A quiet sadness around the office
Definitely a heavy week at fresh & easy. Lots of change, lots of tears, lots of conflicting emotions. The past few weeks we have been preparing for Spirit Week to celebrate the Olympics with fun games, contests, and dressing up. Its set to begin for July 30-Aug 3. Some say the timing is inappropriate while others think this will help boost energy. One department is even refusing to participate because of the recent changes in the company. I will say, though, that fresh & easy does lay off’s discretely with respect. As people heard the news on Tuesday evening or Wednesday morning, they were able to quietly leave the building without making it obvious that they are leaving for good. Each person that is no longer with us was given an advocate, a mentor basically, has made themselves available to offer support during the next few weeks as they adjust to the new transition. Their advocate, who is someone from HR, are the ones that packed up their desk and was able to meet with them outside of business hours or even on the weekend for the exchange. It helps to keep dignity. There is nothing worse than placing your belongings in a box while everyone around watches and whispers. We try to remember that this is just a part of business, but it still doesn’t prepare you for when you walk through the hallways and see cleared, empty desks where your friends used to sit.
The other hard part is trying to stay away from what the media is saying about us. If you were to check out our company in Google News, there is already a handful of articles being writen and of course, they are portraying things in the wrong light. People always say there is no such thing as bad publicity, but when they are saying that we're set to shut down business when that is far from true, it can't be a good thing for the customers to read about. But then again, headlines along the lines of, "fresh & easy cuts 50 at SoCal head quarters," is going to be hard to recover from. I'm curious to see how everything plays out in the future.