OK I made this observation 'bout a weird ritual (I think it is) @ WalMart

I was there last night (the one where two friends work as a managers) to pick up some produce, blah blah.

Anyway, I was walking down the main isle, and there must have been two dozen employees standing around near the grocery section awaiting their shifts to begin.

By the frowns and looks of despair, you would have thought they were heading off to Iraq.

Maybe it was because it was Monday that they looked especially sad. I don't know.

But a few minutes later, I heard loud (and I mean LOUD) chants coming from that part of the store.

I took a peak, and it appeared they were doing motivational chants or something to get the workers fired up for their shifts????

I'd never seen that before inside a store. It was unbelievable and in a disturbing way.

Once I got back to shopping, I sort of expected to hear a gunshot from one of the employees taking their own life.

I swear, that's all that was going through my head. (Except for "Grapes!! 89 cents a pound!? Holy shiite.")

But seriously, they looked as though they were the saddest people in all of California.

I'm going to have to talk to my friend and get the 4-1-1. He's never told me about the employee rah rah session that they're apparently forced to take part in???

And that chant! I can't put my finger on what made it sound so disturbing. But it had all of the loud, out of sequence yelling/chanting like you might hear during the overthrow of a Central American government.

Lemme please just say that I absolutely do not mean any disrespect to DUers who work there.

I'm just making an observation.

But damn. It was the first thing I thought about when I woke up this morning!!

OMG! You ARE evil!!!!!!!!


(And, they all have to do that chant before every shift and meeting.)

shit for shopping at WalMart.

But I'm not rich like you! ;) hehehehe

The only thing I'm rich in is bridal shower presents. It was like Christmas in July, but better -- because I didn't have to get anyone else presents.

n/t

Super creepy! If my employer demanded that sort of daily reinforcement of go-team-group-think, I'd head for the door.

it is kinda weird, but, hey, if it gets you (supposedly) motivated ....

I felt as though I was intruding on some private rite, as though I'd stumbled into a cult's sanctuary.

I may not have been far from correct, I suppose...

Are you serious?

Chants?

Huh.

No, we have huddles, where they tell us what's going on and get information about how well we're going to be able to finish our areas, but chanting? Uh...no.

But it was definitely an all-together-now recitation of some kind of corporate mantra. I confess that I didn't commit it to memory, in part because it made me so uncomfortable to witness it even from the sidelines.

I don't know what image they're trying to convey, but it seems like something that should really be done in the employees' lounger, rather than front-and-center, where it can convey a weirdly cultish vibe to unsuspecting customers.

I can't imagine anything else they'd recite. We don't. Of course, doing that sort of thing in public WOULDN'T exactly come across as fun and friendly, in my opinion.

I've never heard of such a thing.

Or maybe it was some kind of local "on your own initiative" kind of thing?

Creepy in any case. I'm glad to hear that the kool-aid hasn't circulated through the whole chain.

if they tried, they'd get 0% compliance.

This is some weirdo manager's idea, I'd guess. I've never heard of such a thing.

n/t

It's like communist china.

back in '94. I couldn't take the atmosphere. Those little pep rallys disturbed me.

chanting. It Was Very Weird.

Every morning before our shifts.
I hated it.
Only the managers were happy
because they were making a lot more money than us.

Eventually we all stood together and refused to do the chant.

Since then, at our location, they've never done the chant.

Good riddance.

:spray:

I'm not sure why that line made me laugh so hard!!

recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

Yeah, it's creepy.

;)

I can be accused of in life, then I'll accept the scorn.

I understand the controversy surrounding WalMart, but I personally don't feel I'm superior enough to judge people in that regard.

You're obviously entitled to your opinion

:cry:

when it comes to shopping. Hard to justify driving 50+ miles to shop as a way to "stick it to the Walton family" when gas is over $3/gallon and someone doesn't have a ton of extra cash laying around. Just sayin'...

I'm lucky in that I live in a reasonably good-sized city with multiple options, but not everyone is so fortunate...

a guy (manager?) was standing on a step stool and leading the group in some sort of revival type thing. It was weird and disturbing. I could not look away.....

I've now been working at WalMart for 10 years.

during a promo job i had and only one sam`s club had the rah,rah,rah at the end of their meeting. all the others they just went to work...

The more the managers try anything to keep their employees somewhat motivated. In high school, I worked as a telemarketer one summer, and one manager would insist on going around high-fiving everyone before the shift started while yelling, "Let's do it to it, Mountain Dew, and have fun doing it too!" Needless to say, I didn't last long there with my cynical attitude even though I out-sold everyone in my training group... Probably because I treated the managers like they treated us - like idiots. One of them came up to talk to me during a break in training to give me some advice on what I was doing wrong and just totally talked down to me. Earlier, I had called home to ask my dad to bring me my extra set of keys because I had locked mine in my car, and he was standing in the entrance of the training room waiting until I was free. Anyway, the manager was completely in his patronizing mode because he finished up by saying, "Okay, good talk. Now that's your dad over there, and he's brought you your keys." I know I gave him a weird look, and I said very sarcastically, "Gosh, thanks for pointing out who my dad is. You know, seeing him everyday for the past 16 years makes it hard to recognize him." I was a goner after that. :)

TlalocW

describes life as a Wal-Martian employee in her book, "Nickel and Dimed"...

"According to Wal-Mart expert Bob Ortega, Sam Walton got the idea for the Wal-Mart cheer on a 1975 trip to Japan, where he was deeply impressed by factory workers doing group calisthenics and company cheers."

she wasn't enthusiastic enough. She took the attitude that it was a bunch of bullshit.

the "game."

I could never work at Wal Mart.

During the rah rah session, I'd sneak over to the liquor isle

company songs, pep rallies and stuff were pretty much the norm. Maybe still are.

But, if you're working for Sony you probably feel more like singing than if you work for Wal-Mart.

!!!

...and we ran our own business.
We tried to make sure that everyone got laid before going to work in the morning.
Talk about happy workers!

At my previous programming job, they did the Fish program, which if you don't know what that is... It was started by a fish mongers place in Seattle's Pike Place Market. Everyone there had a great attitude, and they would joke and chant and throw fish back and forth, etc. Anyway, it wasn't uncommon to see a guy from IBM in a suit talking with the guy on the floor in between fish tosses about their employee's attitudes (of course, everyone was happy because it wasn't their turn to be out on the boats catching the fish), and they came up with a stupid corporate philosophy book with four main points - all of them blatantly obvious like "Be there for your customers and co-workers," "Have fun at your job," and two others I can't recall.

Anyway, my friend/cube neighbor, Brian, and I embodied the Fish Program as we were very good workers, and we made our own fun. One day, the dickhead, bully manager that nobody liked and everyone was afraid of except us was running around shooting people with a Nerf gun (no one else had a Nerf gun or had seen the Fish videos yet so he decided he would get in some time shooting people while everyone else was defenseless). We called him down the aisle where we sat to ask what was going on, and he said that he had just watched these videos that everyone else would soon be watching to teach them how to have fun at work. My friend and I looked at each other, and I asked, "You need a video to show you how to have fun?" His smile faded a little as he denied this, and my friend said, "I mean, it's okay if you do - the first step towards a solution is admitting you have a problem." We went back and forth like that for a while, and he stomped off, totally pissed at us. During lunch, we went to Toys R Us where I bought the biggest Nerf gun they had - sucker had 3 chambers, could hold twenty balls, and took four D batteries to run it. That afternoon he came down the aisle again shooting people, and I whipped it out and nailed him about 10 times in a row (he had a one shot Nerf gun). Man, was he pissed, but we had guessed right that he wouldn't be able to do anything to us without making himself look like an even bigger asshole than what most people considered him - after all, I was just getting into the spirit of things.

He never came down our aisle again in all the time I was there. :)

Anyway, they brought in the Fish Program; my friend and I constantly mocked it even while excelling in it, and when we had discussions about it with our managers, I told them that stuff like this will change an office for about a month before we revert back to our normal selves. Everything - even keeping a cheery positive attitude - becomes a chore when it's shoved in your face everyday as part of some corporate experiment. If you want to motivate people, you don't do it by decorating the office in a, "Under the Sea," theme and by giving employees squeaky toys in the shape of fish. You give them monetary bonuses and time off when they do something good for the company. The managers didn't care to hear that.

TlalocW

:hi:

I eventually found work at a small company that uses the same programming languages I used there, and where we can kid around with each other, etc. When he called my references, one of them was my former co-worker, Brian, that I mentioned above, and when asked to give a description of me, he said, "He doesn't have a lot of patience for the latest management fad like the Fish program." That helped get me the job. :)

TlalocW

:rofl:

Everyone watched it and promptly forgot it. That was as rah-rah as Target got when I worked there.

There's a Starbucks that shares space with a local Target across the plaza from the office I work in and I pop in from time to time for coffee. Not long ago I walked in right as they opened and most of the "team" was gathered around the check-out stands doing light stretching exercises and jumping jacks and stuff.

Personally, that stuff is very de-motivating for me. Just an annoyance disguised as "team building." I swear this is what some HR departments sit around coming up with.

:wow:

and give walmart its unique corporate culture.

pity people still shop there.

ten bucks worth of produce now and then where my friends work, why the WalMart empire would collapse tomorrow, ha?

I'll say it again. "Interesting" how a few people judge what others do to help manage expenses.

Just doesn't sound very progressive.

Now that's the pity.

i said its a pity that people shop there, either by choice or circumstance. i assume most peopel shop at walmart because of financial constraints, not because they are delighted by the shopping experience.

"Nickeled and Dimed in America: On (Not) Getting By in America" by Barbara Ehrenreich (sp?)details it. If you haven't read it... it's great and extremely sad and sobering.

Amazon.com's Best of 2001
Essayist and cultural critic Barbara Ehrenreich has always specialized in turning received wisdom on its head with intelligence, clarity, and verve. With some 12 million women being pushed into the labor market by welfare reform, she decided to do some good old-fashioned journalism and find out just how they were going to survive on the wages of the unskilled--at $6 to $7 an hour, only half of what is considered a living wage. So she did what millions of Americans do, she looked for a job and a place to live, worked that job, and tried to make ends meet.

As a waitress in Florida, where her name is suddenly transposed to "girl," trailer trash becomes a demographic category to aspire to with rent at $675 per month. In Maine, where she ends up working as both a cleaning woman and a nursing home assistant, she must first fill out endless pre-employment tests with trick questions such as "Some people work better when they're a little bit high." In Minnesota, she works at Wal-Mart under the repressive surveillance of men and women whose job it is to monitor her behavior for signs of sloth, theft, drug abuse, or worse. She even gets to experience the humiliation of the urine test.

So, do the poor have survival strategies unknown to the middle class? And did Ehrenreich feel the "bracing psychological effects of getting out of the house, as promised by the wonks who brought us welfare reform?" Nah. Even in her best-case scenario, with all the advantages of education, health, a car, and money for first month's rent, she has to work two jobs, seven days a week, and still almost winds up in a shelter. As Ehrenreich points out with her potent combination of humor and outrage, the laws of supply and demand have been reversed. Rental prices skyrocket, but wages never rise. Rather, jobs are so cheap as measured by the pay that workers are encouraged to take as many as they can. Behind those trademark Wal-Mart vests, it turns out, are the borderline homeless. With her characteristic wry wit and her unabashedly liberal bent, Ehrenreich brings the invisible poor out of hiding and, in the process, the world they inhabit--where civil liberties are often ignored and hard work fails to live up to its reputation as the ticket out of poverty. --Lesley Reed --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

http://www.amazon.com/Nickel-Dimed-Not-Getting-America/dp/0805063897

BUT they usually do it in the break room. "YES I CAN, WE CAN DO IT" I know know if all stores do it, but I have never heard out in the open.

sex on their break?

=)

that many times at WalMart. In the past I have walked into the middle of that ra, ra, secession and in a very loud voice told the manager or whatever he was leading the group: GIVE THEM ALL A RAISE, THEN THEY WILL REALLY HAVE SOMETHING TO CHEER ABOUT! The reaction I have gotten was funny, the manager stood there :wow: not knowing what to say, than I would smile and walk off.

I work there, and they also let me sleep behind a dumpster out back.

DUers who works there and what they were doing was yes a motivational "exercise" but NO not mandatory, or it could have been a meeting we have about once a week or so to let everyone working in the store know what's going on in other departments, new products etc. also NOT mandatory. I really do not see where this is such a bad thing, helps for better communication between departments and employees. Ever stop an employee and ask about a product and they look at you like you're from outer space? well this is suppose to help every employee know the store a little better.I don't want to sound like a wal-martian or any thing but I do believe in being fair.
:toast:

I don't believe it!

There's nothing wrong with motivational exercises and trying to create a pumped up and positive atmosphere prior to dealing with the public. Many places do this and it shows an emphasis on desiring good customer service. Sure, some may feel silly doing it, but it does get the energy up and start things off on a positive note. Glad to hear you factually say that it isn't mandatory too.

employees, frankly.

It was like they were at the zoo and all of the customers were watching them.

Does Walmart think customers are going to exclaim "Oh, look how motivated the workers are, I'm going to come back!?"

I give a crap about the prices.....not whether Bob has a smile on his face while he's puting razor blades on the shelf.

I just think the motivation exercises should take place in the back room.

besides if you don't want to see it walk away. I never feel embarrassed for something someone else is doing, they are the ones doing it not me, why should I be embarrassed?
I also feel at least they make an effort to let me ask questions and be heard.

respect, it's misguided irritation if you indeed are.

I support your decision to work at Walmart.

And, I shop at the Walmart grocery store, even though it's an extremely bad thing for a DUer to admit.

Fortunately, I'm blessed with the self esteem that allows me to be honest and not care too much whether others disapprove of my shopping decisions.

What I don't understand is why you have a problem with me caring about the welfare of an employee who might feel humiliated "performing" chants in front of strangers.

And by the wat, I can't "walk away" if I walk unknowingly into the situation, which is what happened. Right?

blanket every thing wal-mart does as bad just because it's wal-mart. Seems to me the repukes did this to the Clintons,it's kinda like a lemming thing to do. Also if they feel humiliated they are not compelled to do these "cheers" not chants. I don't do them I think they're goofy, (I don't go to to many of the meetings either)then again I think cheerleaders are complete idiots too.

edited because I can't spell

people shop. I mean, who am I?

Obviously I was there, and as I mentioned, two of my friends work at the store I was at as managers.

And they have nothing but great things to say about the place, so I dunno.

I just assumed it was one of those "oh you don't have to participate, but don't expect to advance within the company if you don't want to be a team player" kinda situation.

But now I learn it's not mandatory.

It just seemed like there were a ton of people from the grocery section gathered to take part in the motivational exercise for it to be voluntary. I'm not sure what I'd get out of it if I worked there.

Of course, I say provide better wages/health insurance and the motivational exercise would be a mute point!! ;)

"claim to fame" so to speak was that it was a union shop (I am VERY pro union BTW), at that job I made $2 less an hour (same exact job) and was IMO cheated out of 2 raises. The union said there was nothing they could do, I showed them in the contract what they could do and they "didn't want to make waves in a contract year" :shrug: So tell me now how wal-mart is worse for me than these other guys.

because I wouldn't know. :)

The rest of what you described is good business practice, to keep employees informed and to give them a chance to ask the managers questions.

In your opinion, would you say that, if given a chance to vote on it, the employees in your store would rate the motivational cheering as more or less important than the rest of the meeting?

Would you guess that your fellow employees would feel more or less motivated if instead of cheering exercises they were given free breakfast or lunch at that meeting?

The reason I ask is that I've had to endure team-building meetings with cutesy motivational exercises and the overwhelming reaction of my co-workers was "please let me get through this without saying something that will get me fired." On the other hand, the same employees were more motivated if the meetings held a promise of free food.

to the individual, also at times there are free food or potlucks or other "give aways."

I worked for Best Buy, and they did the same thing every morning. A manager would go over the previous days sales figures, and then someone would do a pro-Best Buy chant. The split between people liking and hating it was about 50/50.

But it more for the customer's benefit. "See..we're a happy cohesive group".

Now, don't tell me Lowe's does it, too!!1

It's supposed to be the COMPANY CHEER and get the employees motivated to sell, sell, sell! It usually works for the first day or two that an employee works there, then it's just another mandatory part of the day.

...right after I left, thank God. You're right, it's incredibly creepy. A clueless "tool" to "reduce turnover" by the caliber of management that a Big-Box store attracts.

/no offense to store-manager DUers, I'm sure you are decent

Never saw them doing it for shift changes too, but I'm not surprised.

I'd always stand towards the back and not participate, because I thought it was beyond stupid.

I've worked a fair bit of retail in my life, and Walmart was hands-down the worst job I ever had.

The manager would give us a motivational speech, and then tell us where our successes and failures were from the day before (I couldn't give a shit about either). Then he would open the floor for suggestions from the "associates" which usually consisted of the bitchy customer service lady telling us to pick up our returns faster. Then, after all that shit was finished, we would sing our store song and chant our store chant.

I went through it a few times then I just started hiding out in the bathroom instead of showing up.

It's a cheap corporate ploy to try to get employees motivated and in line without actually giving them anything to be motivated about.