After 6 months of misery I managed to earn (redacted)’s trust and respect. (I thought) I had prayed every night on my way home for strength. One morning she called me into her office and asked me why I didn’t transfer out. I replied why? What did I do to your or the managers that you guys don’t want me here? She replied that it was my attitude. I said I don’t understand. I come in every day, work 16-hour shifts, no days off just to make sure fresh areas are up to company standards. And this is not good enough? So, I said, please tell me what I have to do to be a part of the team and to make her happy. She then said what would make us all happy is for you to transfer out. I said no, I was sent here to be a manager and that’s what I’m going to do. After that day, (redacted) accepted me (I thought again) and made me part of the team. Fresh was up to company standards, inventories were great, sales were up. No problems for the next several months. We lost most of the original management team after that, most of them left within one month’s time. I made sure I helped all the new managers, I didn’t want them to go through what I went through when I came to the store.
Little did I know those I had helped and trusted would turn on me and I would lose my job because of their treachery. I was falsely accused of stealing a pair of shoes, some cheese sticks and a cake. That day was the worst day of my life. [ At this point, Claudia’s handwritten notes suffer from her fatigue and frustration and her story gets a bit scrambled.]
[ As editor of this letter, I insert here part of what Claudia wrote on Page 7 of 15 pages of handwritten notes. Reason being, the inserted material allows the reader to see into just how low the ingrates in this Mesa store would stoop. RHK]
Claudia is desperately trying to defend herself against theft charges that everyone in in that store knew were false and that includes (redacted) the store manager. (redacted), the security person, may have been an unwitting accessory to all this. If Claudia’s “friends” would make up a vicious pack of lies like they did, they would certainly not hesitate to lie to or mislead another Wal-Mart employee.
Claudia: (redacted) pulled a stack of paperwork and said what about these pictures and evidence I have. I asked to see it all and told them they were mistaken, I never took anything from Wal-Mart, ever. Then they said they had written statements from all the management team about all the merchandise I took and didn’t pay for. [did he really? Claudia said later on she looked in this file and saw nothing but blank pages] So many lies but again how could I defend myself when the whole team turned on me? My world came crashing down, what can I do to make them believe me? Nothing, their minds were made up to kick me out of their store no matter what it took. Just like that I lost my job, my life , my dignity and self-respect.
I was so devastated and felt so alone and lost. I had just lost 15 years of my life over lies. How do I tell my husband and boys?
I turned down a demotion and after about a 3-month ordeal I was sent to 83rd and Union Hills, Store#3241. From day one all eyes were on Claudia. I was sent there as a last resort. Beautiful store. Manager (redacted) and Asst. Managers all welcomed me. I was scared but hopeful about my new beginning. Two weeks later a rumor about me started going around. Claudia steals and puts the blame on others. Eventually I learned I had to be supervised with all high-ticket items. Then, I was told I couldn’t unload trucks anymore. Thousands of dollars of merchandise were missing.[2] I was then put in apparel to stock markdowns and fix the bins. It was a lot of work so I asked for help. CO (redacted) replied no help, only you. You’re the back-room asst. manager, fix the bins. Work is work but I noticed some behavior changes toward me. I was still afraid what happened to me at the Mesa store might follow me.
Back to the demeaning stocking assignment. The work was just too much for anyone, so I asked an associate to help me. Later I was pulled into the office by (redacted) and they informed me I was no one to be making
2 With 100% certainty I can tell anyone Claudia stole no merchandise from that store. This leaves two possibilities: someone else took the merchandise or it was never missing in the first place. RHK return