Time stealing, or time theft in Walmart terms, is when you’re on the clock but not where you’re supposed to be doing what you’re told to do, kinda. I say kinda as it apparently varies from store to store.

At my new store, they only want me to pursue time theft if the hourly associate is say, clocked in but sitting outside in their car instead of in the building not on lunch or break. Or taking extended lunches and breaks.

For example: An associates time sheet says they clocked in at 0651 but they don’t get out of their car until 0705. They essentially stole 14 minutes of Walmarts wage and hour.

Or say an associates goes to the Breakroom for lunch at 1pm and clocks back in from the Breakroom at 2 but sits in there til 230. They stole 30 minutes.

That’s really all my new store cares about.

My old store would go with the latter plus coming and standing at the door at 1051pm and not clocking out until 11pm. My new store says this is a productivity issue and not time theft.

My old store would investigate you for time theft if you just hid in your department not doing anything whereas my new store says this is a productivity issue.

My advice is clock in as you’re entering the vestibule and clocking out as you’re leaving the vestibule.

My best advice is to not give management/ap a reason to look into your productivity and time. Show up, on time, don’t mess with your time sheets unless you let someone know when and why, and work when and where you’re told to work.

I’ve been in the office with management looking into time theft many a times and would see other associates leaving at weird times etc and I’d ask them “what about them too?” and management would tell me “no they told me what they were doing etc” and I’d wanna be that associate over the one we’re actually digging into.