hbs+1aURXgZi - I wrote the post that's been quoted here, and your interpretation is laughably short-sighted. Nowhere did I say that veteran team members isolate new hires. Nowhere did I insinuate anything of the sort.
Since your imagination is stronger than your reading comprehension, I'll spell it out for you. Veteran team members are exhausted, frustrated, overwhelmed and overworked. We work in an environment where we're unappreciated and stressed. Those of us who have been foolish enough to stick around are so beat up that we're not even as warm toward team members who we've known for years as we used to be. It should follow that if we're too overwhelmed by abusive leadership, pointless tasks, and a consistent lack of resources to be warm toward our friends, then we'll have even less to give to people we just met. I'm as welcoming as possible to new hires, but in the environment in which I work, I'm not the happy person I was when I started with Whole Foods. It's difficult to be everyone's friend when you have low-level panic attacks every day before work. Remember the kids in school who came from abusive homes? They weren't exactly the most positive people either.
Also, the turnover rate is so high, that it's depressing to make friends with people only to have them leave a few months after starting. I'm really tired of saying goodbye to people I like. Case in point: a new hire of mine just quit after two months. As I always have more to do than time in which to do it, I never had an opportunity to get to know the guy. When I saw him, I had enough time to say hello, and to give him guidance for the day, nothing more. Two days before he walked out in disgust over how rude store leadership was, we had a few minutes to connect, and we realized that we had a great deal in common. It was a real drag to make friends only to have him leave soon thereafter. That gets old, especially when it plays out every two weeks.
My happiness over the departure of new team members is twofold. I'm happy to see anyone leave a bad situation, and I wouldn't wish the conditions in my store on anyone. Perhaps your store is run by people who are in possession of a modicum of empathy, but mine is run by sociopaths. Two, I think that the only way that the clowns who run this circus will see how awful their policies are is by a mass exodus. They haven't listened on morale surveys, tip line calls, or in face to face conversations. Maybe they'll listen this way.
I've never done anything to run off new hires, but I've never lied to them. They deserve my honesty. When they tell me they're thinking of looking for a new job, I encourage them, because like I said, nobody deserves to put up with the abusiveness of my store and much of this company. Unlike the myopic monsters who run this company, I want to see people happy.
I'm an honest person, and I have too much respect even for people I don't know than to lie to them. At this dismal point in the company, I can't, in good conscience, look someone in the eye and tell them that things will get better.
Whole Foods Market created these conditions, and they deserve to face the consequences.