the gathering of parts to a whole

See, it's like this. A bunch of people who work together infrequently being gathered together under the premise of learning just how many things they aren't doing right and to be introduced to new coffee and pastries and partners (what sbux calls its employees) on a Friday night is what I like to call a receipe for diaster.

I mean, what exactly did they think was going to happen? People would be overjoyed? Thrilled? Delighted at the idea of all these trains passing each other on a tenuous schedule would be routed and timed to arrive all at once? Put that way, it sounds like a catastrophe.

Before I was ever someone who worked for retail corporate America, I knew that store meetings were a waste of time. I was glad that in the months that I'd been entrenched in my new job there was never talk of this strange event, of this gathering of parts to a whole, this bringing together of people who are more comfortable with tasks, things to do, action at hand.

What's the point of sitting us around in a circle and telling us things we ought to know? Most people learn by watching someone else do it and then copying them. Most people learn by experience. Some people learn by doing something wrong and being told immediately the correct way to accomplish a task.

Instead, we sit in plush chairs and sofas with the cafe, counters and store at a distance, and talk about things out of sight...

With a twist of backstory nuance:

Our meeting was envisioned by one of the eager go-getting supervisors who went to a Sanitation class and realized that a lot of the way things are done at our location are not up to code with both city and state regulations. And rather than do what many many many people before her had done, she decided something had to be done about it.

[an aside] between you and me, that kind of action--not just doing things to get through the time being, but the sorts of things that make things better for everyone in the long run and being very vocal about it--is pretty cool. if she was someone I liked, I'd totally support it. as it is, she's someone I tolerate, so I kinda respect her sheer determination. she's fighting uphill with an army of red ants stinging her ankles and trying to crawl into her eyes.