in our last work retreat--the one where i worked in the kitchen the entire time--our big wig boss decided to roll out a new culture for our division. his new, great idea was to be 'the wolfpack.' the entire idea is to have really effective teamwork, but from the beginning, this was pretty stupid to me because literally the only reason wolves wolfpack is to kill stuff. but whatever.

over time we got wolfpack pencils, bookmarks, posters--everything. but everyone still hates the wolfpack. people make fun of it and some people joke (not so jokingly) that they're getting eaten alive by the wolfpack. so big wig had a meeting with all his upper management last week to say that everyone needs to get on board with the wolfpack and the already overwhelming and ridiculous discussion about the wolfpack is only going to intensify, complete with added meetings and worksheets.

in staff meeting this morning we were talking about it and one employee that isn't usually there raised his hand and said another employee confided in him that he has a really, really hard time with and "hates" the wolfpack. this employee's grandparents lived in germany during WWII. as their grandchild, he learned to hate 'the wolfpack' because his grandfather had constantly fought for his family, for innocent people, and for his life against the germans, who called themselves the 'wolfpack' and used that mentality. my boss's response was--and i shit you not--

"well that's what made the germans so successful."

a few people brought up some other concerns about how inherently violent it is, etc., until my boss finally shut everyone down and said he thought the employees were "intelligent" enough to realize the big whig doesn't intend negative implications to the wolfpack and that we all have to get behind it.

maybe the big wig should have been intelligent enough to have some cultural and linguistic sensitivity.

asses.