BY María González Amarillo
Oscar Romero has been working in Walmart for more than 20 years. His temporary position of fifteen hours per week carrying Christmas trees turned into a career for life. He is currently one of the most successful managers in the business, and he has 545 employees under his supervision.
“I started at the age of 18 years old, when leaving the school. I had to work, I applied for a job at this company and they hired me for the Christmas trees. They told me that that’s what they had during the season”, Romero says to La Prensa San Diego. “The season turned into 24 years. But I started from the bottom.”
Romero was born in Los Angeles and lives in Calexico, a city in Imperial County in California. His family moved there from Mexicali, right at the other side of the border. He studied and lived most of his life in Calexico, where he has just come back after managing A Walmart in San Diego for four years.
“Sometimes there are many changes. I lived in Chula Vista for the last four years. I will move if my company requires me to relocate, but for the time being they sent me here because they needed help and I am from here, I know the border and the people of this area”, he says.
Romero went from department to department over the years and learned everything about the logistics thanks to his co-workers in higher positions. He got to know how to buy, sell, receive goods, office work and much more. Also, when he wanted to learn something in particular, he used to visit friends at other stores.
“I was taught what I needed at every department and I learned to manage departments and stores little by little. It was a long process but full of people that listened to my questions and took time to teach me, which is very important. This company definitely gives you opportunities to learn”, he says.
Imperial Valley is an area with one of the highest unemployment rates in the country: at around 33%. Most of jobs there are developed in the countryside. The manager assures that people must take care of their jobs and try to work as hard as possible to progress and make career when there are not many possibilities.
“I think that whoever wants to progress will achieve it with hard work and effort. There are also people who have been helped like me. I needed that support, I wouldn’t have made it alone”, he says. “I spent several years at each position but now I’ve been a manager for ten years and I have managed four different stores.”
According to Romero, Walmart has been great, full of friendships and learning experience for him. He developed marketing, business and customer service skills, among many other skills. He emphasises the importance of his relationship with employees to have the best business results, and he sees the promotion of co-workers as a beautiful thing. “Their lives completely change as well”, he smiles.
“I’ve been helped for everything I wanted to learn, but the people you work with are the most important part”, he says. “We see each other everyday. It’s important to have a good relationship with your employees, know about their families, their kids. People tell me, they are 500! But we should do everything we can to have that kind of relationship with all of them. If we don’t know each other properly, getting good results is more difficult.”
The manager also focuses on clients and the compromise with the community. He is a member of the Chicano Federation in San Diego. This organization promotes the access to social needs such as education, housing and health.
“It’s important to keep the store clean for customers so they can come and leave quickly if they need it. We are here to help them”, he says.
“And we must also think about how we can help our community, what to do apart from our jobs, what social services we could do during our free time because we don’t only work but live here.
Romero feels happy to see that nowadays the youth looks for a more advanced education, since before they did not study or just followed a basic training. He got to have eighty students working part-time for him while they attended the university.
“Youth and studying are crucial. I’ve seen a lot of people going to the university, and co-workers who finished but wanted to get their master’s after the bachelor’s”, he remarks. “I feel that people have to study and progress, especially in a place with an unemployment rate of a 33% like Calexico. It’s the future.”
Oscar Romero recommends working with passion at whatever job you get, treating people with respect, having good relationships with your employees and not forgetting the people who helped you to reach your current position when you deal with workers with less experience.