Finally, someone has started to think outside the box re: team building exercises. Didn't think it'd come from Wachovia but so be it; the rest of you, take notes! As part of a WB "pep rally," new-hire analysts were forced this morning to stand on their chairs and shout "I Love Wachovia," while dancing. Following this, the newbies participated in a competition to build the WB tower, out of marshmallows.
New Wachovia CEO Steel Turning Things Around, Starting With Company Morale
Posted by Bess Levin, Jul 16, 2008, 9:49am
Comments
Posted by guest, Jul 16, 2008 10:20AM
please tell me this is a joke, that it isnt real. please.
Posted by guest, Jul 16, 2008 10:22AM
were those Golden West marshmallows?
Posted by guest, Jul 16, 2008 10:24AM
No way this is real...
Posted by guest, Jul 16, 2008 10:25AM
What Bess didn't report is that the employees were required to wear blackface while dancing. Robert Steel loves a good ol' fashioned minstrel show.
Posted by guest, Jul 16, 2008 10:28AM
ya, please tell me you made this up.
although my experience w/ IB HR monsters tells me it's true.
awesome.
-retail, gawker, whatev, etc.
Posted by guest, Jul 16, 2008 10:35AM
Also had to build a tower from marshmallows and skewers..people get very competitive....
Posted by guest, Jul 16, 2008 10:37AM
I know this is a blog, but are attempts made to confirm these things? Wachovia kept incoming analysts at the expense of existing employees in an attempt to save face. I'd love to know if these kids are sending out joke e-mails at the expense of WB, on WB's time. Because there are plenty of laid off employees who would gladly take their places.
Not that I don't think it's funny. I just don't think it's true. Not a bad idea, though.
So can anybody enlighten me? Cam someone just send in a tip using their gmail address, or does something need to be submitted by multiple people with firm email addresses?
Posted by guest, Jul 16, 2008 10:43AM
sadly, as someone who participated in this event, i can tell you it's all to real. Today is "team-building" day at WB.
Posted by guest, Jul 16, 2008 10:44AM
I like how their marshmallow tower has all the strenght of Wachovia's balance sheet right now.
Posted by guest, Jul 16, 2008 10:46AM
10:37 back again. If it's true it doesn't piss me off. I love it.
Any names on who led the festivities?
Posted by FUNdamental, Jul 16, 2008 10:51AM
And then jp morgan showed up with graham crackers and chocolate and burned and ate wb's ivory tower.
Posted by guest, Jul 16, 2008 10:52AM
Wachovia = TTT
Posted by guest, Jul 16, 2008 10:53AM
ooh now I'm hungry
Posted by guest, Jul 16, 2008 10:58AM
I heard this afternoon's team building exercise at WB is ookie(sp) cookie.
Posted by HAM05, Jul 16, 2008 10:59AM
interesting. i also had to build a tower at work today, but mine was made of interns held together by gypsy tears. it was massive.
Posted by BSD, Jul 16, 2008 11:00AM
Great way to weed out any analysts with a sliver of dignity who might have slipped through the cracks in the interview process.
Did security escort out anyone who wouldn't get up on their chairs?
Posted by guest, Jul 16, 2008 11:05AM
I hope they had an analyst that could play the fiddle while the marshmallows burned.
Posted by guest, Jul 16, 2008 11:06AM
stand on chairs...chant..hey whatever
gets the stock going anywhere but
D O W N!!!!
also, consider Mr Steel's last employer.
no telling the rah rah routines the
present administration must put their
employees through.
Posted by guest, Jul 16, 2008 11:06AM
stand on chairs...chant..hey whatever
gets the stock going anywhere but
D O W N!!!!
also, consider Mr Steel's last employer.
no telling the rah rah routines the
present administration must put their
employees through.
Posted by guest, Jul 16, 2008 11:09AM
Do these HR drones have no sense of irony? Having the kids build a tower of playing cards would have been a far better preparation for their future careers as investment bankers.
Posted by guest, Jul 16, 2008 11:18AM
Who was processing the credit card applications and manning the phones in the call centers while these "future investment bankers" were doing these team building exercises?
Posted by diablo, Jul 16, 2008 11:29AM
If this is real, WB is toast.
Posted by guest, Jul 16, 2008 11:30AM
I'd like to start a false rumor that the first year analyst had to put marshmallow's in their butt cheeks for the entire meeting, dance around and then the kids from Duke had to eat the marshmallows. It's not true, but it sounds funny.
Or better yet, send some smores over to Kenny Lewis at Bank of America with the marshmallows. If placed in a nasty butt crack, you could save on the chocolate costs and only have to buy grahm crackers. WB is looking for ways to cut costs and I love saying crackers when I talk about people from the south.
Posted by guest, Jul 16, 2008 11:31AM
The Shake Shack 1st years were laughing when they were told about this.
Posted by guest, Jul 16, 2008 11:36AM
@11:30 - I work with Duke grads, and believe me, their penchant for ass-mallows is all too true.
Posted by guest, Jul 16, 2008 11:41AM
marshmallows, graham crackers, and chocolate need to merge in order to stay alive...and tasty
Posted by guest, Jul 16, 2008 11:59AM
marshmallows, graham crackers, and chocolate need to merge in order to stay alive...and tasty
Posted by asg, Jul 16, 2008 12:01PM
Did none of these n00bz have a fucking camera phone?
Posted by guest, Jul 16, 2008 12:01PM
FUNdamental, thanks for the laugh.
Posted by guest, Jul 16, 2008 12:02PM
marshmallows, graham crackers, and chocolate need to merge in order to stay alive...and tasty
Posted by blndebnker, Jul 16, 2008 12:07PM
@FUN - Made me laugh out loud. Love it!
Posted by Headless Horseman, Jul 16, 2008 12:14PM
Well that should pretty much do the trick. Repeat after me "Perception is reality." Everything is okay.
On another note such silly morale exercises are hardly the result of anyone thinking outside of the box. Public accounting firms have been subjecting their employees to similar nonsense for at least a decade.
Imagine a roomful of accounting stiffs (every last one wearing a light-blue open-coallared shirt with khaki flat fronts that don't fit correctly) trying to act excited about revisions to the firmwide audit methodology by incorporating the changes into songs while making posters about how ethical we are. My advice to WB employees: you either drink the Kool-Aid and learn to like it, mask your discontent with copious amounts of illicit drugs, or gather up what remains of your dignity and get a job with a serious firm. I'd interpret this as an indication of how little WB's managment must think of its employee's collective critical reasoning capacity.
Posted by guest, Jul 16, 2008 12:23PM
This thread is lame.
Posted by blndebnker, Jul 16, 2008 12:25PM
Not Kool-Aid, grape drink. GRAPE DRINK.
Posted by FUNdamental, Jul 16, 2008 12:33PM
@blnde - no one ever takes the grape drink, it's always sunny d. Or tang if you work for bear.
Posted by blndebnker, Jul 16, 2008 12:35PM
Really? I believe it was mrp who corrected me on my use of kool-aid and recommended grape drink instead. Ew, Tang.
Posted by guest, Jul 16, 2008 12:37PM
Shut up b.
Posted by FUNdamental, Jul 16, 2008 12:37PM
@blnde - was he referring to grape drink, or purple drank...?
Posted by FUNdamental, Jul 16, 2008 12:39PM
@blnde - was he referring to grape drink, or purple drank...?
Posted by blndebnker, Jul 16, 2008 12:40PM
I specifically remember him saying grape drink because I made the rookie mistake of saying I hadn't had grape soda in years and he said, "not soda, drink."
Posted by guest, Jul 16, 2008 12:42PM
You bitches really need to shut up.
Posted by FUNdamental, Jul 16, 2008 12:43PM
Ah screw it all, knob creek on the rocks.
Posted by blndebnker, Jul 16, 2008 12:45PM
I'll take warm Franzia, please.
Posted by guest, Jul 16, 2008 12:47PM
I'll have what Gasparino was drinking ringside.
Posted by FUNdamental, Jul 16, 2008 12:50PM
Any good dive bar should be able to accomodate your needs...
So when are we going?
Posted by blndebnker, Jul 16, 2008 12:50PM
Not that it needs to be said really, but that man is so repulsive. That suit. Good gracious, what a dillweed.
Posted by blndebnker, Jul 16, 2008 12:52PM
Put it together! Let's do a DB dive bar gathering. I'm down.
Posted by guest, Jul 16, 2008 12:53PM
@blnde. Of course you're down, that's how you got your job.
Posted by guest, Jul 16, 2008 12:53PM
blnd and fun, can you guys swap emails and spare us this shit?
Posted by guest, Jul 16, 2008 12:55PM
"Posted by guest, Jul 16, 2008 12:47PM
I'll have what Gasparino was drinking ringside."
did we ever get a ruling on what was in that glass?
Posted by guest, Jul 16, 2008 3:29PM
I'm sticking around for bukkake day.
Posted by diablo, Jul 16, 2008 4:26PM
By the way, Cox says it's OK to go naked with WB. Just saying.
Posted by guest, Jul 16, 2008 4:29PM
Not only are we chanting at the WB, but we now wear blue smocks on the trading floor. It's the new WAL-chovia.
...working on the roll back.
Posted by guest, Jul 17, 2008 12:42AM
How do ya like me now Tuck?By the way Rob, any "warm and fuzzy feelings "lately?
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Posted by guest, Jul 16, 2008 10:06AM
gay