mutiny of the bountiful

This past summer my Weight Watchers meeting moved to a new location and got a new leader.  Roz is a perfectly nice woman but ineffectual at leading our group.

After giving Roz a fair chance, we expressed our dissatisfaction to her manager, Randi.  We wrote emails.  We started a Facebook page.  We called.  We met privately.  And still, no changes were made.  Some longtime members even quit Weight Watchers after years of loyalty.

So it’s been months.  Our group has stopped attending the 9:30 Wednesday morning meeting.  But we decide to come today to see if Roz has improved.  About fifteen of us show up.

Roz is cheery and bubbly, handing out bravos for any small victory.  “I walked by a pizza place today and didn’t go in.”  “Yea, let’s give Lisa a round of applause.”  Roz encourages a woman who tells us she’s constipated by asking if anyone else is having the same problem.  I lose my appetite for the VitaMuffin I’m eating.  Roz also poses thought-provoking questions.  “Can anyone tell me why we grocery shop?”  For this I walked ten blocks in sub-freezing weather?

But — it turns out that both Randi and her boss (no one can remember her name so I’ll refer to her as RB for Randi’s boss) are monitoring this class.  Perfect!  After the class, our large group approaches Randi and RB and we have an impromptu hallway meeting.  In short, we again express our concerns and frustrations, and we are again given corporate non-answers back.  But we are promised a response within two weeks.  We'll be told then if Roz can be replaced.

Someone asks RB, “And how will your decision be communicated to us?”  RB replies,   “I can’t answer that.  I’ll need to check with our HR Department.”  I bet she found the question about why we grocery shop a difficult one too.

Our great little group is not hopeful of a positive outcome. 

In the meantime, I’m up ten pounds from two years ago, four pounds from a year ago. I go to Fairway after the meeting and don't buy a chicken pot pie.  I am proud of the bravo Roz would have given me.