Quote:
Originally Posted by bitontheslide
it's a very interesting article. I've worked at companies with elements of that culture, but not to that extent. It was never my cup of tea  |
Some of the big box/brand-centric retailers were like this in the US during the 20XX and it's become more of a thing now with the even lower wage companies. I remember having to do a lot of jumping jacks, memorizing tons of acronyms and phrases, etc for Best Buy when I worked there during my 20's.
The worst practice they had imo was memorizing core customer personalities and their associated nicknames, etc. Basically, it was classist/racist/profiling. We had to write paperwork after some of the transactions sometimes to put each customer into one of those core profiles. Put down how many items they bought, whether we added accessories and credit card signups, etc. It just seemed really invasive. We were meant to know what core demographic they fit in with as soon as they walked in the door.
Other parts was very gung-ho. Though I have to admit, playing dodge ball in the morning with morning staff and if it happened to break or smash a PC monitors... oh well, we can write it off. (Surprisingly nothing ever got broken). But, if we weren't happy about something or our compensation/hours, we weren't being a "team player". I always saw it as a scheme to use peer pressure to get people to do more work for low wages. I remember having health problems at one point and then one of my coworkers said to another coworker that I was not a "good fit" for the company, that I did not deserve to work there. I enjoyed it at that age, because it was very busy and I could goof off for the most part with coworkers and other customers. The micromanagement was surprisingly low too (key for me I've learned)... it didn't feel like I was chained to a register like at other jobs.
At least with Netflix, they're paid fairly it seems, bit?
But I think that is asking too much of someone who is family-first through and through, to be this indoctrinated about their employment. I imagine a spouse would find that really annoying after a while if their SO came home talking like they just left a Borg facility... though the compensation is probably be very nice.
Also how can someone blow off steam for just regular everyday annoying things, when it can be used against that person in a "Keeper" ceremony later... mmm, passive aggressive.