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Antiwork

How did work positivity become so miserable?

I don’t know if this belongs here, but I’ll put it out there. I went shopping at Walmart today, and I was doing like a big grocery run where I didn’t plan on going back for at least a couple weeks. I like to go shopping early in the morning (8-9ish) to avoid the crowds because mild social anxiety. Anyway, I finish up around 9:30-ish with a cart packed full of groceries. Normally, I go the self-checkout route (again, social anxiety), but the amount of items said otherwise. So, I make my way to the regular checkout. I was a little taken aback when there was nobody there. Finally, I got to the middle of the front checkout area and saw all the employees lined up in a circle. One lady (I assume the manager or director or something similar) was leading them in what looked like a children’s game,…


I don’t know if this belongs here, but I’ll put it out there.

I went shopping at Walmart today, and I was doing like a big grocery run where I didn’t plan on going back for at least a couple weeks. I like to go shopping early in the morning (8-9ish) to avoid the crowds because mild social anxiety. Anyway, I finish up around 9:30-ish with a cart packed full of groceries. Normally, I go the self-checkout route (again, social anxiety), but the amount of items said otherwise. So, I make my way to the regular checkout.

I was a little taken aback when there was nobody there. Finally, I got to the middle of the front checkout area and saw all the employees lined up in a circle. One lady (I assume the manager or director or something similar) was leading them in what looked like a children’s game, making them clap and jump and dance; they couldn’t have looked more miserable if they tried.

To be clear: I don’t blame the retail workers AT ALL. Having worked customer service myself, I sympathize with them and how difficult their job is. My problem is this: why did the manager think making them play some silly game, making them jump and dance like training caged animals, would be enough to get their spirits up when they clearly could not be more bothered to be there? It all looked so miserable and just got me thinking about toxic positivity in the workplace.

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