You might’ve heard about the “epic” resignation letter a disgruntled former Whole Foods employee in Toronto fired off this past Friday, which was intended to reveal a host of dirty secrets about the natural foods conglomerate. (Whole Foods doesn’t recycle properly! They throw out food! Gratuitous use of latex gloves!) Well, that was far from the end of the drama. Gawker, which reprinted the letter in its entirety, received an overwhelming response, “over 100 personal anecdotes and counting,” from current and former Whole Foods employees reacting to the letter. Responses ranged from irked: the Toronto quitter “was lazy, rude, and confrontational”; to he’s got a point: “Store recycling bins are emptied into the garbage every single day without fail”; to 1984 comparisons: “The company has formed its own version of newspeak.”
Clearly Whole Foods is far from the crunchy little store that opened in Austin 30 years ago. Expansion always comes with certain compromises, and it’s rare to find an employee anywhere who wouldn’t have plenty to complain about, but not having worked at a Whole Foods, we don’t really know the inner workings. Commenters who are past or former Whole Foods employees, we want to hear your experiences. Is this supposedly “natural’ company full of non-ecofriendly dirty laundry, or is it just trying to balance profit and good intentions like everybody else?
Read a Disgruntled Whole Foods Employee’s Epic Resignation Letter [Gawker]
The Whole Foods Experience: Part One [Gawker]
