I have a good story to tell you this time, whoever you are. It's a true story of course, with some input from me being mostly rash statements designed to inflame.

There's this guy at Wal-Mart who works ICS. ICS means inventory control something or other. Basically they are the overnight stockers of the day. I was off when this happened, but his son died a few weeks ago. He was only sixteen. I don't know the circumstances, I just know he was gone for two weeks or something close to that. Obviously he went to the funeral and spent time with relatives, the usual grieving activities I imagine. He applies for bereavement pay, and fully expects to get it. The Home Office decides he doesn't get to have any bereavement pay, no sick pay, no nothing, just absent from work for two weeks. Their reasoning? He was behind on his child support.

Where to start with this one? I'm having a hard time thinking of a way to categorize just how wrong the company is in this instance. Is it their responsibility to make sure their employees are paying child support? Is it any of their business whether he's behind? Is there any reason on our earth why he shouldn't get bereavement pay for attending his SON'S funeral? He was probably behind because he wasn't getting paid shit to be here working for this mentally unstable company. Our store manager is trying to get this fixed, but the company isn't budging. Why? Where do they get off denying him what is rightfully his? At the most 2 weeks pay for his position is around $700 (I only make $500 every two weeks, but he's been here longer). Do you think a company that profited $10.6 billion last year can spare $700? I think they can.

The extent to which this pisses me off is not even scratched here in this blog. If a pregnant woman were to loudly disagree with me it would take every fiber of my being not to resort to violence. I'm talking about assaulting a pregnant lady here if she thinks Wal-Mart is justified in not paying this man. If every store in the country burned down tomorrow, I would laugh my ass off. I'd bring some hot dogs to my store so I could get something out of it. Who in the wild Blue sometimes Gray FUCK do they think they are? I make, after taxes, $13,000/year working for this fucking shitty immoral hateful racist fucked up company. Let's call that profit. $81,538.46 is equivalent to one penny of my income proportionally. That's 116 times the two weeks pay this man should be paid. They must get their whores cheap. They won't relinquish .008% of one cent to relieve this man's financial burden incurred by missing two weeks work. They've just said, "Fuck your son, fuck your family, and fuck you Mr. Associate." If I give this man $20 tomorrow, I will have given proportionally two million times more than Wal-Mart is willing to give, and all because I know it's none of my business whether he's up to date on child support. Always low wages, always.