Feeling sick can make things difficult, especially your upcoming shift at your workplace. Indeed, calling out of work because of sickness can be a hazard since not many employers let you call in sick. Fortunately, Walmart allows its employees to call in sick in a fairly simple manner.
How does calling in sick at Walmart work? As an employee of Walmart, you should learn the process of calling out of work when you feel under the weather. Walmart lets its staff inform the team if they won’t be able to make it for the coming shift with just a phone call. So, what number do Walmart employees call when they are sick?
This guide covers it all. Here, you will get the right number to dial to call in sick at Walmart. Additionally, we will tell you the entire process and other requirements. Let’s get started.
How to Call in Sick at Walmart – The Process
A Walmart employee should call in sick at least 3 hours ahead of his or her scheduled shift. However, there’s no formal rule regarding this. Still, the sooner you inform your team, the better it will be. If you are seriously ill and need to plan accordingly, you can also call in sick 24 hours in advance.
Now, let’s check out how to call in sick at Walmart. As a Walmart employee, call 1-800-775-5944 and select ‘Report an absence’ once prompted. Make sure you keep the following things handy before dialling the calling-in-sick number of Walmart:
- Your WIN or Walmart Identification Number
- Your Date of birth
- A pen and paper
- Lastly, your Walmart store number
You will get a confirmation number after you convey all the details over the phone. Now, write down the confirmation number on a piece of paper. You are done with informing your employer. Now, you can also consider informing your coworkers that you won’t be able to show up for the particular shift.
The best thing about the call-in-sick facility at Walmart is that you don’t have to show a doctor’s prescription. Additionally, you need not provide any medical details. Moreover, you can call in sick at Walmart if you or your family members are sick.
However, you must report your absence with the call-in-sick number at Walmart. Otherwise, the authority will mark it as a ‘no call, no show’, which can seriously affect your job profile.
Alternative Way to Report Your Absence at Walmart
How to call in sick at Walmart online when you don’t want to call? Here’s the way out. You can navigate to your Walmart One profile and report your absence for a specific shift online. Now, go through the following guidelines to do so:
- Open up one.walmart.com using any web browser.
- Afterwards, choose Login from the upper right-hand corner of the screen. Provide your Walmart Identification Number followed by the password.
- Hit the ‘Report an Absence’ option from the available options.
- Then, choose the shift that you can’t attend.
- Now, you need to justify your request with a brief explanation. For example, you can write, ‘I am suffering from fever’ or ‘My mother is sick’.
- Click on the submit button after you enter the reason.
A confirmation number must have appeared on the screen; you should write it down somewhere. Moreover, you can follow the same process on Walmart’s mobile app to report your absence from a shift. Just install the Me@Walmart app on your phone and follow the abovementioned process.
As a courtesy, you should call your manager to inform them that you will take a leave from your shift. This will eliminate the misunderstanding if the system doesn’t alert them automatically.
How Often Can You Call in Sick at Walmart?
Calling out of work is easy at Walmart when you are sick. Does this mean you can call in sick at Walmart whenever you want? Sadly, you can’t do that. What happens if you call in sick at Walmart, then?
Well, as a Walmart employee, you will receive 1 penalty point against your attendance every time you call in sick. Now, how many penalty points can you afford? According to sources, your job at Walmart can be at the risk of termination when you have 5 penalty points against your attendance.
When do these penalty points expire? Penalty points are withdrawn from your profile after 6 months of receiving them. Hence, you can keep your job safe if you call in sick 4 times every 6 months, maximum. Still, there’s a catch with 4 penalty points against your attendance.
Walmart authority will label you as ineligible for raises if you are at 4 penalty points. Therefore, it’s smart to minimise call-in-sick at Walmart if you don’t want to compromise your job. You should call in sick at Walmart if there are only legitimate reasons.
If you make a ‘no call, no show’, it will cost you 2 penalty points instead of 1. Moreover, the same rule applies when you apply for a call-in-sick on a holiday. For example, you will receive 2 penalty points against your attendance if you call in sick on Memorial Day, Labour Day, or other major holidays.
On a related note, employees can receive half a penalty point if they are late for over 10 minutes or leave over 10 minutes early.
Is There Any Paid Leave at Walmart?
Emergencies can come out of nowhere, and a day of call-in-sick won’t be sufficient for employees. Hence, you should go through Walmart’s PPTO call-out policies. Walmart provides its staff with 6 paid days off annually, and employees can use them for callouts.
The best thing is that it won’t cause any penalty. However, there are a few catches with Walmart’s PPTO or Protected Paid Time Off policy. Specifically, you can get 6 workdays that are 8-hour-long off with Walmart PPTO. In terms of hours, you will get exactly 48 hours of PPTO.
Yet, PPTO is only available to some new hires at Walmart. Full-time, part-time, and temporary staff at Walmart can request PPTO. In addition, associates can guarantee PPTO depending on how long they have been with Walmart and how many hours they work.
Utilising too much regular PTO can affect your chances of getting leave on sick days. On the other hand, you can carry on your unused PPTO into the next year. What if you run out of Walmart’s PPTO? You will accrue warning points for call-outs when you have used all your PPTOs.
Should You Opt for a Medical Leave?
Hopefully, you understood how to call in sick at Walmart. However, calling in sick or using PPTO may not be the best option when diagnosed with a critical health condition. Since Walmart offers its employees 12 weeks of unpaid medical leave, you can apply for medical leave.
In addition, you can do the same if your spouse, child, or any dependent family member is seriously sick. You must log in to mySedgwick.com to request medical leave. However, you have to provide all required medical documents for this. Before this, call your HR manager to learn whether you qualify for medical leave.