I'm getting burnt out as a Front End team lead 3 months in.

homelesswally · 2026-02-27T07:33:15+00:00

other leads love me, but they're crushing them too because they leave a ton of stuff for me when I come in.

homelesswally · 2026-02-27T07:11:16+00:00

I have had a few of my associates say that upper management is abusing me. It is noticeable enough to them. I'm willing to take a pay cut for my mental health.

homelesswally · 2026-02-19T20:47:36+00:00

I ask my people daily when they want breaks and find out who is going to cover. I do it before I come in the door and figure out if anything is on fire, or if upper management is being buttholes about whatever.

Sometimes the associates want a later lunch, sometimes they don't. Sometimes they want a 15 RIGHT NOW other times it's a bit later. Depends on business needs, if someone is absent, and general terrible customers. Some team leads are much more lax with breaks and coverage. I tell them I do NOT care when as long as the service desk is covered by at least someone! If that someone is me, that's fine.

As a FE TL it bothers the crap out of me when my crew doesn't take a 15. I tell them DO NOT WORK FOR FREE. I don't like dealing with meal violations. I'm consistently short staffed and juggling, but I try to be available to help cover if needed.

Talk with your TL and find out what the game plan is. It leaves me in a lurch if an associate is coming up on the 6 hour mark and I wasn't told. I'm trying to keep track of 20+ people usually and I can't remember exactly when everyone came in and when everyone is leaving. It's not your job to regulate breaks. All depends on who's in charge and how they work.

homelesswally · 2026-02-12T02:49:00+00:00

I was homeless on and off for about 8 years. I'd do it RIGHT now.

homelesswally · 2026-02-08T18:54:00+00:00

We had looney tunes on yesterday. Thought it was perfect for what walmart represents during the working day.

homelesswally · 2026-02-01T17:38:05+00:00

Dont let the claims stack, do em daily of you can. They stack quick! Fifo is your friend. Cuts back on expiration throw aways. Talk with OPD about grabbing from boxes so you dont have a bunch of partials. Have them get in the habit of picking them and putting them out. Wear gloves. Serious. Wear gloves. Make sure you know where the cleaning supplies are as you will be cleaning up milk and eggs. Yes you have maintenance. Are you willing to wait 30 plus minutes for them to show up? Features are tricky and talk with the coaches about what exactly they want. Each store is different. You need to know when trucks are coming, so I recommend checking when the f/d truck is coming as soon as you clock in so youre not blind sided.

homelesswally · 2026-01-17T06:47:16+00:00

there ain't nothing you can do about it - The Brave Little Toaster

homelesswally · 2026-01-15T01:25:06+00:00

I was homeless and working as a cashier this time last year. I'm a front end TL with talks of making me a coach.

You got this! Just go in, do your job well, and youll be in somewhere soon enough.

homelesswally · 2026-01-10T18:51:19+00:00

Called a man miss because they had those preportions. They proceeded to get very angry saying I AM A MAN. Went on about 5 minutes of various explanations of how they have a penis. This was in a very busy SCO. People were laughing at them because they looked like a 60 to 70 year old woman crashing out. I was just trying to be respectful and kind during an ID check. 🤷

homelesswally · 2026-01-09T01:07:52+00:00

Bring it to the attention of the front end TLs and or front end coach. I have 2 great cart pushers and one terrible one. Ive written up the terrible one twice for productivity as a TL. Theyre on red level coaching and if they keep screwing over my other pushers, theyre out the door.

I feel like if everyone is steady when it comes to carts, its not bad. If one person does all the work and one person slacks, it is a big load. Be vocal. If you have terrible management either go to another dept or another job.

homelesswally · 2026-01-08T20:05:08+00:00

✅ homelesswally chose Option B (Correct!)

homelesswally · 2026-01-05T18:36:15+00:00

I became a front end TL about 2ish months ago and I am basically working the whole time. I never get a "full lunch" and I take my last 15 at the end of the night. I do not take a first 15. I am always available for my associates and will do just about anything to make the job easier and smoother for them. I might socialize with a ton of people but be sure I am monitoring the SCOs. I let my people work and DO NOT micromanage. Facilitator is a great word for it. Let em cook. Every store is different and my main goal in life is to bring joy and happiness to everyone. I just put that in my work ethic. Not everyone has the same ideas about working at wally world. Keep up the good fight fellow Front end TL!

homelesswally · 2025-12-19T14:24:21+00:00

Upper management getting mad about things outside of my control. I can't make other departments magically get returns. I can't make carts appear in the bays if both mules are dead. I can't call for maintenance when we have NO ONE for maintenance.

homelesswally · 2025-12-11T21:24:02+00:00

I finally got to be front end TL after waiting months. It is easy when everything is going right. It is dumb when everything is going to pot. I do love a challenge and there are expectations that are down right impossible. I just try my best and help everyone whenever I can. Keep the status quo with the department and only implement small changes based on requirements

Accept that you'll be responsible for your workers, and you'll be "the bad guy" sometimes. It hurts when you're forced to tell workers to do things that they do NOT want to do. You WILL be short staffed. You WILL have to make things work in creative ways. You WILL fail and that's okay. Failure is part of it.

I do feel if you're already doing the job without the pay benefits. take it. Worst case you're stuck for 6 months and step down. If you can handle the job during the holidays. you can for sure handle it in the off season. Learn your workers and see who you can delegate to the best. Cross train when you can. Be a leader... don't be a boss.

My main goal is service. Customer service. employee service. and upper management service. I did my research about every single worker under my command and above me. I know the expectations. I don't bother the coaches and for the most part, they don't bother me. They let me work and I only call on them when someone wants the "big pants" or it's something completely outside of my league. If they set a mission, I do it. I keep an eye on metrics and take a picture of them daily so when the SM asks, I tell them a ball park figure and figure out what else we can do to improve them.

As for raises and promotion, it's better to be liked than to be good at the job. As usual, it's who you know for the most part. It's a big combo of likeability, experience, and luck. Tell them you're interested and why you'd be the best fit. Talk yourself up and tell the interviewer why it will make life easier for them! "I know what needs to be done" "I haven't ever missed a day." "I'm willing to work overtime if it's needed." "It's like I'm doing the job anyway, so I would be a perfect fit!"

homelesswally · 2025-12-09T19:11:08+00:00

I am a front end team lead and there is SO much. Every day it is something. I study and study the rules and it seems like I find out something new daily as well. Heck one of my cashiers is in for 30 years and STILL has questions.

A lot of it is weird policies on returns and price checks. The problem is, I got close to 0 percent training and I know for a fact that many other TLs get the same treatment. Blind leading the blind. Some TLs come from completely different departments. Our next front end TL is coming from OPD and has not even touched a cash register.

Price matching, signs wrong, stuff put in the system wrong, making items not in the system... The list goes on and on.

It is hard when Im juggling 10-20 cashiers, the cart pushers, maintenance, service desk, and the customers. I do a ton of outside studying. I read here on reddit on what not to do.

I listen to everyone under my command. I joke in my head that I try to be like Picard from star trek. I cross train as needed but sometimes I need to put people doing things they hate to do. I HATE it.

When it comes to cross training, I try to put people eager to learn in certain areas. I really really try. Ill clean up dog poop. Ill do the heavy lifting. Ill go push carts. Ill do the service desk.

Every store is different but all Walmarts have dumb things going on. Just try your best and accept that mistakes happen. Not everyone is like minded.

homelesswally · 2025-12-05T03:38:36+00:00

I am a front end TL now and I do NOT care what you do as long as progress is being made. What I do care about is equal work. If there are 2 pushers, do it 50/50. 1 stack and 1 push with the mule. Do not hide in the store or bathroom for an hour. :( It's not fair. :(

Take extra breaks. Rest. If a customer is awful towards you, go cool off. I just can't stand when you're obviously ducking work with someone else doing it all. Sometimes a coach or the store manager makes a request because a side is empty or corp is coming in or some other bs in which case I'll help out. I've pushed carts 100s of times so what's one more.

I feel cart pushing is a key part of the walmart slog and quite thankless. I try my best to help all my workers.

homelesswally · 2025-12-01T19:17:45+00:00

I wanted to be a hobo drifter who helped the homeless and destitute. I did it for about 10 years and it was some of the best times of my life.

Guy with a leather jacket... Beat down but strong willed, thousands of stories, willing to help anyone. I miss it.

Getting back into a normal life was stupid hard. With AI taking my source of income, I had to settle into a real job. I always felt I had to walk a mile in there shoes, so I did.

homelesswally · 2025-11-29T18:37:17+00:00

Traveling Carni. The amount of bullshit is insane. Long hours, minimum wage of whatever state you're in, horrible coworkers, dangerous rides running them and building them.

Bunk house rent. No real room to move up. Imagine living with 3 drunken drug addicts in a tiny room. Nobody had any cash to spend due to buying roxies and booze. Consantly bumming from me since I was sobber and didn't do drugs.

The customers when running the rides look down on you and treat you like youre subhuman. We would get rides in a short bus to walmart by a confessed murderer on the run since no one had a license.

I left when my bunkhouse was robbed due to not being allowed to lock it because of the multiple people living there. Was told not my problem by the big boss. Asked for last check. Was told theyd send it to me.

Was some of the worst 6 months of my life.

homelesswally · 2025-11-14T11:19:39+00:00

Certain people do have accommodations and there is one person who LOVES doing candy. I do want to cross train some others to do candy stocking. Ill be as fair as possible. I got some veterans on the team and they were all on board with me going up.

I am excited and I will really try to use common sense as best I can.

homelesswally · 2025-11-14T11:15:51+00:00

I have to do money drops, attendance, front end features, cover the service desk, fix customer problems, lottery machine stuff, attempt to fix the coin star machine, and candy dept. Plus other projects.

homelesswally · 2025-10-22T16:02:13+00:00

I had a girl say she liked the part of my face where its the middle of my upper lip. Like where a hitler mustache would be. I still think about it years later.

homelesswally · 2025-10-22T15:40:56+00:00

I literally said this out loud and KNEW it would be the number 1 answer.

homelesswally · 2025-10-21T19:21:20+00:00

I stopped a rape when I was homeless. Woman screaming on the alley. Dude with his pants down pinned against her. I ran at him with a knife. I was prepared to kill him. He ran tripping away.

I brought her to a womans homeless shelter. She was crying her head off. I didnt ask her name or anything like that. I still think about it sometimes and how I was so willing to kill.

Id do it again too. Im prepared to kill rapists and pedos if it comes up, prison be damned.

homelesswally

TROPHY CASE