Thousands of us service providers were let go today! Our severance? Lifetime free WW membership. Big woop.
266 replies (most recent on top)
I wouldn’t be surprised to learn the vast majority of those laid off were over 55 year old women using their tiny part time salaries to make ends meet. Would love to see the statistics on that. All while big execs continue to rake in millions preying on the desperation of mostly (again) women who think they are not good enough. Just the latest in an appalling series of missteps by this increasingly tone deaf organization.
After almost 20 years as a guide, I, too, was let go in the 3 minute recorded call.
I recognize that the current economy is challenging for WW and that changes had to be made. But the manner in which it was done was disrespectful and humiliating. No explanation of the strategic process employed to choose who stays and who goes, although I'm guessing age was a factor. No mention of how many lay-offs. Just quick and cold with no transparency. I'd love to know the demographics of those fired.
I have no intention of sending anything back and I'll speak to whomever I wish about this.
2 yrs w/ a company that I literally wanted to work for for about a decade. Lost over 100# & was recruited right as I started a new life free of an abusive spouse. I haven't even read all of the multiple page separation packet. I know it's going to be BS. I worked as many as 8-9 meetings a week last year as a 2nd job. 8 mtgs down to 6 and still only approx 5k a year. It didn't matter to my most recent TM that it was a PT job and the job that paid my bills was a priority...especially when they went virtual and we had training videos we were told we had to complete within 48 -72 hrs. YES, we've been told we can't say anything. Like someone isn't blabbing all over WW anyway. What can they do...fire me..oh wait. Too late. My name isn't attached to this for reasons that don't tie to WW. We had connections with members and colleagues and we are supposed to go up in a poof of smoke so that it looks like WE are the ones that don't care about the members. We were told at 3:07 pm on a Thursday that we were not to even finish the week... we were NOT PERMITTED to work on Friday. Do they really think people won't catch on? Do our remaining colleagues think they're safe? It's not over yet.....
A heartless, misguided CEO. Mindy’s trajectory to Wellness that Works from Weight Watchers was the beginning of the descent into Wellness that Doesn’t Work.
As an employee of several decades’ duration, I was proud to deliver the service vision with knowledge and caring to each and every member. The service vision was indeed not delivered yesterday to my terminated coworkers and myself. Many current and prospective members I know will now be lost to the mother company.
Mindy need not worry about the size of her footprint. It will be very small.
while laying off people they are still charging members even though there are no meetings AND the zoom meetings are not available to all. WW is NOT Weight Watchers started by Jean Nidetch who really cared for people. I worked for Weight Watchers for many years and they were a good company but now it's not the same. So sorry because it started out with such good intentions and putting members first. Very sad
This company is disgusting. They stabbed their loyal team members in the back. It’s a really big deal, it’s our lives.
Mandy says team members were impacted! Think she meant to say discarded , disrespected and flat out sh– on!
Disgusting. Your company was something special to me. Now it’s called WW which stands for A–holes not Weight Watchers, destroyed by Mindy and Oprah as far as I can tell.
Wellness that doesn’t work.
I was an 18 year employee who was not only a STM but a voice agent, chat coach and personal coach from day 1 of these programs. I was a full time employee and relied on the insurance for my family. I want to know HOW they chose who to keep and who to let go. People with less than a year experience were kept. People who were just hired as voice and chat coaches were kept, but I as an 18 year employee with excellent reviews, ratings as a coach and metrics was let go. What was their criteria? And what kind of company fires an 18 year employee in a 3 minute phone call? WW has no right to refer to itself as a Wellness company. They don’t care about the Welfare of their own employees and Welfare starts at home.
Everyone will get unemployment at least which for most will be more than they ever made weekly working at WW.
I missed the call, sounds like a good call, (no pun intended) but read my email today. Companies will typically tell you not to discuss with others, no one listens. It never makes sense on who they keep and those they let go. My TM who has was only hired last fall was let go. I worked a studio@. This was only a side gig for me. But I feel for those this was their livelihood. Granted it could have been handled more professionally. Severance s—s. I would not be using my own resources to return any WW property. They can pay first.
Talk about being cruel and disrespectful! During a pandemic fire the ones whose backs you made profits off of!! Such a heartless and cold way to treat your people....After years of loyalty, to get An email the day before requiring us to call into a conference call where we were muted and told by a recording that we were no longer employees of the company we were dedicated to. We felt as though we were being Blindly led to slaughter in a ZOOM room with tape over our mouths and forced to listen to a pre-recorded script telling us that we were on the chopping block and fired... and by the way, do not tell anyone or your former colleagues what happens...and mail us back the keys at your own expense and don’t let the door kick you in the way out. Angry? Anyone would be.
Well, it is a good thing WW calls itself a wellness company, because imagine if they didn’t work under the false premise that they care about the members? We would have gotten a text telling us to hit the road or a robo call. Well, we did get a robo call, only we had to call in. They forgot we employees all started as members too! No respect to us. Cruel, cold and calculated...no wellness here folks. But guess what? Their current members will now see just how little they really care about all of us. It is just about the money, isn’t it? B I am so disappointed in this company that I cared for. Over the years, It really has turned into just another stick it to you corporation. Only their shtick is about wellness , which makes it seem like they care. They Don’t really. Members will leave over this ,and people think twice before giving them a dime or working for them. Smoke and mirrors folks...smoke and mirrors.
What a shame! How do replace the loving devoted service providers that were the very essence and core of Weight Watchers? All the form of the company has no value without the substance that connected member to service provider to member. The long line of devotion is broken and the company has no clue. What a shame!
#WewereWW
Mindy ruined the company the minute she stepped in. Made it cold and corporate. She should be ashamed of the way they let people go. A 5 min zoom call? And the letter she sent with the Separation Packet, please. Really didn’t want to read a page of how hard the decisions she has to make are or poor WW. If they wanted to cut back, they could have told 3rd and 4ths not to be in the Meetings. That would have moved me from 9 meetings to 2, but I would have had a job. Now they want the rest to cover. More work for the same c-appy pay. Two words, 1 finger Mindy.
As an employee off WW for 7 years as I could not be on call at 4 o'clock so when called my TM she pulled up the script and read it to me and hung up! I worked 1 meeting a week so I'm sure they are going to save alot of money on me!! Thx Ww and hope hope you get what you deserve!!
as I posted I am no longer an employee as of March 24th so the gag order does not apply to me. As such, I sent a heads up tweet to NBC News to explore and investigate what Weight Watchers is doing with their employees. And if they don't like it tough s*** and the TM I mentioned who put me down? Bye bye!
Weight Watchers has a history of firing people on the phone. They did exactly that a few years ago to their training team and many others. The call took place just before I was to do a training session...I was listening to it in my car in tge parking lot! Then they expected me to go in the door and conduct a training as if nothing had happened.
ADDITIONALLY THEY THREATEN YOU IF YOU TALK TO ANYONE ABOUT IT. Guess they do not know about freedom of speech.
I will talk to anyone that wants to listen about it! It is actully a very good story about a company that abuses their employees verbally and financially!
Less than 3 minutes on a muted zoom call to let me know I no longer have a job and that I can’t tell anyone. Leaving me with my heart in my throat in what’s already one of the most stressful times of my life. After 2 deaths in the family and other bad news in the past 2 months, this really took the cake! If I didn’t have my dog, I don’t know what I would’ve had done after that horrible call. What’s the point of going on?
My heart goes out to my WW friends who were terminated yesterday in such a heartless way. I also cancelled my membership today because If WW management can do this to their loyal employees I hate to think what they have in store for their members. This will break WW, at least I hope it does.
Based on all the comments it looks like WW fired only employees with several years with the company. Makes one wonder how long the "spared" or "Lucky Ones" still remaining have worked for the company. Maybe that's why there's a gag order.
How tacky....no class at all....those responsible for this travesty should be ashamed of themselves for the rest of their days.
I was a long term employee also. I think we carried too much of the past with us. Jean was proud of us. WW wants to be a company with a new image of wellness.... not Weight Watchers, a weight loss company.
Thank you to the members that said they were canceling.......all those years, early mornings and late nights for the members. They saved a lot ! No 20 ,or 25,year gifts to give.
The day before I got let go I got an email saying what a good job I had done with a member on chat. Member had left a very nice comment about me being so patient and helping her. I still believe in the program. It helped me lose 50 pounds and h as ve kept it off for almost10 years. The way it was done was so cold but yet were told we were "part if the WW family". Not how you treat family.
Luckily I resigned on March 1st because I could no longer work for a company that treats its guides so poorly. I feel for all of you and the way it was done. But in the long run you will be better without them!
Ha! Just saw an email go out to all of the chat coaches that there's a need for upstaffing. Well, you cancelled my chat shifts effective immediately at 3 PM yesterday, so I guess that s—s for you, WW!
After 12 years of working at WW, we got terminated by a cold, unprofessional phone call in a matter of minutes. I hope all WW members cancel their membership. Corporate & the rest of the Territory Managers will get theirs because what goes around will eventually come around.
I had another call I had to be on at my scheduled time. So my TM told me to call her when I got off. She read the script to me firing me. I was a guide for about 4 years. Honestly, the only reason I stayed as long as I did was for the employee discount. Then even that was taken away. I wonder how they will tell the members. There are some that liked to do their check in with just me and not the other guide. I don’t give a c-ap about being told not to talk about it. Let them sue me. I probably won’t even go to any more meetings online. I have no desire to be affiliated with this horrible company
I cried for 24 hours and made myself sick over this.
My colleagues were not let go and I was. Colleagues that look to me for help all the time,
I sacrificed so much for this company. I was grateful to WW for helping me get healthy. I feel like my partner assaulted me, told me I better not tell anyone, and left.
Those not laid off were threatened with immediate termination if they say anything to those of us laid off.
That’s a team and a family, better together to Weight Watchers.
Wellness that apparently only works for some, with no explanations as to why!
Hi, I'm a writer working on an article about Weight Watchers's "difficult decision" and I am looking to hear from people whom this has affected. I put up another post, available here: @OP+14Y5fn5G. If you’d be willing to share a more in-depth about your experience with Weight Watchers over the years, how this affects your relationship with the company, or how this affects your own wellness journey, let me know at segreports@gmail.com.
If anyone else is seeing this comment, and doesn't want to share in a public forum, feel free to email me as well. I know Weight Watchers has implemented a gag order, but I promise to be confidential with names and other private information.
Holy sh–! I just switched to online only a couple days ago in order to save money, but now I am canceling all together. This is a horrible way to treat people and I no longer want to be associated with a company that pulls this kind of sh–. There are other free apps that I will use to track instead of giving another cent to WW.
I just cancelled (I was planning to do it anyway - it's a long story)
anyhow, when asked why - i said - let's set up a quick zoom call and i'll be happy to walk you through my reasoning
so sorry about what happen - good luck all
@1gld on your "why are messages deleted' question - look at the rules in the footer - they moderate messages and they do not allow:
use of personal information (e..g, names, addreses etc.)
foul language
politics
i hope this helps
I worked for Weight Watchers and quit after being terrorized by the territory manager. I'm heartsick for the beautiful people I met in this company that gave their all despite low pay and horrible work conditions. Shame on WW.
Yes I was laid off too... It was a a one minute conference call with hundreds attending - it was eerie.
As I reflect on my career, 20 years, many weekends working - sacrifices... Family events missed...
I know it's COVID, and I know it's hard times for all business. but this thing should have been handled with more grace and emphaty. We all cared a lot for WW.
Better together?
Let go with a recorded message that said "As of COB today, you are no longer employed by WW. " What the F? I was in complete shock. Let's see how they structure their new plan. The Sunday before we closed up shop, we were using sanitizing wipes. The studio I worked in didn't have hand sanitizer. Is this the cleaning WW will do now? Unless, the studio is deep cleaned daily, it's not safe. And WW is too cheap to deep clean. WW will continue to pay at minimum wage. I always said, WW cares more about the members than the employees. This certainly proved it.
Why are some messages deleted?
One prerecorded call...
25 years of sacrifice and hard work effort obliterated...
Tells you something, huh.
I'm reading this and my heart aches for each and everyone of you. I quit on March 24th due to a territory manager name Terri Erickson who was mean as mean can be. I have been an ambassador, a coach, I received two leader of the Year Awards oh, I had the highest retention in my territory and she kept on putting me down in front of staff. my self-esteem could not take it any longer. I know for sure I would have been one of the people who would have received a call or an email but this is heartless.
13 years with the company, the only source income for the family of 5, laid off on a call - told not to talk to anyone. thanks, thank you very much...
It is bad enough to get layoff after 14 years but were told to not to talk to coworkers. Some of those co workers are my best friends. So much for being a team and supportive, we are left out in the cold! Bitter, yes I am!!!!
So let’s donate millions of dollars to charity but then put thousands out of work in a cruel way. Shame on WW!