dear john,
i am a former employee of whole foods market (wfm), and i want to get something off my chest. this is not animus. nor is there any kind of vendentta, though i am convinced that i was treated abhorently. i am currently working for sprouts, an also-ran in your circles. i work extremely hard, as i always did for wfm. i was an employee at plano wfm for several years. when i was there, yianni, the store team leader spoke glowingly of you, telling us that you gave yourself a $1 salary for a year. he almost teared up from talking about it.
now... "no vendentta? no animosity? then why contact the president of my former employer? you may ask. you're doing fine. you like your job better than the one at wfm. you're in vitamins, and they love you there." there is no ill will or mean spirit in it, but i would like to relate to you how i was treated poorly at plano wfm. when i worked in produce in 2007, i was battered by a team member, a. when we were taking out the trash, he smashed me against the wall, squeezing me between the wall and the trash can, twice. my arm was sore for several days afterward. this alegation is documented. no one ever questioned it, and no one ever denied it. he was told by my team leader, b to apologize, or he would be fired. in the process of my conversation, i told billy that there were other ways that i felt al was harrassing me and singling me out. he said "oh, yeah. that's because i told him to be the biggest asshole he could be. y told me that the guys were too buddy-buddy, and it was hurting productivity." i was flabbergasted, but when someone says something so bald-faced insulting and degrading like that to you, and he's your boss! there is nothing reasonable one can say. when all this occurred, within about a 24 hour period, i was not a voted-on team member. so, i was afraid to address the issue in the first place. but i told an associate store team leader, becka. she advised billy, the produce team leader, and the team member was told to appologise. his apology was "i still don't think i did anything wrong, but i have to apologize, or i'll be fired." maybe this seems like ancient history, but i suppose we could say the same thing about the foundation of this country or the birth of wfm, of the first constructive use of fire. it may be ancient history, but it matters because it determines the future. in this case it now amounts to a blog... why i should hate whole foods.
several months or years (apologies, recollection fails). this team member, a, moved in front of me, apparently not noticing me at all and places a cart in my path. i say "thanks, al." and push the cart in, along with the one i was pushing, (pushing carts as usual, because no one else wants to!). whether or not is was too loud by his judgement is irrelevant. it does not excuse his behavior to follow, which was to threaten me. he got up in my face and he pointed between my eyes. he said, "you'd better watch how you talk to me." given his past behavior, and for reasons i will not divulge about how he felt about me personally, the message was clear.
after that event, which i reported to my team leader and to the associate store team leader at the time, whose name escapes me, (but this is documented, i hope) the issue sat for five days before anything was done. jb just said "stay away from him. don't say anything to him, unless you have to for work"... unless i have to for work?! what if i have to for work?! the lack of understanding was so clear to me. nothing significant was done, though i could have had him arrested, or filed a restraining order! and i should have been encouraged to complain about billy, at the time when i told becka and yianni about what he said, and his plan to keep a team together! the man who wanted al to be an asshole to me. how is this wfm?! am i dreaming, or has the w(fm)orld been turned upside down?! this is not what i was told to expect on day one!
i am telling you this, but i am leaving out another incident, for which i was remanded to silence, though there was nothing i did wrong, and everyone agreed that i had done nothing wrong, i was threatened with termination for speaking of the incident. i signed away my right to free speech, when i had done nothing wrong! i was treated as guilty merely because i had been accused. not even accused, just gossipped about! a female team member gossips about me making some kind of innuendo about smudging. a third team member, a friend had overheard the female team member talking of me and saying that she was going to my house "to smudge," with the innuendo, which i had no intention to convey. my friend went to management to tell them that she had been saying this patently absurd thing. i was and am married, and my wife was going to be there! when yianni talked to me about it, although there was no complaint, he told me there was. i knew there was no complaint, but i kept the secret for my friend who was afraid for his job, because they had told him not to tell me about the incident, though it was my virtue what was castagated. the secrecy, back-stabbing and double dealing smacks of espionage and subterfuge! oh, please, say it ain't so! my beloved wfm is not only no better than any of the others, it's worse than i could imagine! i was the victim, and he treated me like an enemy combatant! i'm on your side. let's snuff this kind of team member character assination out. i don't deserve it, and it should be clear to any reasonably objective observer that i don't deserve it... but no. in the words of hamlet, speaking of his mother who married her husband's murderer, "o, what a falling-off was there." shame.
anyway, there is much more i could tell you. there is a lengthy complaint lodged with corporate about the whole sordid mess, along with my reprimands, admonishments, rewards, acknowledgements, thanks and congratulations. in light of all this, and the truth i shared, at my own risk, my complaint was considered "grandios," by the investigator. i have a master's degree in psychology. i know what grandios means. in case you don't go to the link, let me tell you what that means according to merriam webster's online dictionary: characterized by affectation of grandeur or splendor or by absurd exaggeration. it gave me precious little confidence, especially given wfm's history of inaction, ineptness or maliciousness, in my case. the only excuse i heard from jeff kirby was "there are different people here now." denial. face it, jeff. there is a culture, like wine or beer with yeast, cheese, yogurt or kumbucha. but this wfm culture kinda stinks! frankly, i don't want it near me, much less in me. oh, but the insurance, the bragging rights. like america, you're the best!
i know all about the postive accolades and appraisals your corporate magazines publish for you. fortune 500! big man john mackey. he's made it now! and yet, i know the appreciation i sometimes felt. i know the appreciation for having bragging rights and the formost health plan coverage i could ever ask for. i know the appreciation that john mackey could at least insist on some things. to spend the money. to foster a great employee, a team member. i know the appreciation for what it means to change someone's day with a simple exchange that takes a couple of seconds. i know i make or break the wfm experience.
what about my wfm experience?! does it count for nothing in your precious corporate ledger?! i suppose you think it means nothing to your back pocket, either. or does it come up in your stakeholder's rigid rule books of do-do's and don't do's? which leave no detail uncovered and nothing to personal judgement. "sorry, my hands are tied," they say. is that wf(ucking)m!? forgive the profanity. at least it's real. for me, anyway. i know it is unprofessional and impolite, but i use it at my discretion. please do not be (overly) offended. you probably really hate when people make names up for wfm, like i did, especially given that wfm goes to so much trouble to be on brand. well, maintain appearances. names like... ass(w)hole foods or whore foods market. i am no longer your employee. so, i indulge myself. and i believe you can detect why i would choose to give you an out, to say "i don't need to take him seriously. he's using profanity, and he offended me." consider my offendedness, and please take that into account. now, my anger is satisfied. hint: perhaps i don't want anything from you, at all. this will only give you cause to take action against me. oh, well. maybe it should all come out! call your corporate gremlins out on me if you will.
be that as it may, do you think you can take wfm to wallstreet and give organic the corporate seal of approval?! those slick swindlers can certainly out think any man that believes in purity. but washington d.c. listens to you. and you do have your opinions about responsibility and politics, don't you? you try your hand at social media, and it gets burned. stocks go down and up. you're doing fine. if only i could afford to take $1 in salary for a year, especially while your employees are struggling and don't get the rasis they're accustomed to. if you think you have not sold the wfm experience i loved to an ersatz impostor that sits beside you and tells you what he wants you want to hear, and not what he doesn't want you to know, that dissembles in your face, at dear cost to your values and beliefs, i respectfully disagree. it may dance and dress itself up as self-interest. or it may glitter to you. but to me, it was real when kids could have tattoos and piercings showing at wfm, maybe with a little bit of real rudeness thrown in, no coddling, one place where people could be themselves, and because they were wise to the alternatives, they appreciated and celebrated the differences. how american? in the best way. how cosmopolitan? in the cosmic way, a citizen of the cosmos. and things were real at wfm then. they were what they presented themselves as, like the organic fruit! without the invisible, toxic runoff. i submit that there is indeed an invisible, toxic runoff. it is your beloved capitalism, and it will have its way with your precious honesty and purity. i fear, and judging from my experience, it may already have.
i am the loyal opposition. if wfm is the entity it promised me it was, then clearly i am something you should be thankful for. i am precisely the kind of person you should have at wfm, but i am not even allowed into the store. for reasons i believe to be exaggerated and blown out of proportion. ironic, don't you think, given the battery and assault to my personality dealt to me by wfm. but i suppose that's just yet another one. come to expect it from whole foods. sir, if you take the approach i was taught to take, you will thank me for pointing this out and ask me what you can do to make my experience better.
come on, john! come through for wfm! convince me i should still love it! (which i still do, though it may be time to change that).
appono astos
there is only one revolution,
and it's revolving now.
occupy everything!
