When I was still there four years ago, my DM over produce stepped down to a dairy stocker after fifteen years of running his area. And he wasn't some lump of dead weight management had personally liked anmd been carrying over the years (although we've seen that happen); he was good enough that several store managers had tried hard to get him into the Assistant Program.
But he was content staying where he was at.
Unfortunately, around 2015 pressures began mounting so fiercely and unrelentingly, especially in the fresh areas, that they took their toll on him. He knew the final straw had happened when, one night at home, he flipped out and yelled at his little boy bad enough to send the child into hysterics....such that he had to be sedated at the local hospital. Right now this guy is still in dairy, but struggling even with that job as hours are being cut razor thin.
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Meanwhile, I currently have a friend who had been an assistant, who himself had stepped down to be a DM, and is right now dealing with the whole re structuring debacle. It's everything the OP of this thread described. My friend is on a weekly basis shouldering more and more duties and responsibilities, with no staff to even help him —but with store management constantly up his a$$ like a procto scope, ceaselessly demanding 'Why isn't THIS done? And THIS? And THIS? And THIS? And...'
Walmart has become a cesspool of endless greed, bullying domination and absolutely zero compassion for fellow human beings.