Huddles

Once a year my company decides we all need a customer service refresher and sets up required customer service training classes. We all try to contain our excitement at the prospect of spending half a day in front of some impossibly perky person telling us we just aren’t good enough. But this year, management just really out did themselves by coming up with a brand new exciting daily requirement. The Huddle. There are numerous reasons why the huddle offends me – but first an explanation of what the huddle consists of. Every single morning at 8:00am the office separates into groups of no more than 10 people who then stand in a circle and discuss the finer points of customer service. Corporate management very helpfully sends out a company wide email each week with the daily huddle topics. “I greet clients by…” “I promote our company by…” Just a little sampling of what exciting topics await me every morning. We are a fortune 500 company. Thousands of people are now every morning getting a great big warm fuzzy from their coworkers. Warm and fuzzy. My email inbox is flooding with emails telling us to go check out the Huddle dedicated website to see the great feedback from employees. Are we seriously so desperate to connect with people that people enjoy this? I’m dreading the day my manager arrives back from her current sick leave and implements the daily huddle. If I have to huddle I had damn well better be the star quarterback for the 49ers and I had damn well better be dreaming.