Woolworths, one of Australia’s largest supermarket chains, is going through a restructure destined to affect its more than 115,000 employees who face either new jobs, no jobs, or somewhere in between.
While senior management has assured employees – and the media – that no jobs will be lost, there’s still confusion from shop to shop, and some have found solace in a small Facebook Group that has evolved from a meme generator into a digital staff room, without all of the weight that comes with having to physically show up to vent your opinion.
It’s the kind of headline Mark Zuckerberg would go all flush and giddy over – individuals rallying privately! To communicate! About how they feel! – and it’s a perfect example of the direction the social media giant wants to go, regardless of whether it’s actually heading that way.
Woolies Freshposting, a Facebook Group with a little under 6,500 members, was started late last year as the spinoff of the hugely popular page Woolies Memes.
Since then, admin say the group has gradually shifted towards a more work-focused space, with members discussing working late shifts, not getting rostered on, and running out of the promotional sticker packs Australian children (and, therefore, parents) clammer over.
In more playful conversation, customers are given tongue-in-cheek names by the group, designed to perfectly encapsulate a range of genres: There’s Karen, who gets angry at the deli; Kevin, who wants extra stickers; and Paul, who can lift heavy bags but doesn’t know what parsnips are. Through all of this, the deli and produce teams are routinely dunked on via meme.
However, the shake-up of how the business will be run has changed the mood of the group for most of 2019. Woolworths Freshposting’s admin works at Woolworths, and admits the space is now well and truly a place for other employees to talk about their jobs, their lives, and things only woolies workers would understand about working for one of the nation’s largest grocery store chains.
More intense venting and conversations about restructures began around the start of 2019, and kicked off further as news broke about Woolworth’s plans – and then competitor Coles’ similar move.
Woolworths spokespeople have routinely stated that the focus will be on redeploying staff if their position is made redundant, rather than firing them. But it’s hard to be in a working environment in 2019 and hear the word “restructure” without thinking someone is gonna lose their job.
After the group shifted its focus requests to join it grew massively – but the decision was made to keep access closed after a few people snitched to management.
“The group has a role as a place for people to air their grievances and communicate with others openly and truthfully, something we think had been missing from conversations with our union,” the admin, who asked not to be named, told me.
Woolies Freshposting demonstrates not just Zuckerberg’s marketing pitch for a shinier, more private, and closer Facebook, but shows off how people are learning to cope with personal problems in the digital age: memes.
It is easier to joke about not being able to pay your mortgage with a Simpson’s meme than it is to openly talk to your friends and family about that very possibility. With Woolies Freshposting, members are offered the option to flip Facebook back to forum culture, a discussion board of daily topics; a water cooler that your boss probably isn’t around the corner from.
And while the group might be functioning as intended, there’s still something dystopian about an employee using one of Facebook’s text-generator images to wish luck to those about to lose their jobs.
“Look Woolworths is in a tight spot, said admin. “Costs are rising, and profits need to as well. They had to do something and personally I feel like this was coming from afar.”
“Some people have been devastated by the change, and others have taken it within their stride.”
For now, the group is just one in a forest of thousands of groups. Cops are getting caught inside private groups dedicated to extremism. Others are using the feature to ask others for money in what’s being called “peer-to-peer aid”. In Australia, one of the largest and most active groups is dedicated to K-Mart and the mums who embrace its cheap bargains.
Currently, Woolies Freshposting waxes and wanes between rage, to dry humour, to generic conversation. It’s just like the real world, only online, and without all that pesky face-to-face interaction.
Job losses and corporate restructure will always get employees talking, but where they talk about those things is changing. Workers can share in real-time exactly what they’re being told by their bosses and can react to the news cycle as it happens, too. If anything, the world’s shift online comes with a more relaxed approach to venting. It means good things for employees looking to chat to someone who understands what they’re going through, and bad things for companies trying to make sweeping and confusing changes.
“Obviously some people hold their opinions back in store and go buck wild when behind a screen,” said the admin of Woolies Freshposting.
“So the group may provide a raw image at what people actually think.”
