Walmart assault issue with employee

I read an article today titled “Man fired for aiding woman rejects Walmart offer to hire him back”. This article was published on October 25, 2013 by Lisa Maria Garza for Reuters news. Christopher Oswald is a thirty year-old man that works nights at a Walmart northwest of Detroit, Michigan. Walmart fired Oswald for confronting a man who was attacking a woman in the Walmart parking lot at 2:30 A.M. because he did not call the police immediately when he witnessed the assault. Christopher was beaten severely by the assailant for stepping in and he received a death threat. Christopher is currently seeking therapeutic help. Walmart has recently asked him to return with the promise that he will receive reimbursement for his lost wages. Christopher has turned down this offer out of fear of repeating his experience and knowledge that his position was only returned due to Walmart’s increase in negative publicity.

I think that Christopher Oswald did what was right and should have been rewarded for his actions. However, it would also be good to remember to call the police so that if this situation were to repeat itself that he would not receive as many injuries.

Walmart seemed to lack conviction in this face of this experience. If they fired Christopher Oswald for not following the store policy, then Walmart should have stayed consistent and left him jobless, wrong as that is, or not have fired him in the first place. Instead, they made the wound deeper by taking back what they did to Christopher by offering him his job back. Now, not only this Walmart, but the entire chain looks stupid due to this mistake.

That is a little unfair to Walmart’s generosity. The offer Walmart made was kind but, inappropriate due to the situation. There is no way for Walmart to make right by Christopher Oswald without it seeming like a grab for redemption in the eyes of the public even though they only want redemption in the eyes of Christopher Oswald.

I wish that there was some way that Christopher Oswald could get back on his feet. It must be hard to get your job back anywhere in America right now due to this harsh economy. Getting a job must be especially hard near a tough city like Detroit, Massachusetts. Hopefully some other company or business will hire Christopher Oswald after reading Lisa Maria Garza’s article seeing that he needs a job.