The popular blog Gawker has been running an occasional series about Walmart built from the employees’ personal experiences and stories. The tales of Walmart's reported disrespect towards workers are so powerful that Walmart posted a message on its internal employee website urging employees to share positive stories, Gawker's Hamilton Nolan reported yesterday.

 Nolan writes:

Yesterday, in response to our publication of employee stories, Wal-Mart posted a message on its employee website: "Many people in the media don't know the amazing stories you have to share. This week Gawker is posting stories about Walmart, attacking the work our associates do, and it's up to us to set the record straight," said the plea. "Feel free to share your story about the real Walmart today and what makes you proud to be working at Walmart." Contact information for us was also posted.

While Nolan writes a few positive stories came in after this plea, including one from a new father who bragged he got a week off of work (without pay, of course) when his child was born, far more common are stories like this one:

"The Walmart Employee website is encouraging us to refute your stories, asking us to do their PR for them and tell the stories of ‘The Real Walmart.’ The only problem is that the stories in your article ARE the real Walmart. The saddest thing is that many of us won't even disagree with the site, because we're all afraid to get fired...

I've been with the company for 4 years now. For the first two years I kept a pretty good attitude, despite my divorce, deteriorating conditions at work, and actually ending up homeless. Do you think they cared, at all? The stores cut hours. I went from 28 hours a week to 7. SEVEN hours a week, and 14 if I was lucky. One of the disabled ladies that worked as a door greeter lost her house of thirty years, just a year short of paying off her mortgage, because her hours were cut and she couldn't even eat. Our manager said she wanted to apologize for the cut hours and she didn't want anyone going without food or necessities, so to let her know if there were problems. I hadn't eaten in two days, and I asked for help, crying in her office. She told me she would get me a $50 gift card by the end of the day. When I went to find her the end of my shift, she'd already left. When I asked about it the next day, she said she'd given it to ‘A shift manager’ to give to me, and she'd have to get onto that manager for not getting it to me. Do you think I've ever gotten that card.

And I know, I've seen the comments of people who are better off and sitting in their cozy houses with their nice cars and their biggest monetary concern being funding their next trip to Disney, or getting courtside seats: ‘How dare evil Walmart force people to apply and work there,’ or ‘Get an education, and you won't have to work there.’ Well, Guess what? I am very much educated. I have a BA in Education, but since the Education system is going the way of the Dodo, it's impossible to get a job. I actually work two jobs to try to support my husband and I, and I am ALSO in school, trying to get another degree so that I can maybe find a job somewhere other than Walmart, y yo hablo espanol...

It is so easy for you, as a customer, to look at our weary, broken faces and see that we've given up. It is so easy to lose your temper because this item is not in stock, and there is never anyone in the department, and the store is dirty. It's easy to scream for a manager because an employee walked past you without helping you, when they've been dealing with being kicked by little kids, yelled at by other customers, and having to do work far outside their job description and capabilities for the last 4 hours, and they just really, REALLY needed to go to the bathroom.

It would be so easy to look at one of your cashiers, and just say ‘thank you,’ or ‘I'm sorry.’ It would be easy to realize that we are human beings, working one of the most stressful jobs with absolutely no support, and have some compassion. We don't want to be where we are, and we all start out happy and cheerful and helpful; and then Walmart kills our souls, and breaks our spirit, and grinds us down. Walmart is where the poor go to work until they die."

Check out the OUR Walmart website to learn more about the Walmart workers and their campaign for respect and rights on the job.