Remote Walmart employees across the United States are now questioning the company’s newly implemented in-person work policy. Some employees who have been ordered to relocate are even considering resigning.
In May, Walmart mandated that hundreds of remote workers relocate to its corporate headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas, or its other hubs in Hoboken, New Jersey, and Northern California. A recent Bloomberg report revealed that employees opposed the return-to-office mandate during a company-wide Zoom call, with some resigning.
During the call, one participant described the RTO policy as “a bunch of bullsh-t.” In contrast, others expressed concerns about the challenges of living in Arkansas, childcare arrangements, increased workload, and the potential impact on their partners’ careers due to the relocation.
A Walmart employee informed Bloomberg that he decided to resign from the company rather than relocate on such short notice. According to the report, employees unable to relocate must terminate their employment with the company between August 2024 and January 2025.
Being forced to relocate like that should constitute a contract renegotiation and these folks should get severance and unemployment.
It’s constructive dismissal, and they can 100% file for unemployment even though they “resigned”. Basically, Walmart is laying them off of their old WFH position, and is offering them a new in-office position. And if the new position isn’t on-par with what they were already doing, they aren’t required to accept it. They can refuse the worse job offer and file for unemployment (because they were laid off of their old job) instead.
To be clear: Walmart will 100% contest their unemployment claim. But if the worker appeals and provides proof of the constructive dismissal, they’ll win and get unemployment back paid to when they first filed. If your employer ever drastically and negatively changes your job description (like cutting your hours, cutting your pay, suddenly requiring in-office, etc,) you should be in the unemployment line to file that same day.
It’s almost like that offer letter than you signed is a contract that specifies your job duties, pay, benefits, and time off. If you have a union, then there is a whole other contract as well.
Hardly the sort of contract that is ever subject to renegotiation, or even any initial negotiation. It’s all very one-sided.
My job just moved to the headquarters, so I quit. The company did indeed offer $20,000 to move me and, if not, 2-months severance and benefits, with my PTO used first and paid in full. Also, the contract stated there would be no issue with me filing for unemployment after severance is over. That’s how it should be done.
I can’t blame them in my case. Since a large chunk of my duties involved shipping and troubleshooting hardware, it makes sense to have someone available to come in once or twice a week.
Anybody got any remote IT positions? I can send a resume. If you DM me, I’ll not likely see it. Reply here and I’ll get with you.
Bad advice if they’re in IT. City/state IT frequently struggles to keep good talent, because they often pay less than 50 or 60% of market rate for IT positions. The only reason to consider it is if you’re looking for a retirement package. But even then, you’ll likely need to stay for 5’ish years to get vested in the state retirement system. State/city lawmakers really hate investing in IT staff.
I’m curious what setup you have that allows you to see replies but not DMs
Not sure of US law, but in Canada something like this would be considered Constructive Dismissal, so you resign and they legally owe you termination pay and severence pay based on position amd years served
In US law, workers can generally be terminated for “any reason or no reason.”
Yes, but this isn’t termination, it’s making working so intolerable that you quit.
But it varies by state. There’s no federal law about it. https://www.findlaw.com/employment/losing-a-job/constructive-dismissal-and-wrongful-termination.html