About a month ago the company I work for changed their name (more like simplified their name) and introduced a new logo. At the big Town Hall meeting where they unveiled the new logo they gave all the attendees some branded merchandise. Cool, right?
The problem is that it was (and you can't make this up) old leftover merchandise with the old logos!
Here was a golden opportunity to give all their employees a bunch of t-shirts, sweatshirts, and hoodies with the new logo that they would wear out in public (i.e., free advertising) and promote the new corporate brand and image.
But they blew it. Utterly and completely blew it.
What's worse is the demoralization effect on the employees. I don't feel like a valued employee by receiving that stuff -- I feel like I'm one step above the garbage dumpster out back. I would have been much happier if the company would have donated that stuff to local charities and then given out nothing.
2 comments:
Um, not for nothin but you are sounding whiny here. It is free stuff. I wish they had shipped it to me, I am sure I could find something to do with it.
As far as management snafus, it is not as bad as the recent mail management sent encouraging us to use up our vacation time on their schedule and making it sound like they are doing us a favor... Damn near vulgar. I wonder what I did to "deserve" being able to do them that favor...
Mail duplicated below (with names omitted):
-----
subject: Well Deserved
sent: Mon 12/18/2006 10:24 AM
Colleagues,
We realize how much effort and dedication you put in getting {company name omitted} Product Development back on the map. We also realize that this journey is not over yet.
Therefore we like to encourage each and everybody of you to start your well deserved holiday rest already this Friday (12/22/06). So if you don't have any "life threatening" duties left please feel more than welcome to take (at least) five days holiday vacation - starting on Friday this week and not coming back before New Year please ;-).
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Regards,
{name omitted}
P.S. Of course we expect you back with refreshed batteries to continue our long march. ;-)
-----
practical upshot, 'we want you to burn through your vacation days on short notice because you deserve it.' I wonder if I deserve a good beating too.
I think Rick's post is indicative of a deeper problem at his company: A lack of generally positive employee morale.
If morale was generally positive, he would have walked away with the attitude, "Cool, free stuff. Thanks!" But instead, morale is probably not generally positive at his company, so he walked away with the attitude, "This isn't the company doing us a favor, this is the company getting rid of some inventory with the old company name and logo. Gee, thanks a lot."
Also, a lot depends on how his company tried to spin the giving away of "deprecated" stuff. He didn't share that information, so it's hard to say whether they deserve to be dinged for it or not.
So while I agree that you shouldn't necessarily look a gift horse in the mouth, I also think there's an underlying point which stands: Employee morale is low, and management at most companies is too clueless to know how to keep their employees happy.
Post a Comment