Yeah I wish I could tell you I was lying when I tell you I just experienced the most patronizing experience of my entire life.
We had a team member day, in the middle of our work day. For reference, I work at a country club so there is constant moving and attending to members, etc. Weren't working that day? Sucks for you, no appreciation day.
We had it in the ballroom and my God, it was about as bad and also cringey as you might think. Two small foldable tables with water bottles we already get, a 12 pack of Diet Coke (There are over 140 employees that all work here.) A couple packs of cookies and what seemed like leftovers of Pasta from the night before. (It was confirmed to be leftovers from the night before. Had a big banquet.) This was all able to feed roughly 10 people at the most.
They also set up a massaging area. They hired a third party massaging company and you had the chance to get a 5 minute massage. Anything more than 5 minutes was going to cost you $25 at your own expense. Then there was a game of Corn Hole, which no one played because it's the loudest yard game to play inside while you're trying to get a peaceful massage right next to it.
I'm usually against these patronizing events for obvious reasons, but I won't turn down free desserts of any kind. When I went up to grab a cookie or two, the events coordinator who hosted this event got our GM (who we never have any contact with.) And got everyone who was in the room, maybe about 6 people, and made us stand in a circle and say three nice things about him. It was super awkward, annoying, cringey and the most degrading fucking thing I've ever have to done.
I don't hate our GM. He seems like a nice guy, has done a bit for us in the past, but I and many others don't interact with him because there is simply no need to. But of course, like a damn thanksgiving dinner we went ahead and started naming three things we liked about him. Of course, you get the obvious, “We really appreciate what you've done for this country club and company, we're glad you're the boss here…” And then the rest of the circle proceeded to just verbatim that exact phrase with a few half ass compliments.
Please keep in mind that this entire “event” was only setup for 2 hours, so If you got in after the fact or were too busy, you missed your whole free cookie, soda and massage…Along with a game of cornhole no one touched. Fuck that bitch who organized it and fuck this job sometimes man.
Please tell me I'm not the only one who has had to go through something like this. I need to hear others stories.