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I worked at Walmart Technology. I bravely wrote post mortem documents owning the fault of my team (100+ people), owning both technically and also culturally as

I worked at Walmart Technology. I bravely wrote post mortem documents owning the fault of my team (100+ people), owning both technically and also culturally as their leader. I put together a plan to fix it and executed it. Thought that was the right thing to do. This happend two times in my 10 year career there. Both times I was called out as a failure in my performance eval. Second time, I resigned and told them to find a better leader. Happy now I am out of such shitty place.

jacquesm 5y ago
Props to you and Walmart will never realize their loss. Unfortunately. But one day there will be headline (or even a couple of them) and you will know that if you had been there it might not have happened and that in the end it is Walmarts' customers that will pay the price for that, not their shareholders.
emteycz 5y ago
But hope you found a better place?
abledon 5y ago
is it just 'ceremony' to be called out on those things? (even if it is actually a positive sum total)
- ARandomerDude 5y ago
  > Happy now I am out of such shitty place. Doesn't sound like it.
dnautics 5y ago
that's awful. You should have been promoted for that.
gunapologist99 5y ago
That's shockingly stupid. I also worked for a major Walmart IT services vendor in another life, and we always had to be careful about how we handled them, because they didn't always show a lot of respect for vendors. On another note, thanks for building some awesome stuff -- walmart.com is awesome. I have both Prime and whatever-they're-currently-calling Walmart's version and I love that Walmart doesn't appear to mix SKU's together in the same bin which seems to cause counterfeiting fraud at Amazon.
- gnat 5y ago
  What's a "bin" in this context?
  - AfterAnimator 5y ago
    I believe he means a literal bin. E.g. Amazon takes products from all their sellers and chucks them in the same physical space, so they have no idea who actually sold the product when it's picked. So you could have gotten something from a dodgy 3rd party seller that repackages broken returns, etc, and Amazon doesn't maintain oversight of this.
  - notinty 5y ago
    Literally just a bin in a fulfillment warehouse. An amazon listing doesn't guarantee a particular SKU.
    - gnat 5y ago
      Ah, whew. That's what I thought. Thanks! I asked because we make warehouse and retail management systems and every vendor or customer seems to give every word their own meanings (e.g., we use "bin" in our discounts engine to be a collection of products eligible for discounts, and "barcode" has at least three meanings depending on to whom you're speaking).
- throwawayHN378 5y ago
  Is WalMart.com awesome?
- temp6363t 5y ago
  walmart.com user design sucks. My particular grudge right now is - I'm shopping to go pickup some stuff (and indicate "in store pickup) and each time I search for the next item, it resets that filter making me click on that filter for each item on my list.
  - muvb00 5y ago
    Walmart.com, Am I the only one in the world who can't view their site on my phone? I tried it on a couple devices and couldn't get it to work. Scaling is fubar. I assumed this would be costing them millions/billions since it's impossible to buy something from my phone right now. S21+ in portrait on multiple browsers.
CobrastanJorji 5y ago
Stories like this are why I'm really glad I stopped talking to that Walmart Technology recruiter a few years ago. I love working for places where senior leadership constantly repeat war stories about "that time I broke the flagship product" to reinforce the importance of blameless postmortems. You can't fix the process if the people who report to you feel the need to lie about why things go wrong.

jacquesm 5y ago

Props to you and Walmart will never realize their loss. Unfortunately. But one day there will be headline (or even a couple of them) and you will know that if you had been there it might not have happened and that in the end it is Walmarts' customers that will pay the price for that, not their shareholders.

emteycz 5y ago

But hope you found a better place?

abledon 5y ago

is it just 'ceremony' to be called out on those things? (even if it is actually a positive sum total)

ARandomerDude 5y ago
> Happy now I am out of such shitty place. Doesn't sound like it.

dnautics 5y ago

that's awful. You should have been promoted for that.

gunapologist99 5y ago

That's shockingly stupid. I also worked for a major Walmart IT services vendor in another life, and we always had to be careful about how we handled them, because they didn't always show a lot of respect for vendors. On another note, thanks for building some awesome stuff -- walmart.com is awesome. I have both Prime and whatever-they're-currently-calling Walmart's version and I love that Walmart doesn't appear to mix SKU's together in the same bin which seems to cause counterfeiting fraud at Amazon.

gnat 5y ago
What's a "bin" in this context?
- AfterAnimator 5y ago
  I believe he means a literal bin. E.g. Amazon takes products from all their sellers and chucks them in the same physical space, so they have no idea who actually sold the product when it's picked. So you could have gotten something from a dodgy 3rd party seller that repackages broken returns, etc, and Amazon doesn't maintain oversight of this.
- notinty 5y ago
  Literally just a bin in a fulfillment warehouse. An amazon listing doesn't guarantee a particular SKU.
  - gnat 5y ago
    Ah, whew. That's what I thought. Thanks! I asked because we make warehouse and retail management systems and every vendor or customer seems to give every word their own meanings (e.g., we use "bin" in our discounts engine to be a collection of products eligible for discounts, and "barcode" has at least three meanings depending on to whom you're speaking).
throwawayHN378 5y ago
Is WalMart.com awesome?
temp6363t 5y ago
walmart.com user design sucks. My particular grudge right now is - I'm shopping to go pickup some stuff (and indicate "in store pickup) and each time I search for the next item, it resets that filter making me click on that filter for each item on my list.
- muvb00 5y ago
  Walmart.com, Am I the only one in the world who can't view their site on my phone? I tried it on a couple devices and couldn't get it to work. Scaling is fubar. I assumed this would be costing them millions/billions since it's impossible to buy something from my phone right now. S21+ in portrait on multiple browsers.

CobrastanJorji 5y ago

Stories like this are why I'm really glad I stopped talking to that Walmart Technology recruiter a few years ago. I love working for places where senior leadership constantly repeat war stories about "that time I broke the flagship product" to reinforce the importance of blameless postmortems. You can't fix the process if the people who report to you feel the need to lie about why things go wrong.