Most outdated training materials

[Tuxian]

OK, here's something that came to mind the other day.

Back when I was working at Jack in the Box, when I started, all our job training was on VHS tapes. My "orientation" was sitting and watching 7 videos for 4 hours, then getting trained on the fryer.

When "my" store opened (was being built, and I had to train at another store), they had the VHS tapes there too. For a while. But soon, Corporate had a bright idea. They would move the training from VHS tapes where you just passively sit and watch, to a computer-based system with a touch-screen, to make it interactive.

Here's the thing that got me though. See... what they did was take the old VHS videos, and digitize them, and put in multiple choice questions between segments and at the end. BUT.

One of the products they had in the fryer training was Apple Turnovers.

Which had not been on the menu for over 2 years before this new system was begun.

And yet, we still had to be trained how to cook them.

Anyone have any similar stories about outdated training materials at your place of employ?

Oh, side note: JITB was, and is, a big believer in the "Give them the Pickle" philosophy. We had to watch that dumb video there. People were amazed when I told them how much the dude charges for that tape.

[Ryu]

the accursed pickle...
he made a video for it?!?!?! i thought it was just a book!!
how much was the video?

[Tuxian]

According to his website, www.giveemthepickle.com, he sells the 18 minute long video on VHS for $795, the DVD for $895, or if you want, you can rent them. VHS rental is $295, DVD is $350. Oh, and you get lapel pins, cards, a trainer's guide, and a copy of the hardcover book.

[MadMike]

According to his website, www.giveemthepickle.com, he sells the 18 minute long video on VHS for $795, the DVD for $895, or if you want, you can rent them. VHS rental is $295, DVD is $350. Oh, and you get lapel pins, cards, a trainer's guide, and a copy of the hardcover book.

And you know what the saddest part is? Apparently enough idiots are buying those god-awful things at those ridiculous prices, or the prices wouldn't be that high.

Me personally, I wouldn't want one of those if they were giving them away. I'd like to tell him what he can do with that pickle...

[Becks]

I'd like to tell him what he can do with that pickle...

Maybe he already has done that with his pweshush pickle.

[CreepyCarrie]

Holy crap...

I have several suggestions for what that guy can do with his pickle, and all of them involve some degree of pain

[Becks]

Carrie, nah, a pineapple would work so much better.

[friendofjimmyk]

Oh DEAR LORD! You're kidding! I've never seen that video, THANK GOD! I have seen the Fish video, however...saw it in the training class for the company I currently work for. I also saw it in my Human Relations class last quarter...


but the pickle video - for $795 a pop! For that, the video better come with some, uh, special perks!

[Giggle Goose]

Would it be possbile to explain what this 'pickle' thing means??!! Dare I ask? Or is it something that everyone knows and I'm just missing?

[Antisocial_Worker]

Would it be possbile to explain what this 'pickle' thing means??!! Dare I ask? Or is it something that everyone knows and I'm just missing?

www.giveemthepickle.com

Please note that the founder of this life-changing management movement is, to judge by his picture on this website, some sort of pervert pickle-fondler. Something in his soulless, feral grin frightens me. Freezes the very marrow of my bones.

[Worker-Intellectual]

$795 a video!!!! Holy crap, this guy is making a killing off morons who shouldn't be running a business and have no idea what a bottom line is!

[Tuxian]

Would it be possbile to explain what this 'pickle' thing means??!! Dare I ask? Or is it something that everyone knows and I'm just missing?

It's something that we had a long, involved thread about on an older version of the forums. I'll boil it down here.

Bob Farrell was the man who ran Farrell's Ice Cream Parlor. Ever seen Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure? The place where Napoleon eats that huge ice cream sundae? That's tha place.

Well, after he left the ice cream business, he took over a burger chain. And the origin of the pickle story is thus:

Woman asks for extra pickles on her burger one day. Previous to this, pickles had been free. Either the policy had changed, or the employee had been told different, but she told the woman that it would be an extra nickle for more pickles. Woman proceeds to throw an SC-gasm over the fact she's being charged for more pickles.

Farrell's solution: Give 'em the pickle!

Basically, it boils down to "The Customer Is The Boss, and what The Boss Wants, The Boss Gets." Whether it be more pickles on a burger, a pen from a bank with their logo on it (that he saw, wanted, and then ripped off the chain that attached it to the counter and took), getting attention at a jewlery counter (by banging your keys on the glass), going to a fancy restaurant and being told there's a wait, asking to sit in an unmanned section of fhe floor while waiting for a table (and then calling Domino's Pizza for a delivery there because he didn't want to wait when "they had plenty of empty tables")...

The man is a nutcase, and so is anyone who listens to him. He thinks employees should cave and give the customer (Oh, wait, my bad, The Boss) whatever they ask for, no matter how outlandish.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

It's something that we had a long, involved thread about on an older version of the forums. I'll boil it down here.

Bob Farrell was the man who ran Farrell's Ice Cream Parlor. Ever seen Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure? The place where Napoleon eats that huge ice cream sundae? That's tha place.

Well, after he left the ice cream business, he took over a burger chain. And the origin of the pickle story is thus:

Woman asks for extra pickles on her burger one day. Previous to this, pickles had been free. Either the policy had changed, or the employee had been told different, but she told the woman that it would be an extra nickle for more pickles. Woman proceeds to throw an SC-gasm over the fact she's being charged for more pickles.

Farrell's solution: Give 'em the pickle!

Basically, it boils down to "The Customer Is The Boss, and what The Boss Wants, The Boss Gets." Whether it be more pickles on a burger, a pen from a bank with their logo on it (that he saw, wanted, and then ripped off the chain that attached it to the counter and took), getting attention at a jewlery counter (by banging your keys on the glass), going to a fancy restaurant and being told there's a wait, asking to sit in an unmanned section of fhe floor while waiting for a table (and then calling Domino's Pizza for a delivery there because he didn't want to wait when "they had plenty of empty tables")...

The man is a nutcase, and so is anyone who listens to him. He thinks employees should cave and give the customer (Oh, wait, my bad, The Boss) whatever they ask for, no matter how outlandish.

I say chain his ass to a cash register and let him run it for a month and listen to the endless barrage of SC's.

"You charged me xxx for xyz"

"I want to talk to your manager"

"But that's not what the sign said . . ."

"I didn't see it in the ad . . ."

"Can you open another register?"

repeat ad infinum, ad naseuam. If he's a big of a wuss as I suspect, he'll commit sideways with that damn pickle within a week.

[Giggle Goose]

Wow, I'm so sorry for anyone who has had to listen to idiocy like that! Sounds like this guy is someone who has never been on the front lines dealing with "The Boss" and just sees them as a dollar sign.

[MadMike]

It's something that we had a long, involved thread about on an older version of the forums. I'll boil it down here.

The book also had a 5-star rating on Amazon, until some of us came along and threw in our own . I think we managed to drive it down to 1 1/2 stars.