Thousands of us service providers were let go today! Our severance? Lifetime free WW membership. Big woop.
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I hope this is the end of WW (Weight Watchers). When they changed their name, I knew it was over. This organization is an old ladies click. If you are a young person, under 50, which I am 43, or don't act like them, those old ladies make you feel like you are c-ap. All those WW meetings were about was for lonely old ladies to talk about how they loved food, their families that were getting sicker and how much weight gained that week. There was no growth for change. And if you talk about change and you did lose weight, you were shunned! And as for those virtual meetings it is worse! Those old ladies now bring their husbands, who don't want to be there in the first place! There aren't many young people on those virtual meetings either. Same old ladies, but this time when these old ladies start to breathe heavy or move you have to see them. Can't wait for this organization to go to grave like their founder Jean!! Eventually, it will because these old ladies will die and then the company will no longer survive. Kate Hudson, can't save it. Sorry to tell you, women don't like celebrities at WW. And Oprah can't save it either! RIP WW!
I read the comment below and went and listened to the Podcast "The Daily" https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/24/podcasts/the-daily/unemployment-coronavirus-pandemic.html
I also found several print articles about these "layoffs" in the Huffington post, the New York Times and others and I have to say as a long time Weight Watchers member, I am appalled!! I had no idea (guess I am late to the game) that they did this to these poor women. Most of them over 50 and having dedicated their lives to the company now have nowhere to turn. What a travesty and then Weight Watchers has the nerve to ask us to donated to a food drive? I would rather donate to these employees. Shame on Oprah! Shame on the company. I have cancelled my membership even though I know the program works. I refuse to be affiliated with a company that is so callous and uncaring.
I had no idea this happened to WW employees in the US! It’s a disgusting way to treat loyal employees. I’m in Canada (maybe it happened here too) so we got a phone call from our TM to say we were laid off. I don’t know how many lost their jobs here but I have no doubt that it was the TM who chose who stays and who goes. I worked as a Guide for 6.5 years and I got let go over some people who were hired just months before or had been with WW less than a year! So much for really valuing our hard work and caring of our members! Honestly, what does that say about them? Heartless and uncaring!!! I had previously gotten thanks from members for helping them with a particular issue when they were struggling (either program related, a technical issue with the app or payment) and they told me I helped them immensely. I sure that my relatively new TM didn’t really like me (I asked too many questions about issues she didn’t want to deal with. Like why an employee who works part-time for minimum wage would need to provide a doctor’s note that could cost them $25 or more because of a brief absence (2 weeks and I secured fill ins for m all my shifts so there shouldn’t have been an issue) due to medical treatment? And later when all companies were asked to stop asking employees for doctors notes because of the pandemic, I know that she did so with others. She was as uncaring as the company appears to be with these layoffs! So, as of now, I’ve lost much of my enthusiasm for WW and have only gone to a couple of the virtual workshops as a member! You do take the lay-off personally!!! How could I not? I thought, why me and not her (someone who wasn’t at all techs and got to stay in the Zoom Support role in which you do need to be up to speed. And if they are offering a free Lifetime membership (I hadn’t heard this) instead of severance, well, I don’t need it - I’m well below my goal after 8 years of being Lifetime!!! And intend to stay there! The truth is, I don’t really need WW to do that! Anyways, this was a very insightful website and I think I’ll join the FB support group for ex employees! I’d love to hear how others are coping. Stay well and stay safe!
This is my email to WW after hearing about this.
Dear WW,
Please escalate this message up to CEO Mindy Grossman, Oprah & her advisors who decided that it would be in WW's best interest to fire 4500 employees over a muted Zoom call.
COVID 19 hit us all hard and I understand businesses have to make hard decisions to stay financially healthy but the way in which WW terminated passionate, long term, advocate employees was reprehensible.
A scripted 3 min muted Zoom call! Really?
I just learned of this on the NY Times The Daily podcast (along with millions of other people) and immediately cancelled my membership in spite of the fact that the program works and I've lost 12 pounds.
When times get hard, I am of the mind that we support our people who have supported us - like the employees you heartlessly fired. There were plenty of options WW could have done to do this the right way but the choice they made was the easy one.
I guess an appropriate analogy would be that I could either work hard and lose the weight the right way or cut off an appendage and WW chose to amputate. (or just removed it's heart)
It's compounded by the fact that most of these passionate employees were middle aged women who are at an extreme disadvantage of getting another job. Did management factor that into their heartless COVID strategy?
I realize corporations just like people make mistakes, I implore WW to apologize and make it right by those they have wronged. In the meantime I'll take my money elsewhere.
Sincerely,
#WWcancel
In 1976 I lost 111 lbs in 14 months. I've gone many times since, but never had the same kind of results. Most likely because in that latter years, we were allowed many things not allowed back in 1976. And, the most notable thing about WW is that they kept changing the program every year. And, judging by the recent article, where they said: “With the accelerated growth of our digital offerings in both our WW app and the launch of Virtual Workshops, we are taking this time to look at our real estate footprint as we begin to safely and cautiously re-open our WW Studios,” they are getting ready to change again. Drastically.
I expect them to eventually phase out the in-person workshops, and go to either digital or virtual only. Especially if they are hurting financially.
I must be late to the party but I just heard about this and cancelled my membership to WW. I can’t believe they would treat employees like this. I cannot support a company with no conscious.
Left WW after working for them for 16 years as a leader...
Had a work injury and after being out for 9 months recuperating with not a call, an email or a card from any of my TM’s, decided it was time to quit. My exit letter stated that I was disappointed in the way I was totally ignored for 9 months and they had no concern for their employees at all. No response came and I left.
I’m so happy I got out when I did biz when I did the numbers as to how much I actually earned per hour it came down to $1.40! Mind you I had 16 location meetings and 6 At Work meetings...way to much time driving and prepping without pay!
Reason why I’m writing this is that I just saw the leaders were referred to as “Guides”!
Disgusting it sounds as if you are trained dogs!
When Oprah appeared. As Spokesperson she made over70M the first day in the market!!!! Nice!!!
Just saying...
Anyway I am so happyI left when I did!
Enjoy your unemployment if WW will let you get that,
I just heard about this and cancelled my membership. Any organization that has so little concern for its employees is not one I want to belong to.
To the person that created this web page I was wondering if I could chat with you.
jerylanz3@gmail.com
Nj ny tonight channel 2 at 7 story will be on inside edition. Will have fired employees
I am absolutely disgusted with the way WW treated MANY OF THEIR LONG TIME EMPLOYEES! I have been a member since 1997. I have acclimated myself to the many changes that Weight Watchers implemented until they changed to WW. Too many little changes for me.....it wasn't broke so why fix it? Even bringing Oprah and Kate Hudson didn't seem to help. Just wasn't the same for me do I stopped going to meetings even tho I LOVED my leader! And finally last week I said "Screw it"...I'm done all together! Then I read about the massive firings and today I happened to run into my leader. Learned a lot! Glad I quit WW! There are other weight watching programs out there and not the ones on TV. Personally I think the CEO should resign and I hope WW folds!!!
I guess I’m going to be the outlier here. While I appreciate the difficulty that many have with being terminated or with the way it was done, I also recognize t it was a massive layoff. I think our territory had 60 Team members terminated. Our TM did the same Zoom audio conference and offered to speak with us individually if we had questions or wanted to talk. WW is hurtling for money and they needed to do something. They graciously paid us for virtual meetings where we weren’t all needed during the pandemic, even commissions on average sales from previous months. With this many people for a TM to handle, the rumor mill etc would be impossible To manage, and you couldn’t get the task done quickly like it needed to be done. I was only a guide for a little over a year. The difficulty for me was that it felt like they told me I Was not doing a good job helping people / making a difference. But that is not true. THey are trying to survive. I hope They do. They made a huge difference in my life and I worked there because we made a huge difference in the lives of others. Like all companies, they are not perfect, but I hold no ill will towards them and I hope they hire me back someday.
I didn’t work for WW but I was a member two times over the past 15 years. I am absolutely disgusted reading about what has happened to so many of you and the cold callous way it was done. I wish I still was a member so I could cancel my membership and tell them why they’ll never get my business ever again!! Best of luck to you all in the next chapters of your lives.
https://laidoff2020.blogspot.com/2020/05/ww-needs-to-be-accountable.html
Hundreds of Comcast Direct Sales Employee’s just got laid off on a video call. I thought CEO donated his salary so that wouldn’t happen.
Wow if that true it’s very sad! But money talks and we can’t!
Oprah got Inside Edition in her back pocket. She paid them the big $$ to keep their mouth shut!
What happened with inside edition? I thought they were interested in doing a story on the way they fired us. Has anyone heard from them?
I hope all the press gives WW the pr they deserve which is negative. I never thought I would say this I hope the company goes under . What they did to us was so cold hearted that I beleive you reap what you sow and the membership prices are high. Many people are leaving in droves it’s eerily satisfying!!!
I was fired by WW by way of 4 minute Zoom call. I worked as a guide for nearly 13 years. It was painful and cruel the way it was done. However, I found it even crueler for WW to fire our territory manager and make her tell us we were fired over the Zoom call. She was crying as she told us the news.
To the 61 year old who just poured her heart out. Please come join our group on Facebook, we are here for you and all feel the same way! It is Fired & Former Weight Watchers Employees
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2744225169152180/
Former WW Team Member/Studio Guide
Age 61 Years Old Female
Title: Trauma caused by WW/Weight Watchers
Ok this is going to be a long story however it’s from my heart ❤️ so scroll off you don’t want to read it. There are 7 stages of grief and I should know because I lost my 30 year old son in 2014. If it weren’t for having his dog 🐕 I would of never got out of bed 🛌. I joined weight watchers and lost the weight and felt good about myself and saw a therapist and it helped. I went thru the anger the shock the denial the thought of not being good enough etc. Now I’m at the point of sorrow and grief. I truly loved my members my coach and my coworkers. I would look forward to getting ready for my meeting and thinking 🤔 I was helping my members. I would love to hear if they made their goal or how the week went, the ups and downs and of course I participated as well. For them to take that away in a two min phone call and we can’t even go in an say bye to them or they are thinking we didn’t care about them especially in this pandemic to let them know we still cared. I feel ostracized and I’m sure some of you feel the same. 😌. We couldn’t get in to speak to any one we were left in the gutter thrown away like trash. Telling our coworkers not to associate with us. I understand they had to let some of us go but the way they did it was cruel and unjust. If I can sue them I would. I would never win because they are powerful people. I feel like my son died all over again and there is no reason to figure out my why or get up and have a goal any longer. I loved my coach he was great. I feel embarrassed to go back and not sure they would let me in. My coworkers I loved. My members as well. I will put my big girl panties on and will prevail its just depressing I’m so many ways. Thank you for listening. ❤️.
After being employed for 22 years in 2 different territories I am disgusted that friends I have had for years and years who were NOT fired have stopped talking to me, unfriended me on facebook, cancelled plans (virtual c—tail hours etc.) because I was fired and they were not. They think I have sour grapes for all of the posts of the articles that I have shared on Facebook and think I should "lay low". They should be thankful that due to my actions and the actions of other fired employees when their time comes they will most not likely be fired in the same manner. These are the same people who have complained about the low pay and the changes in the program and the name (from Weight Watchers to WW) and the lack of care from the company for its employees for a long time and now they are the WW cheerleaders. Seriously, did they drink the corporate kool-aid?
Oprah Meme:
https://i.ibb.co/nk9cWbq/oprah-ww-layoff-meme.jpg
Thanks @awmj - that's a great article by Bruce... the best one so far. I encourage everyone to read it.
You can read the entire article here:
https://www.thelayoff.com/t/1575XTv7
or follow this link
@OP+1575XTv7
Of course they lied! They have always lied to us! The territory managers were the only ones who know who we are. They didn’t pick out names out of a hat!! What an insult to our intelligence!!!
I believe 100% the territory managers made the choices who stayed and who got fired. The “higher ups” had NO FREAKING IDEA who any of us were. Someone had to have give two “higher ups” our names.
As Mr. Weinstein so eloquently put it in his Forbes article not that we were terminated it was the way it was done. It was done with total disrespect with no regard for our wellness! Also how did they choose who goes and who stays? We will never find the answer to that! When manager was asked the answer wsd I don’t know. How can that be? No one else knows us except our managers. I think we deserve to know why we were chosen to go and colleagues stay. This whole thing is truly a cowards way to fire loyal employees. I hope they are never successful again as many of us were the staple of weight watchers or ww. Which by the way the members never liked the name change!!
I got up this morning planning to sit in on Oprah’s Live wellness meeting And happened to see a comment about WW firing a bunch of employees (4000) via a 5 minute scripted zoom meeting- looked into it- read a little more, then signed into the live wellness meeting. Oprah was saying something about how some people were commenting or thinking that the pandemic wasn’t as hard on rich people but started saying how Duane Johnson talked last week about being off -balance and stuff, so we all are suffering, blah , blah , blah- I just couldn’t get into it or buy into it after the way the loyal employees were treated- some who’d worked for decades and all for low pay- seems like they could have laid people off in a more caring, considerate, empathetic manner. All this wellness c-ap- and it seems like c-ap now because there was no Empathetic thought for the wellness of all those employees. I get that companies need to cut back - did they have to do it like that? Leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Why WW’s Group Firings On Zoom Were Unethical, Terrible PR And Bad For Business
by Bruce Weinstein
https://www.forbes.com/sites/bruceweinstein/2020/05/23/why-wws-group-firings-on-zoom-were-unethical-terrible-pr-and-bad-for-business/#20f91e5c5c0b
Here is what my local TV in Atlanta covered:
https://www.wsbtv.com/news/trending/coronavirus-weight-watchers-executes-mass-firing-via-zoom/ROU6XVIIC5GLFAFOXTP6QG4UCU/?_website=cmg-tv-10010
I can’t seem to get into the fb group can someone guide me! Thanks in advance!
Bruce Weinsteins article in Forbes was amazing! He was spot on!!! Thank you Bruce!!!
https://laidoff2020.blogspot.com/2020/05/better-together-myth.html
Excellent article in Forbes calling WW “unethical” https://www.forbes.com/sites/bruceweinstein/2020/05/23/why-wws-group-firings-on-zoom-were-unethical-terrible-pr-and-bad-for-business/
Join our Fired & Former WW/Weight Watchers Employees private FB support group. You are not alone and have a place to grieve your loss of employment with WW.
We are all trying to make sense of this blindsided and UNETHICAL behavior. #WellnessThatDoesntWork
#FormerWWHeroesofCovid19
https://www.facebook.com/groups/2744225169152180/
I urge you to please reach out to the reporters on this thread. We need to get our story out because WW wants to keep this quiet! It really needs to get out to the public by doing so we are helping others!!
Weight Watchers founder Jean Niditch, must be turning over in her grave! She never would have done something like this!! Shame on WW–shame on Oprah and Mindy Grossman. Now WW's good name is seared with mud!!
Hallo, I would like to read the article.
If you continue to scroll down there is a transcript of the phone call someone had posted it.