Now visible! Go to gta portal (including from home) using this link to see for yourself and check your store specific dates.

Company wide dates are November 22, 24 and 25(thanksgiving week days), December 23, 24 and 26(Christmas week days) and 12/31 for New Year’s Eve. Stores can pick UP TO 3 other dates in addition to those, so check the list asap for your store, and save a screenshot for later when the list disappears mid January. And if it doesn’t show on the list online, it’s not a key event date. Regardless of what your managers say, or what may or may not be colored in on printed calendars at your store. This is the time of year where managers are most likely to color in extra days and say “all next week are key event dates” even if they aren’t.

As for the annual extra 15% discount that you usually have to work the event day(s) to get, remember that they took away that qualification so everyone hired by December 1st gets it in the mail. see more info on that here.

And remember, when using ppto to cover all time missed, it’s 0 points (proof here. And you only need to enter the amount based on missed time (not double since that’s imposible for most people). And if you show up for even a few minutes then it no longer matters if it’s a key event date, since those dates only add points for a full absence AND not covering at least half of the shift with ppto. So if you’re going to work even a few minutes of it and/or cover at least half of it with ppto, then it won’t matter one bit if it’s a key event date or not. And if you need to miss two event dates and only have enough ppto for one, remember, if you cover half of one, and half of the other, then you end up with 2 half points (one from each day) instead of 2 points from one day.

And in case anyone is wondering, it’s now too late to check to see if Halloween is a key event date for your store, if you haven’t already checked, since Q3 dates have been taken down to show Q4. That’s why it’s important to save a screenshot earlier on.

It's that time again! Key event dates have been updated. You can find them here: https://one.walmart.com/content/usone/en_us/me/attendance-policy/attendance-reinvention/store-hourly-.html (this page is also linked on the GTA homepage)

As always, it's recommended to take a screenshot of the dates listed, don't forget to search your store number to see your store specific ones too as this list will update again shortly before the new quarter begins. That, and it's always good to have the list handy/saved in the event you can't access the site for whatever reason.

For Q4 this year, 11/27, 11/29, 11/30, 12/1, 12/24, 12/26, 12/31, and 1/1 are the company wide key event dates (dates around Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years). Before the quarter starts, store managers are able to submit up to three dates during the quarter to have as key event dates for their specific store. Keep this in mind when people ask "Is X date a key event date?" and that the only way they'll know for sure is to check themselves if the date asked about isn't one of the company wide key event dates.

Associates should not rely on the word of other associates, even management. They also shouldn't rely on any official looking lists and/or calendars that have been printed as these can easily be edited to not have correct information.

As always, there's going to be countless questions about key event dates and how they work. It's honestly very simple: Miss the entire shift of a key event date and don't cover at least half the shift with PPTO, then you'll receive one additional point for missing the shift. That's it. A lot of people call them "double point days," mainly because it's catchy and gives a very general idea of what happens but it isn't entirely accurate as half points aren't doubled, and no call no show points aren't doubled. Again, the only thing that a key event date does is give one additional point (on top of the usual one point) for missing the entire shift and not using enough PPTO to cover at least half the shift.

PPTO works the same way on key event dates that it does for any other day of the year: Cover the entire missed time with PPTO, and you won't be pointed, even on key event dates. Cover half the missed time with PPTO and receive only half a point. Just don't forget to report the absence to avoid two points for a no call no show that even PPTO can't remove.

Unfortunately, there are associates and managers out there that either don't know how key event dates work or they do, but they lie anyway in hopes to keep an associate from missing work. Keep this in mind when anyone tells you anything that doesn't sound right and goes against what's been mentioned here already.

Management cannot just make key event dates on the fly. Once the dates have been finalized and are available to view on the page linked on GTA, that’s it, those are the only dates that’ll be considered key event dates for the quarter.

Whatever is on the list shown above (and store specific ones when a store number is searched) are the only dates that will be key event dates for that quarter. Period.

Management also can't just pull points out of thin air to give to associates. So any threats of management saying they'll just point you anyway will be an empty threat as they don't have the ability to do so.

Ironic timing for my previous post. As a follow up, just like in April, the dates for November to January are now showing already. This means it’s officially too late to check to see if your store has Halloween as key event dates or not. Check the key event dates for November to January since there’s a lot more company wide dates than last time:

ALL WM Stores should have 11/23, 11/25, 11/26, 12/23, 12/24, 12/26, 12/31, and 01/01 applied as key dates in addition to the dates each location has selected.

That’s the days right before and after thanksgiving and Christmas, and New Year’s Eve and day. Plus UP TO 3 more store specific dates, so don’t let your store tell you that “all of November and December are double points.” As a reminder, ppto works the same on any of these dates: 0 points if the full shift is covered with ppto (8 hours ppto for an 8 hour shift), a half point if at least half of the shift is covered (but not all), and 1 point if no ppto is used, but part of the shift (and less than half) is worked. Only time it matters if it’s a key event date is if you miss the entire shift and don’t cover at least half of it.

Pro tip: need to miss 2 key event dates and only have enough ppto for one shift, but can’t afford 2 points? Put half of the ppto on one shift, half on the other. You end up with 2 half points (1 total) instead of getting 2 points for one shift, for the same amount of ppto. Or show up for 5 minutes and leave.