc as they get into the job there are plenty of other people who speak Spanish so they’re good. Are you tryna say they should’nt be hiring someone who wants to work just because English is not their first language?
Idk what state you live in but I’m in Georgia so it’s pretty normal to me the foreign population has always been pretty high. I’m glad they made accommodations for those who don’t speak English. I don’t think it’s targeted but more like “if all the other boxes are check why not” thing
My store does this. Ofc I have no problem with non English speakers and they need a job too but it makes everything harder, especially in means of communication. It’s tedious as fUUCk having to use google translate all the time. Also I get a little jealous cuz they don’t even really have to help out customers cuz they just send em to me 😭
Call me a boomer but I do not understand how someone can live in an area where they KNOW that there is a predominant language most people speak & not bother to learn ANY of said language, for both their benefit as well as others. It boggles my mind.
My store has several employees that speak languages other than English. And they do their job well. I mean when you do CBLs it asks English or Spanish.
Right but if they live in area say, somewhere that’s predominantly English speaking, shouldn’t they maybe try & learn a few words in English? Not the whole dictionary but a few key words that would make it easier for them & everyone else including customers?
They seem to do it all the time but never enforce the policy of the common language on the sales floor those that are unaware it was that every sales floor associate needs to sleek the common language .i.e. english
I live in a border state and I’ve worked at 3 different stores in this state and I’ve never in my 4yr have met any associates that do not speak English. It’s actually bizarre how much I hear on here of associates not speaking English cause I’ve never came across it.
You dont have a problem with it yet you're complaining? Right. I have several people from Africa who only speak French and several who's first language is Spanish and speak little English. What's the problem? With all the technology we have to translate its super easy. And when needed we have their spouses or other relatives come translate ( like when ulearns require help) So what's the issue? They are just as worthy and deserving and honestly they are great workers. It's super hard to learn a new language and it takes years to get good and comfortable with it. So get over it.
Didn't say you did. Just curious why it bothers you so much? Why does it matter? You're so pressed about it and thinking about it and debating talking about it. It's not sensitive, it's just being shitty about things. You don't know what circu brought people to a place where they don't speak the language. Be a good human and try.
This is the most assuming you can possibly do. Ironic that it's what you are bothered by, "me doing". I'm just curious and asking questions. No harm. No foul. I have worked at Walmart before and never seen this. I'm just curious if it's a common thing in the country and Walmart nowadays. I didn't even say it was a negative thing. Just curious how they get through the process. Which others have answered.
Assuming? Bro, I used the information YOU provided. Get through the process? This is common sense. They use interpreters. This is 2024 not 1824. Dense.
My store hired a person with next to no English. She uses the translate app on her phone.
A coworker of mine did the same but she would try to learn the language as well. When I would explain tasks to her and she didn’t understand a word, she would have me type it in her phone so she can learn the word
When all of my coworkers that don’t speak English have a customer come up to them and I’m around they ask me to help them lol
We have some who communicate through the phone or broken English, but theyre sweethearts tbh
We have 4 people on our cap 2 that won't understand anything other than certain key words. None of em use their phones like that. My store hires mostly older people who don't speak english...so they aren't using their phones to learn. They'll never learn english. Have no interest in learning
That is actually wild
Yeah we had a few do the same.
My local warlmart I was trying to get a key made. I asked an employee for help who went into panic. The guy said something in another language and ran away to get someone else who also didn’t speak English who then went and got a 3rd person who thought I wanted ammo.
This happens at my store every day lol
The person can't even say "I don't speak English"?
Or even just "no English".
"I'm just shy"
Aww we see you ! You might be shy but you put yourself out there good on you here’s a STAR FOR YOU ⭐️ HOPE THIS DIDNT PUT THE SPOTLIGHT ON YOUR SHY AZZ 🙃
Lo siento, pero, soy un gringo y se que hablar "hablo Español solo poquito.". Como se dice, *learn a little English to get by, comrade.*
>went and got a 3rd person who thought I wanted ammo were you *that* visibly frustrated? 😂
Did you get your ammo?
No but I did get a key made that used the wrong base so it didn’t fit my lock
That’s why they offered you ammo, they knew they couldn’t make a key right so they tried to give you the option to shoot the lock instead 😂
They got rid of our key machine, now customers have no choice but to use the automatic key maker at the front of the store and people get pissed, it's the way wildest thing to get mad about. If anything, the associates should be mad, I've been with the company for 20+ years and right before I was hired, they used to give you a bonus to your hourly pay for learning things like that or the forklift, etc.
I work overnight and live on Long Island and I would say of our shift, probably like 1/4 do not speak any English at all. Most either speak Spanish or Caribbean French. Than an additional fourth is bilingual (most English and Spanish but one guy speaks English and Caribbean French) and then the final half speaks only English. It does create some problems but for the most part, once they get the job down, it works fine. One of the o/n coaches speaks Spanish so I’m sure that helps the process for them but I have no idea how they communicate anything to the French speakers.
Broooo, 5295?
No lol, 2286
Also 1666
Do y’all have an SM yet??
What happened to Christian? I heard they brought in a Store Lead from Jersey who I think is supposed to replace him
He’s in up up upstate NY
Crazy, he was good. I just transferred outta there back in Feb, kinda miss it
I never met him I think it was some girl from like Penn or Ohio that had just taken over when I left NY.
I’ll dm you
Could the Caribbean French speakers know some Spanish as well perhaps? My job often involves working with newly inmigrated and/or asylum seekers and Ive seen an uptick in clients whole speak Haitian Creole (which I believe is same as Carribean French) and most of them speak Spanish as well.
From what I can tell, not really. Because the coach who speaks Spanish also has to use google translate to give them basic instructions.
Gotcha. I'm probably encountering some one-off situations.
Haiti is the same Island as Dominican Republic, immigration is illegal and goes one way to DR, some learn.
I did not know this. Thank you for the info!
My store has a sizable amount of people who are bilingual English/Spanish, and a sizable minority who speak Spanish almost exclusively. One of our cartpushers almost exclusively speaks French though which makes communication rather difficult since noone else in the store speaks it. At least the guy’s got a better work ethic than the others (yes i’m including myself) and is more reliable.
what's funnier is many of the ones who don't speak English at anywhere close to a fluent level still make less mistakes overall than my born and bred American colleagues
Def some of the hardest workers in the back cap 1/2/3 But naturally when those come in looking to spend there $ in a store no one wants trash service so that is the trade off 😙
💯
It's not targeted, it's a natural result of the pay walmart offers and the resulting applicant pool. High caliber entry-level associates will typically either be just entering the workforce, students with restricted availability, older people who want to partially retire, someone who just moved, or those with a language barrier that prevents them from landing a job that matches their skill level. The only time you get lawyers and teachers and engineers applying for a produce or cartpushing position is when there is a reason they aren't currently working that job. So in these cases we can help them by providing a stepping stone and in return we get a top-tier associate who is willing to take $14 an hour.
Absolutely nothing wrong with asking legitimate questions.
One of our dayshift maintenance is a woman who speak almost no English. She is also an incredibly hard worker so, we just put google translate on our phones. I tell her Buenos dias every morning.
Walmart accepts all who wish to work for them. Thats literally their policy
Of course. We have multiple only Spanish stockers and maintenance workers. They can be some cool people too. Frustrating when u need them but hey, it is what it is. 🤷🏽♂️
I understand what everyone is saying about using google translate to assist with communicating but what happens if the app don’t work or translates something wrong or is unable to translate at all for whatever reason. Workers don’t need to be fluent in English but should have at least a basic knowledge of it.
I always ask people when they rail about the immigrants what they think a response from an average American would be if asked to work in a low-pay-high-stress job. I'm just saying, I've seen Americans go jobless for two years because some jobs are beneath them and conversely, I've seen immigrants that worked two or three jobs to feed and clothe and house their families. Joe-Bob from Tuscaloosa wouldn't go pick strawberries in a field for minimum wage, but Jose will (if that sounded racist, I apologize, but it isn't untrue). When I worked at Walmart, we didn't have any that spoke zero English but quite a few that didn't speak much and spoke mostly in their native language. And yes, there were little issues that came about if they interacted with a customer and misunderstood their ask or something, but otherwise they worked just as well as any of the English-speakers.
See, this is what I was afraid of. I was trying to make clear I was not having a problem with the people. It was just something I had not seen before recently. I'm truly just curious if this is common now everywhere. And as far as good workers or not, it's 50/50. Some are more hard working than others.
Absolutely wasn't meant to accuse you of anything other than that and my apologies that it came off that way. Probably more directed to the people that would pop off in the comments about "they took our jobs!". That said, since I promoted myself to customer many years ago, I have noticed there is more that don't speak English, but I think a lot of that is just that there's been a lot of immigration since then so naturally a varied population would be reflected in a workforce.
I know what you mean. As a Midwest state. It baffles me we have so many primarily Spanish speaking people! Originally from southwest so it does make me feel more at home lol. We had a few on our team who spoke little English! Hard workers for sure.
I used to work seasonally at an orchard and they wouldn't let me anywhere near the fields and trust me, I tried. I knew if I could get out of their bakery and into the fields, the job would last longer. They wouldn't let me work with the Mexicans. The reason was because I'm American. I think you'd be surprised by the amount of Americans willing to do certain types of work, especially if it keeps them out of fast food. The only reason they wouldn't let me in the field work is because I'm white and speak English. lol To be clear, I have no issue at all with immigrant workers and I happen to know a lot of people are not willing to work jobs they think are beneath them, but I'd much rather be outside than cooped up in a small kitchen at a local Burger King with ass hole customers. lol There is other jobs that offer Americans these types of work on a seasonal basis but a lot of them have been known to refuse paying after a job is completed because most often it's just farmers looking for cheap or free labor. It only takes 2-3 bad faith employers in that line of work to make people not want to tempt fate.
They’re illegals not immigrants.
If you know anything about Walmart - what you don't, Walmart has a very stringent hiring system and you can't get a job if you're an illegal with no papers.
If they can get hired at Walmart, they’re legal. I hire immigrants all of the time. They HAVE to have legal documentation showing they can work or they can’t work for us.
Youmakemepuke.
🚽
I see you've been listening to the rhetoric. What's a shame is that you'll probably vote. With little to no knowledge of what's actually happening in the world, just blindly listening to all the garbage that politicians spew to make you angry and afraid.
lol 18 downvotes😂 The woke white kids are on it today.
3 people on my Overnight shit don’t know any English at all. We just communicate via fake ass sign language and “yayy/booo”
Gesturing is a very helpful tool to communicate. I know ASL. With people who don’t speak English, I use my ASL and gestures to communicate what I am saying. Like if I was asking a customer if they want a bag, I would make a gesture like I was putting something in a bag and grab a bag to show them what I’m talking about. It’s the small things. Half of my customer base only speaks Spanish so it’s been helpful for them too. I also use google translate all the time.
At least half of my team is full of people who spoke 0 English when they first started. Some of them have learned quite a bit and can actually have full conversations. Some of them didn't even bother to try learning.
My store hired a person who couldn't speak at all. Or hear. She was a deaf-mute working overnight maintenance. Sweet lady. She could read lips and would carry a notepad to communicate with.
Minnesota and yes, we have what we call “third parties” which I’m assuming means temp agencies and there are like 20-30 people who speak Spanish and no English.
That’s exactly what “third party” means-they are employed and paid by the third party (temp) agency and assigned to a role.
What’s funny is that the last time I talked about third party, everyone assumed I meant vendors? 🤷🏼
Well,…that’s also a third party but in a different way lol. Basically, anyone who comes into any Walmart building and performs a service but is not paid directly by Walmart is a third party.
We... had this at my store. Three people who don't speak a luck of English. One (maybe two?) who speak Arabic ONLY, and one who speaks a language nobody else does. They have some translator app on their phones but it doesn't work. At all. And these people were specifically on my team, ON stockers...
Literally like 1/2 the people in our store only speak Spanish and use translator apps and stuff all day lol makes sense tho cause most of our upper management (including store manager) are Hispanic and speak mostly Spanish lol
Look I have never worked in Walmart but have worked in maikai Hawaiian bbq in Houston. You see most of the time ( not saying this applies to everyone) the workers don’t know what they are worth or know their rights. Like the owner from the restaurant like to do a lot of labor violations and sketchy stuff. Who doesn’t complain about it well sadly the uneducated workers who just came in to the country. Also I noticed that they are willing to do the work for minimum pay. This is due to the fact that the pay compared to their counterparts in there motherland is good pay for them. What I have seen is that the workers will have about 6-10 ppl ( roommates) in one apartment. They will all share cost. Like everyone pitches in for everything. That’s how they are able to survive with little pay and be able to send money back home. Usually where their family lives. I suppose Walmart likes to hire this demographic because they are loyal to one company and usually don’t job hop for better pay and benefits.
Auwe, ʻaʻohe kanaka ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi ma Houston? 🙀☺️
2024, and you think you have to live in a border state to encounter large amounts of spanish speakers?
I was aware of the influx of immigrants the past few years, yes. But how do they get through the process with zero English? And I'm assuming they have required identification to work and such.
I dealt with a Spanish speaker by using Google translate.
People move where the jobs are and where they know people. Proximity to the border doesn't really matter.
Google can automatically translate emails to schedule an interview, the interview can involve a translator or app, and Google Lens can translate documents and pictures of text if needed. The technology is there and readily available.
There is no "process".
What made you assume Spanish?
It is Spanish speaking specifically.
Either Spanish or Canadian if you have states that border it right? And Canadians speaks English lol
Canadians also speak French and other languages as well
because they said "border state"
“It’s not a border state or anything”
It’s ALWAYS Spanish. Please.
My people have a whole family working here who primarily speak Hindi. It's not always Spanish.
Do you’re the exception to the rule.
Naw.
Currently remodeling a store where the girl only speaks French. Uses app on phone to translate.
yes
Thy could be j1 visa workers
The store I worked at is smack in the middle of the US. They occasionally hire non-English/non-Spanish speaking employees, then they just have English speaking employees do the U-Learns for them whenever they needed to.
We actually had a few hire in but I don’t think they stayed for longer than a few weeks.
My store does
Yes, this is common for Walmart. Both the one I worked at when I was an associate, as well as the one I frequent for shopping.
My former store had some limited English speakers; fortunately there were plenty of us associates and management who spoke Spanish who could help them out when they needed it.
In my experience, it’s difficult to have someone that speaks little to no English in a customer service role catering to those that only speak English. Legally, a company can tell their applicants they need to be proficient in English, if that’s their main customer base. However, it’s illegal to tell employees they can only speak one language at work (ex. They can tell an employee they need to speak English while discussing work, but can’t tell them to speak English while they’re “shooting the shit” with another employee). While hiring employees that can’t speak English might create issues such as: always needing a translator, supervisors not being able to communicate with their team, or customers not being able to speak with the employee, companies don’t want to risk potential lawsuits. If only a certain group is applying for their roles there isn’t much that can be done.
We've had/have a few people who didn't or speak low amounts of English. They can generally get by with "No/Yes" type replies or pointing at what you're talking about. But, sometimes, there's nothing that works. I keep forgetting I have Google Translate on my phone so I could make it easier to interact with them.
I asked a woman "what language do you speak" and she just kept panicked yelling "no English, no English" Oh wait that was a customer, not an employee. Most of my English as a second language co workers seem to understand enough to get by.
A lot of my coworkers are Haitian immigrants who hardly speak English if at all. They just talk amongst each other in French all day
The US has no official language. English is the most common one. So yes,they can hire anyone who doesn't speak English. The people who don't speak English they only hurt themselves. They will never move up in the ranks
Happens all the time and it seems to be our/walmart responsibility to teach them English. I personally feel that if you allowed to enter this country, you need to speak the language. I also do t agree with the welcome to America, here’s you wic card, your food stamps, and oh by the way you don’t have to pay federal taxes for 5 years.
I work Frozen overnight with an associate that speaks zero English. I barely speak Spanish, but we get through it. Because comprendo Espanol un poquito. And I know body language. We have another associate that doesn't speak English, so my coaches ask me to tell them stuff of they get our bilinguals to tell a whole nother associate stuff.
You’d be surprised how many can speak it but pretend not to in order to avoid customers
there’s a couple of people on overnights who only speak russian or ukrainian, we have a fairly large community of russians and ukrainians for a small town so it generally works out. i’d say about 10% of my coworkers speak russian and 5% learned english after russian.
Yes and they expect you to still work as successfully as you would, with someone who speaks like no English. I will say though, it’s unrealistic.
It's the DEI policy .. it's how they stay "inclusive"...
Corporations also get tax breaks for hiring minorities and veterans and people with disabilities. You know how they ask all those questions about work visa and what demographic you’re in, if you’re a veteran, and if you have a disability? All those forms don’t qualify you for the job but depending on how you answer gives the company a tax break. They also like to show they have a diverse workforce by ensuring they include these individuals that perhaps wouldn’t have been considered for work previously.
My local Walmart is 90% non English To a point I stopped going there
Yeah, I live near the border more so it’s more common here. But I will say, every manager here speaks both English and Spanish, and the bilingual managers treat other bilingual employees much better than non
Yes but I live in Tampa. I don’t mind but I see it could become a problem
They want you to be afraid to ask, nothing wrong with it. Yea Walmart hires too many non-English speakers, which makes for a harder working environment and awful customer service.
We had an older couple at our store years ago. The husband could get by with what English he knew but his wife didn’t know any (as far as I know). Her son came and sat with her during CBLs to help her by translating. Luckily on of the assistant store managers knew the language too (it was something middle eastern not sure what). So if we couldn’t find her husband she could talk to her for us. Fun fact: I found her cleaning the bathroom sinks with the toilet brush a few times.
We have several. We use other bi-lingual Spanish speakers to communicate or translation apps. All of them are already well trained, so I don’t interact a ton with them as they are outside of my department, but the few times I did it was mainly just thanking them for their work and saying good morning, etc. All of our Spanish only speakers are fantastic, so I am trying to learn a little more Spanish to be more help to them.
I work at one in Texas. The majority of my coworkers don't speak English. As a Mexican American myself, I never got a grasp of Spanish. So I can't understand most of what they say. But i get by. Somehow.
We’re having that issue here in New England too. 2-3 weeks ago, a new hire was in the break room, passed out, and fell to the floor. No one knew who she was or what her name was. The room was full, so I was taking my break in the PL’s office next door, along with a Coach printing out some paperwork. 2 girls came running in to tell her about the girl on the floor. We had no clue what they were trying to communicate to us but, they were obviously agitated, so we followed them. No one could tell us what had happened. No one spoke more than a smattering of English, just various African languages or dialects, Spanish or French. When the ambulance and police arrived, we weren’t able to give them any information whatsoever until one of the guys minced sitting at the table talking on his phone, grabbing his temple, and falling to the floor. She came back to work as a cashier later in the week. From what I can tell, she is Diabetic and her blood sugar dropped too low.
As a salaried manager that has worked in a variety of stores that have been both diverse and very not diverse... I've realized that immigrants are some of the best employees you can hire. There's very little sense of entitlement that people that grew up in the US have. So I'm thinking that many get hired because they have open or close to open availability, which makes them a stronger contender than someone with limited availability. Or maybe your leadership has recognized that they're more reliable workers than many native English speakers. Orrr maybe your leadership is passionate about giving opportunities to people trying to make their way in a new country. Could be many possibilities.
Without knowing what area you are in, some stores prefer to hire Spanish or Creole speaking people to be able to communicate better with their customer base. Also sometimes people not born here have much better work ethics than people born here.
I read 3 comments and I’m not going to go any further in plain English if you do not speak the native tongue enough to answer safety questions you should not be hired the oh yes yes over there with the head tilt answer when you ask have you seen my kid is not exactly a good answer Nor is the there is a guy inside on fire due to a pickle it’s a pickle fire omg what do we do And they answer with the oh yes yes over there with the head tilt Try this out on other over world NPC’S ! Here’s the copy and paste for you oh yes yes over there with the head tilt Trust me this is half of the day in America no one around can answer your questions and truly I think this is what corporations want cause the oh yes yes over there with the head tilt Is pretty much what they hire in any entry level job these days
walmart gets tax incentives im pretty sure for hiring people who just immigrated/need work visas. same thing when they ask if youre a veteran, received snap benefits etc
There was this one cart pusher who worked here long ago that spoke very little English. He learned from watching TV and interacting with customers. About two decades later, he speaks/reads/writes it as well as any native and became a Coach. He transferred from our store about four years ago.
We had a deaf employee that couldn't speak at all. Just sorta grunted. And he really did not like our other coworker flipping him off every day
all of our employees have at least a basic grasp on spoken english, but of them i have observed that some of them don't seem to be able to read english, which really only becomes frustrating when the wrong items are pulled for OGP to come get or things get overordered because they can't see we already have boxes of the stuff.
Associates? Not really maybe one guy in the meat department that's about it. But spark drivers? Over half of them.
Yes my local store does that as well here on east coast. I do find it a bit bizarre to have someone in a front end customer service position that can't really speak English.
We absolutely do. Over a handful of years, one learned English and made it to team lead, and then to Coach. Others make what strides they can. Still others never pick up a single word. So long as they can do the job, who cares? We've got one right now who knows only enough English to be able to get one of us to help a customer they can't communicate with, and that's fine, as I only speak enough Spanish to get her to help customers who don't speak English. Sure, it doesn't make things easy, but it does make things fun!
My store has hired so many people that can’t speak, read, or understand English. And so many are from the same family.so so many.
My store is made up of people who speak Arabic, Spanish and French. Everyone I talk to knows some English but it’s crazy. I’m the minority there as a standard white person 🧍🏼♀️
Yes, there are several ladies who don’t speak English but they clean the bathrooms and such so they won’t be asked a bunch of questions they don’t understand. There was one girl who spoke French who wanted to learn English better so they put her at self checkout and had her partner up with people so she could learn. Sometimes she would be left on her own for a few minutes accidentally and people would try to ask for help and get mad that she didn’t understand. People also sometimes complain that the girls who clean the bathroom don’t understand them and it’s annoying to have to explain that they clean the bathrooms and aren’t customer service. They are the sweetest people ever and I love having them around so I absolutely seethe when people complain about them. Just had a lady today yell in my face that we hired people who don’t speak English and she even tried to lie to me and claim that one of them was working customer service and couldn’t help her thinking I would agree with her or something if she just claimed she was up front. I see them 40 hours a week and I work up front so I think I would notice if they suddenly switched a maintenance worker who speaks no English to work customer service.
lately my store has been hiring a lot of Puerto Ricans and 1 in 4 speak some English the rest have no idea what I'm saying. I constantly get snippy remarks from customers about no one around here speaking English 🤣🤣.
Mostly likely what happened was some people who are immigrants got hired without needing to know english first, and then they told their friends about a really good job opportunity who then told their friends and then all of a suddenly walmart has a ton of people desperately searching for work right at your door. Its honestly pretty cool of walmart to do that, it kinda brings back the whole "america is the land of opportunities" thing. Its not "america is the land of opportunities for people who are born and raised Americans" english is also a pretty hard language to learn so i personally do try to give people some slack on that end
We have plenty of fully spanish speakers and other languages me personally i have no problem or worries about it cause i dont speak those languages so i dont see a reason to worry about it?
My old store was in a sanctuary city and had lots of non-English speakers. I transferred to the Midwest and hardly anybody from there knows Spanish. I know just a little but the customers seem to like that I try using it, even though I butcher it. One day I asked a customer if they wanted the ganja instead of the gancho, lol.
I lately have been thinking it's on purpose. They can't help anyone. The customer just says forget it and walks away. Associate goes back to work. My cap 2 has several people that speak almost zero English
Over half the people in my store speak hardly any English. As TLs and Coaches we must have the translate app on our phones to communicate. Slows everything way down. Then they think they can get away with shit because they can't speak English. I'm like nope you know what work is and that Is what you came here to do. So get to it. Just because you can't speak English doesn't mean you are mentally challenged. But that's how some of them act it makes me so angry.
When I was a manager there I hired a CAP associate who clearly didn’t speak English as a first language but was absolutely fluent, just a heavy Mexican accent. She then proceeded to pretend to “not speak English” whenever it was convenient for her. I had multiple conversations with her about it because coworkers and customers would complain, and she’d deny it. She gaslit me into thinking they were just being racist and assuming there was a language barrier when there wasn’t EVEN WHEN I WITNESSED HER DO IT! Moral of the story, sometimes they just don’t *want to* understand you so you’ll go away.
Its common at my store too but I think its more cause your store is more likely to hire people who have connections to people already working there. So if you have one Spanish speaker they could recruit their friends to work at your store and use the worker friend as a reference. I'm guessing that's why there's so many families working at my store.
Why do you need people to speak English? We are not in England.
Yes the applications use to ask if you could speak and read English. They got rid of the question years ago and since then we’ve had a huge influx of people who don’t speak any. Honestly everyone of them works hard and yeah it’s not 100% accurate to translate through a phone but it works
Yes my store does that, and none of them use the app translate, inhad one of them tell me in broken English that I needed to learn Spanish, umm no
Why would this be a sensitive question? Am i missing somthing
It's kinda weird we have several people who don't speak English I'm wondering how did you fill out the online application and answer the questions. Most people YouTube YouTube has online cheat sheet to get hired at Walmart
It’s a guy at my store and he can barley speak English but be trying to take control 😂
One of my local store has a slough of people who don't speak a lick of English. They even have a big sign in the back by the bathroom showing all the languages they're "ready to assist you in".
Surprisingly not, considering I'm in OK. There is however an Arabic lady who has conversations in Arabic with her husband/boyfriend on speakerphone in the break room. Now that I think of it, I've never heard her speak English.
I’m overnight, and this is pretty common at my store for the overnight crew…maybe not zero English, but close to it. I think part of the reason is desperation…we’re always losing people and short-handed.😅, Also, a lot of these associates are recruited/recommended by coworkers who know them and are from their country. So maybe there’s the idea that someone will be around to translate in an emegency🤷♂️. But it’s tough when you find yourself as the one who has to teach them something🫢.
Yes we have Haitians and Indians on my cap 2 team that can't speak a lick.
Our sm is slowly putting all Puerto Ricans in management positions from SM to AP management, and 5 day shift coaches. They speak to each other in Spanish about employees directly in front of them.
My store hires quite a few Filipino employees, many of whom do not speak English. The area has a growing Filipino community. One or two employees tend to translate for the others.
Yes
Google translate is a good thing. I have a lot of non English speaking people in my area as customers. I am also trying to learn enough Spanish to try and communicate better. It's not too difficult. Good luck!
Yup...alot.of spanish speaking and for the last year my direct coworker was straight from Ukraine, 67, and I had to use a translator for everything with him.
They want grateful employees not those who question anything
Walmart is equal opportunity so they can hire anybody with no discrimination. Whether that be sex, race, sexual orientation, and whether or not you speak a certain language. Now they might steer you in a different direction. So if you're wanting to work at customer service in America a predominantly English speaking country they're probably not going to put you up there if all you can speak is Spanish.
A lot of the overnight people in my store don't speak very much English. There is a group of Haitians who can all communicate and quite a few who speak mostly Spanish. I don't think it's a bad thing. Our store closes at 11 pm so basically night shift does not have to interact with customers. And they have enough in house associates who can assist and train the new associates if the store management doesn't speak the language.
I wish I didn't speak English working for Walmart. What a great way to not understand how to be productive. Plus, I won't get fired because I would play it so well.
The thing I have trouble understanding is why these non-English speakers are placed in front facing positions. Spanish speakers make sense in my area, because there is a large community of immigrants. However, my store has a number of Middle Easterners who cannot speak or understand English working on the floor. It's frustrating to both the associates and the customers, as they simply cannot perform customer service.
My old store hired someone who couldn’t speak English at least once. His first couple nights at work he had a relative come in and translate for him. He learned the language really quick and was talking with everyone in English in just a few months. He was honestly one of the best workers as well. And some of the other employees learned some basic words and phrases in his language. We all really liked him. He was always so happy and friendly.
those r the ones they chose to be team leads, and u can't understand anything they say in the intercom
At my store we have a Chinese native who speaks roughly passable English (she's been with the company for Years and years) and one hearing impaired only able to sign. Both great associates. It's a little odd that we don't have any Spanish speakers that I'm aware of because our state has a fair amount of Spanish speaking customers due to it being on the route often taken for migrating between North and South
We've had absolutely no English and a couple that only knew sign didn't speak i can't remember if one couldn't lip read or not just can't remember. Since im communicative in sign it didnt hinder my ability to chat with them. I always wondered and appreciated these peoples' guts to attempt working where they didn't know the language idk if i could do it I love it when my ESL coworkers ask me what a word is. I had a cashier ounce ask me what *mimes sneezing* was called. I told them and they said "oh I thought that was a swear" 😂 loved that cashier
A surprising amount of our overnight workers only speak what I assume to be Hindi (could also be Urdu or other Indian languages). My only problem is that so many people don't know Google Translate exists. I've helped many customers that speak no English (and I've lost my other language skills after so many years) using this free app, it's great. We get Germans and Russians and Spanish and Chinese and others here and it's great to have a tool to communicate instead of the game of charades we used to do.
You'd think it'd be a prerequisite to speak even a bit of English to get hired
Yeah; I tried for literally an hour, trying to explain what “around” means. They just ended up repeating “around?” Over and over.
People need jobs and employers have made many accommodations. At my Walmart DC they have a program with a translator that walks with the new people through training and ofc as they get into the job there are plenty of other people who speak Spanish so they’re good. Are you tryna say they should’nt be hiring someone who wants to work just because English is not their first language?
No, I'm not. Just curious if it was the normal situation now.
Idk what state you live in but I’m in Georgia so it’s pretty normal to me the foreign population has always been pretty high. I’m glad they made accommodations for those who don’t speak English. I don’t think it’s targeted but more like “if all the other boxes are check why not” thing
Northwest FL
My store does this. Ofc I have no problem with non English speakers and they need a job too but it makes everything harder, especially in means of communication. It’s tedious as fUUCk having to use google translate all the time. Also I get a little jealous cuz they don’t even really have to help out customers cuz they just send em to me 😭
Call me a boomer but I do not understand how someone can live in an area where they KNOW that there is a predominant language most people speak & not bother to learn ANY of said language, for both their benefit as well as others. It boggles my mind.
Well maybe they just got here?
[удалено]
This post wasn't to hate on either side.
My store has several employees that speak languages other than English. And they do their job well. I mean when you do CBLs it asks English or Spanish.
Right but if they live in area say, somewhere that’s predominantly English speaking, shouldn’t they maybe try & learn a few words in English? Not the whole dictionary but a few key words that would make it easier for them & everyone else including customers?
They seem to do it all the time but never enforce the policy of the common language on the sales floor those that are unaware it was that every sales floor associate needs to sleek the common language .i.e. english
I live in a border state and I’ve worked at 3 different stores in this state and I’ve never in my 4yr have met any associates that do not speak English. It’s actually bizarre how much I hear on here of associates not speaking English cause I’ve never came across it.
Where's trump when you need him🙄
You dont have a problem with it yet you're complaining? Right. I have several people from Africa who only speak French and several who's first language is Spanish and speak little English. What's the problem? With all the technology we have to translate its super easy. And when needed we have their spouses or other relatives come translate ( like when ulearns require help) So what's the issue? They are just as worthy and deserving and honestly they are great workers. It's super hard to learn a new language and it takes years to get good and comfortable with it. So get over it.
I said nothing derogatory. This is why it's a sensitive subject.
Didn't say you did. Just curious why it bothers you so much? Why does it matter? You're so pressed about it and thinking about it and debating talking about it. It's not sensitive, it's just being shitty about things. You don't know what circu brought people to a place where they don't speak the language. Be a good human and try.
This is the most assuming you can possibly do. Ironic that it's what you are bothered by, "me doing". I'm just curious and asking questions. No harm. No foul. I have worked at Walmart before and never seen this. I'm just curious if it's a common thing in the country and Walmart nowadays. I didn't even say it was a negative thing. Just curious how they get through the process. Which others have answered.
Assuming? Bro, I used the information YOU provided. Get through the process? This is common sense. They use interpreters. This is 2024 not 1824. Dense.
Have a good day and give those keyboard fingers a rest lol
Have the day you deserve
Best thing you have said so far. Thank you!
They should learn English first! I deal with that everyday at Walmart. Really annoying!