As Walmart Eliminates Greeters, A Worker 's Dream Is In Limbo: NPR

One weekend in February, Justin Kelley, 33, made the biggest financial commitment of his life. He paid a friend to start an airboat. He'd dreamed of owning one since an early age.

"That's my level playing ground." It's my freedom, "Kelley says. On shore, he has a walker to get around and has a wheelchair at work, because he has cerebral palsy. But on an airboat on a Florida lake? "To me it's the place that, when I'm in that seat, you do not see that you're going to … It's my escape, it's my happy place."

But two days after putting down money for the boat, Kelley found out his job in jeopardy. He was one of the winners at about 1,000 Walmart stores who were told their positions would be eliminated in late April. That gives them about 60 days to get reassigned or take severance and leave.

"My whole life is on hold," Kelley says, sitting on the wooden steps to his house in Lake Wales, Fla. "Everything I've worked for is at a standstill."

Since 2016, Walmart has been replaced with "hosts," more focused on security and assisting shoppers. But for current greeters like Kelley to qualify for the new front-door jobs, they must meet new criteria. That includes, for example, lifting 25 pounds or climbing a ladder.

One, two, three – Kelley counts more than a half-dozen surgery scars on his legacies – hamstring, ankle, "they shattered my shin to try to straighten that foot," he says, matter-of-factly. He can lift and climb, if he has, in a private setting, adjusting his body. But doing this regularly and safely for work? Kelley does not qualify.

According to Walmart, the majority of greeters who "expressed interest in another role" will transition to new roles within those 60 days. Kory Lundberg says: "In some cases, we have been able to identify the role of the 60-day transition. . " (Note: Walmart is one of NPR's financial sponsors.)

As Kelley sits on his porch, it's a day 49 of his wait for a call from HR. He says he's got a great manager, who's fighting to find him a new position. But Kelley also has someone who wants to buy his boat.

"So do I start selling my stuff that I just bought?" Kelley says. Selling the boat would float him for a while. But he spent five years saving up for it. "Do I take my dream right now and just go for sale signs? What do I do?"

Kelley's predicament will be sound familiar to other greeters with disabilities. In recent weeks, a dozen workers and their families shared similar accounts – of uncertainty, hope and anxiety of waiting for a corporate decision. Kelley does not know what he has to say. He'll know it in a matter of hours.

A day in the life

Airboating is big in Central Florida, where citrus groves are webbed with lakes and swamps. These boats are flat, with a giant propeller in the back and usually an airplane engine. They can run on shallow water and even patches of dry land in the marshes.

Kelley has been enamored with airboats since he was a teenager, going fishing, hunting, just cruising. Of all the sounds in the world, the boat's roar is one that calms him down. Around here, you can ride for hours, even days, Kelley says. "We can go see buffalo water, axis deer, turkey, hog, gator, just pure God's country."

Growing up, Kelley says he often felt that his parents were thought to be self-sufficient. Like if you can not climb into a truck yourself, you can not go on a trip. Now, Kelley says, he wants them for all time.

In fact, he says he goes on walkers "like he's going out of style" – he says he's prescribing new ones.

"Luckily for me, most of my friends are welders, so we'll fix it, rig it to work," he says. "My mom and dad, that will be my Christmas present … a walker."

Today, he's climbing into the passenger seat of a sedan in his sandy driveway. Kelley's Walmart is almost 9 miles away, and Kelley does not live near a public transportation. So he stitches together rides from friends and $ 12 Ubers, getting close to the nearest Uber is 20 minutes away.

"It's not like my life goal [is] to live off a disability check. I do not want housing, I do not want to free medical stuff. I want to be able to say, "Kelley says," His dream is classic: Stable work, a house, wife and kids, a couple of acres with a barn for his boat.

After some false starts at other jobs after high school, Kelley spent a year looking for work before getting hired at Walmart. He's been there nine years.

"For me to say, that I work for a company [where] I got a 401 (k), I got a chance to get insurance. That meant a lot to me, "Kelley says," I take a lot of pride in that. "

Finally, news

Where Kelley by name. On the way in, people stop over on fishing, weekend plans, kids and of course boats. On the way out, they have their receipts ready for Kelley to check. Shoppers keep greeting _him_ even after he clocks out and waits outside for an Uber home.

"I love him to death, he's a good guy," says Ronald Smith, who came to get medicine for his wife. "Even if you go there with an attitude, you start with a good vibe right then – that's my friend, I'm going to have a good time shopping."

Every day he's in, Kelley asks his bosses if they've heard about his job from corporate. On most days, they have not. But on day 49 of his wait – they do have news. And it's good.

Walmart is reassigning Kelley. Like many other greeters with disabilities, Kelley will help you in the self-checkout area.

Lundberg, the walmart spokesman, says, that overall "greeters have accepted jobs in nearly 50 different roles in stores, from the new customer host position to cake decorator." He says the purpose of the 60-day process, the best fit and the best fit in the world.

Kelley signed his offer on the spot.

"He came in last night, he was so happy," says Haley Seagraves, whose family shares a house with Kelley. Her husband and Kelley became friends after meeting Walmart. "[Kelley] kept smiling, and I said, 'Why are you so happy?' And he was like, 'Because I love this job!' "

Kelley is excited for stability. Though he's also worrying about lining up wrinkles for a new schedule. But he's grateful.

"Big weight lifted off my shoulders," he says, and laughs. "There is no boat for sale no more, that's for sure."