29 ms·

> To end the meeting, Michael Cole, 66, a maintenance worker, leads the group in the Walmart Cheer, a chant workers throughout the company do to start and end m

> To end the meeting, Michael Cole, 66, a maintenance worker, leads the group in the Walmart Cheer, a chant workers throughout the company do to start and end meetings. This can’t be real.

mech422 3y ago
ross perot - EDS and I think IBM did the same...
kevstev 3y ago
oh bud I worked in e-commerce for Walmart Labs and we did the cheer at every large meeting (think townhall, not every stand up). Give me a squiggly!
tombert 3y ago
The chant is absolutely real. I don’t know how frequently they do it in retail, but it was pretty infrequent in the software engineer positions. Source: I was a software engineer for Jet.com for two years after the Walmart acquisition, and then another year separately.
- mech422 3y ago
  Ross Perot/EDS and I think IBM used to do the cheers.. EDS would also interview you wife (if you had one) to make sure she fit in with the EDS family.
- zhivota 3y ago
  Wait, so you're saying you had to do a chant as a SWE? That's wild. I'm really glad I never took up the recruiters for Walmart Labs now, that would have been a disaster for me.
  - sib 3y ago
    For those groups, typically at things like quarterly all-hands, etc. Not on a daily basis as they do in the retail side.
  - tombert 3y ago
    It wasn’t super common, only like all hands stuff, and it’s not like they would fire you if you didn’t do it. I didn’t do the chant every time and I wasn’t fired.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
troad 3y ago
It's a very effective manipulation technique - get the person to commit slightly past their comfort zone. For instance, the Nxivm corporate training scam / sex cult [0] operated this way. At your very first meeting they'd ask you to wear a coloured sash and bow to the seminar giver. "It's just like judo!," you'd be told. "We're bringing a bit of fun to corporate training! Don't be such a grouch!" But of course the function was to (a) make you say yes once, which means you're now slightly committed, (b) make you look slightly ridiculous, which naturally makes you defensive and feel closer to your fellow ridiculous people (the ones in sashes), (c) make you give up a bit of your 'face', to make you more vulnerable and open, (d) weed out people strong enough to say no. And once you're sitting in a sash, letting your guard down, comes the next thing. And the next thing. And the next thing. And after a thousand and one little pushes, you're so committed that you know you look absolutely insane from the outside, and it feels like the only future you have is within the organisation. You've committed so hard, bit by bit, that you no longer see a way out. And that's how you wind up with people getting branded for their slave master. [1] Now I'm not saying Walmart brands women (though I'm not saying they don't - I have no evidence either way!), but it's worth noting that the only purpose of a tool like a 'corporate cheer' is to short-circuit your rationality and force an emotional commitment and loyalty that the business has no right to, and is unlikely to get from a purely rational employee. It's not just a fun little thing that may be inadvertently somewhat manipulative, it's a textbook manipulation technique. So my 2c for anyone being asked to give a corporate cheer is to politely say no, and then think very hard about what kind of employer uses manipulation techniques to ensure obedience. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NXIVM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NXIVM [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/17/nyregion/nxivm-women-branded-albany.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/17/nyregion/nxivm-women-bran... (https://archive.is/Wv4Qc https://archive.is/Wv4Qc)
thebrain 3y ago
It most certainly is. I worked at Wal-Mart in Canada for seven years when I was younger and during the summer, when I worked more hours, I would see the department managers and the upper level store managers do it every morning during the week. Wal-mart really pushes the idea of winning. Everything is about being the best at generating profit and beating the local competition into submission. The location I worked at completely destroyed a Zellers, Eatons, Bi-Way and possibly others that I'm forgetting. I worked in the electronics department and my manager had the discretion to price big new movie releases below the competition (he would actually check out the competition himself). We had a line that snaked through the entire store for days when Titanic came out since we had the best price for a large radius. Having the best price on an item would be something that would be mentioned during the morning meeting and would be something everyone in attendance would get excited about.
- sandspar 3y ago
  It's always interesting that people will wait in line for an hour to save $2.
pizzafeelsright 3y ago
Word usage is mirrored by the hierarchy. Whoever can introduce a word into a group is a leader. A chant is a formula and intentional. To do so requires authority. Giving a nickname and having it stick requires respect and shows who is the leader in practical terms.

> To end the meeting, Michael Cole, 66, a maintenance worker, leads the group in the Walmart Cheer, a chant workers throughout the company do to start and end meetings. This can’t be real.

mech422 3y ago

ross perot - EDS and I think IBM did the same...

kevstev 3y ago

oh bud I worked in e-commerce for Walmart Labs and we did the cheer at every large meeting (think townhall, not every stand up). Give me a squiggly!

tombert 3y ago

The chant is absolutely real. I don’t know how frequently they do it in retail, but it was pretty infrequent in the software engineer positions. Source: I was a software engineer for Jet.com for two years after the Walmart acquisition, and then another year separately.

mech422 3y ago
Ross Perot/EDS and I think IBM used to do the cheers.. EDS would also interview you wife (if you had one) to make sure she fit in with the EDS family.
zhivota 3y ago
Wait, so you're saying you had to do a chant as a SWE? That's wild. I'm really glad I never took up the recruiters for Walmart Labs now, that would have been a disaster for me.
- sib 3y ago
  For those groups, typically at things like quarterly all-hands, etc. Not on a daily basis as they do in the retail side.
- tombert 3y ago
  It wasn’t super common, only like all hands stuff, and it’s not like they would fire you if you didn’t do it. I didn’t do the chant every time and I wasn’t fired.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

troad 3y ago

It's a very effective manipulation technique - get the person to commit slightly past their comfort zone. For instance, the Nxivm corporate training scam / sex cult [0] operated this way. At your very first meeting they'd ask you to wear a coloured sash and bow to the seminar giver. "It's just like judo!," you'd be told. "We're bringing a bit of fun to corporate training! Don't be such a grouch!" But of course the function was to (a) make you say yes once, which means you're now slightly committed, (b) make you look slightly ridiculous, which naturally makes you defensive and feel closer to your fellow ridiculous people (the ones in sashes), (c) make you give up a bit of your 'face', to make you more vulnerable and open, (d) weed out people strong enough to say no. And once you're sitting in a sash, letting your guard down, comes the next thing. And the next thing. And the next thing. And after a thousand and one little pushes, you're so committed that you know you look absolutely insane from the outside, and it feels like the only future you have is within the organisation. You've committed so hard, bit by bit, that you no longer see a way out. And that's how you wind up with people getting branded for their slave master. [1] Now I'm not saying Walmart brands women (though I'm not saying they don't - I have no evidence either way!), but it's worth noting that the only purpose of a tool like a 'corporate cheer' is to short-circuit your rationality and force an emotional commitment and loyalty that the business has no right to, and is unlikely to get from a purely rational employee. It's not just a fun little thing that may be inadvertently somewhat manipulative, it's a textbook manipulation technique. So my 2c for anyone being asked to give a corporate cheer is to politely say no, and then think very hard about what kind of employer uses manipulation techniques to ensure obedience. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NXIVM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NXIVM [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/17/nyregion/nxivm-women-branded-albany.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/17/nyregion/nxivm-women-bran... (https://archive.is/Wv4Qc https://archive.is/Wv4Qc)

thebrain 3y ago

It most certainly is. I worked at Wal-Mart in Canada for seven years when I was younger and during the summer, when I worked more hours, I would see the department managers and the upper level store managers do it every morning during the week. Wal-mart really pushes the idea of winning. Everything is about being the best at generating profit and beating the local competition into submission. The location I worked at completely destroyed a Zellers, Eatons, Bi-Way and possibly others that I'm forgetting. I worked in the electronics department and my manager had the discretion to price big new movie releases below the competition (he would actually check out the competition himself). We had a line that snaked through the entire store for days when Titanic came out since we had the best price for a large radius. Having the best price on an item would be something that would be mentioned during the morning meeting and would be something everyone in attendance would get excited about.

sandspar 3y ago
It's always interesting that people will wait in line for an hour to save $2.

pizzafeelsright 3y ago

Word usage is mirrored by the hierarchy. Whoever can introduce a word into a group is a leader. A chant is a formula and intentional. To do so requires authority. Giving a nickname and having it stick requires respect and shows who is the leader in practical terms.