If you think the name is odd, wait ’till you see the t-shirts they had printed up.
Published by Kyso Kisaen March 26th, 2007 in Big BusinessWalMart is handing out bonuses for “Associate Celebration Day.” Ok, cool.
But could someone explain why this sounded good in their collective corporate heads?
Store associates and assistant managers with 20 or more years of service will get an extra week of pay under the new Servant Leadership bonus plan.
Emphasis mine. Please tell me there is some detail that I’m missing. Something that would reassure me that yes, WalMart executives can just do one nice thing for their wage slaves without being backhanded about it.
At least they get better every time they try to reward the proles. Maybe by this time next year they’ll come up with a reward system and completely forget to add the part that causes us to all pause and reflect on what clueless wankers they are.
**Edited to add: In the comments, Auguste points out the detail that I missed. It was not as reassuring as I had hoped for. In fact, if the orgins of the name are the same as those he quotes, then I retract any part of this post that makes it sound like maybe I thought WalMart was finally doing something right. What fuckers.
Servant Leadership? Oh, priceless! talk about a freudian slip
The banishment of the terms “employee” and “customer” from our nation’s commercial discourse is something that’s bugged me for a while. Employees are now “team members” or “associates,” while customers are of course “guests.” I recall an Olive Garden ad that said something to the effect of, “When you’re here, you’re family.” I thought: I don’t recall my grandmother ever presenting me with a bill at the end of a meal.
The motive, it seems pretty clear, is to obscure the commercial nature of the relationship. You’re not here because you have to pay the rent. No! You’re a member of the team! You’re here because you want to be here! That way we can pay you even less.
Which, to finally get to the point, is why the servant leadership concept is so perfect. First they try to pass off the wage slaves as all just members of one big happy family by calling them associates, and then immediately they let the mask slip.
It gets better.
In fact, growing up in Sunday School, we learned some of the concepts behind servant leadership, too, but in my liberal congregation it most assuredly wasn’t being used to justify wage slavery.
I’m no fan of Walmart at all. However, I am familiar with the concept of “Servant Leadership” from a rather interesting source: Alcoholics Anonymous.
My mother was a member of the local chapter, and while I am not familiar with the structure of that group, I do remember them reading something outloud about the leaders being servants to the members of the group.
It’s a concept that’s been lost in politics: Public Servants.
Now it’s all sound and fuzzy warm soporifics, signifying nothing. We have no public servants in office any more.
And WalMart, bless its evil, money-grubbing, community destroying, osified and cancerous heart, is trying to use this concept? It stinks of slave wages and big-box consumerism.