New Hire... Hazing?

One of my buddies' little brother just started his first sales gig out of college with a pretty well-known, large company so I was surprised to hear that his first couple weeks were marred by hazing.


He was left behind at the restaurant without transportation at his welcome lunch, was given ranch instead of creamer in his coffee, had his cellphone hidden in the women's bathroom, and was given a list of numbers of known to be deceased prospects to call.


Nothing really resembling the terrors of your stereotypical Greek life hazing, but I'd still be pissed if I was the dude just trying to get my feet wet for the first time in a professional setting. He's going along with it for now, but I thought it's interesting that stuff like that can still fly in today's HR-laden work culture.


Anyone else been hazed/do the hazing in the workplace?

Hazing in the workplace?

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34
poweredbycaffeine
WR Lieutenant
12
โ˜•๏ธ
This is a great way to increase churn. Bravo!
Kinonez
Celebrated Contributor
0
War Room Enthusiast
My thoughts exactly.ย 
CoorsKing
WR Officer
6
Retired King of the Coors Knights
That is terrible lol, never actually heard of legit corporate hazing before. Only thing I had to do was walk around with a balloon tied to me for the first day so people knew I was new and to introduce themselves.ย 
BigCheese
Notorious Answer
1
Agency Recruiter
Same! He made it sound like it's pretty typical in that company, or at least that office.ย 
CaneWolf
Politicker
6
Call me what you want, just sign the damn contract
Wtf is this nonsense? Are they fucking 12 years old?
BigCheese
Notorious Answer
0
Agency Recruiter
Seems like it
paddy
WR Officer
5
Director of Business Development
Ok that's fucked and over the top but the ranch thing is kinda funny...
BmajoR
Arsonist
2
Account Executive
You and I both picked "I do the hazing" and I'm not the least bit surprised. Over the top? Yeah. Funny? Definitely. Do I wish I thought of some of those? Absolutely.ย 
Kinonez
Celebrated Contributor
1
War Room Enthusiast
Thatโ€™s the one I would laugh if done to me
sketchysales
Politicker
1
Sales Manager
I chose been hazed but really they just replaced the sugar on my doughnut with salt.ย  Oh and fresh chilies in my bacon sandwich.ย 
BigCheese
Notorious Answer
0
Agency Recruiter
The salt for sugar one almost seems more of an inconvenience for them than you to replace all that lol
Rallier
Politicker
5
SDR Manager and Consultant
This isnโ€™t hazing, this is just bullying
BigCheese
Notorious Answer
0
Agency Recruiter
Tomato tomato - They go hand in hand, in my opinion.
TheSolicitorGeneral
Politicker
2
Small Market AE
I've been hazed when i worked in construction, but that's par for the course for the pill heads that I worked with. In an office setting, however, fuck no. I'd quit in 10 seconds. Fuck those clowns who have nothing better to do than pick on the new guy.
BigCheese
Notorious Answer
1
Agency Recruiter
Exactly, it's not a frat, you don't need to prove that you can hang.
CharmingSalesGal
Politicker
1
Account Executive
This is a thing!? WOW. I am shocked!!!
funcoupons
WR Officer
1
๐Ÿ‘‘
Do they not have an HR department?ย 

I love a good prank but some of those are just annoying as fuck.ย 
BigCheese
Notorious Answer
2
Agency Recruiter
Yeah they do, they're literally a F500 company, it's baffling to me lol.
funcoupons
WR Officer
1
๐Ÿ‘‘
Bizarre. One day someone's going to complain and they're all going to get fired.
BigCheese
Notorious Answer
1
Agency Recruiter
My thoughts too - told the dude to be careful with that.
sketchysales
Politicker
0
Sales Manager
Totally agree, a prank is one thing such as the cream cheese, thats not the worst but leaving behind with no transport at the welcome meal is taking it waaaayyy too far.
Whosaidit
Politicker
1
Business Development Representative
Ranch in coffee must be next level. If itโ€™s hidden valley though it might be due-able
funcoupons
WR Officer
1
๐Ÿ‘‘
I refuse to acknowledge that other ranch exists besides Hidden Valley.
BigCheese
Notorious Answer
1
Agency Recruiter
Hidden Valley ranch is the only monopoly that I'm okay with, besides the board game.
KendallRoy
Politicker
1
AM
Haven't come across this at any point in my career. I'd look at it as a red flag, especially if it's tolerated by management.ย ย 
BigCheese
Notorious Answer
0
Agency Recruiter
Yup, me too. Not a place I'd want to be at, let alone try and have a career there.
UserNotFound
Politicker
1
Account Executive
What the fuck...ย 
Nairobi
Politicker
1
AE
I would leave in a heartbeat, big company or not, IDGF. Thatโ€™s insane that people tolerate this
BigCheese
Notorious Answer
1
Agency Recruiter
My thoughts too.
NorthernSalesGuru
Politicker
1
Manager, Outbound Sales
If you started in door to door (B2B) commission sales like I did, you know hazing is real. Itโ€™s just such a bro culture.
BigCheese
Notorious Answer
1
Agency Recruiter
I actually did door-to-door B2C right after college which absolutely awful, but hazing wasn't apparent - worked with mainly Mormons lol. Not surprised about your experience though.ย 
NorthernSalesGuru
Politicker
0
Manager, Outbound Sales
Yeah it was definitely more of a โ€œWild Westโ€ atmosphere
DrunkenArt
Politicker
1
Sales Representative
I didn't know people hazed in a professional environment. Sure it's okay to joke around but this stuff seems like it crosses the line
BigCheese
Notorious Answer
0
Agency Recruiter
Yeah I've never witnessed anything like that. I would assume you just need one person to report it to HR to bring it all down.
CuriousFox
WR Officer
1
๐ŸฆŠ
None of this shit is ok. Where the fuck are the grown ups?
BigCheese
Notorious Answer
1
Agency Recruiter
PTO apparently lol
Kinonez
Celebrated Contributor
1
War Room Enthusiast
This is terrible, best way to grow a team apart for sure. The churn will hit through the roof and HR will be hiring every month.ย 
BigCheese
Notorious Answer
1
Agency Recruiter
100% seems like a revolving door work environment
Kinonez
Celebrated Contributor
0
War Room Enthusiast
Yeah itโ€™s amazing how companies think this is a good idea especially when they can be legally hurt by this.ย 
Smithy
Politicker
1
Director of Sales
This is one of the dumbest things I've heard of and very frat boy/laddish.

Pranks are one thing, but those are just dumb. That really isn't the sort of culture to build anything on
BigCheese
Notorious Answer
0
Agency Recruiter
Exactly, especially while trying to acclimate to your first professional role.
Beans
Big Shot
1
Enterprise Account Executive
Sounds toxic.ย 
Telehealth_2the_Moon
Notable Contributor
1
Director of Business Development
Wow that's some bullshit there. I think the most I've ever seen personally was light ball busting and such. That sounds like a pretty shit place to be.ย 
BigCheese
Notorious Answer
1
Agency Recruiter
Not my cup o' tea
SADNES5
Politicker
1
down voters are marketing spies
Nice toxic workplace he has there... If I EVER find out my team did this. GONE.
BigCheese
Notorious Answer
1
Agency Recruiter
Yeah, something's gotta be done there.
drfsrich
1
Sr. Manager, Sales Ops
At the pizza place that was my first job we used to send people to the basement for supplies.

There wasn't one. ย One dude tried to open the grease trap. ย 

Harmless fun, if everyone (including the target) can laugh after it, it's all good. ย Being mean sucks.
BigCheese
Notorious Answer
0
Agency Recruiter
See, that's funny, easy, and 0 harm done. That's actually great lol. I don't understand the need for bullying in general, let alone in an organized fashion at the workplace.
aiko
Politicker
1
Sr. Account Executive
Unless you count being the only SDR to 9 AEs as hazing, I wasn't intentionally hazed.ย 
aiko
Politicker
1
Sr. Account Executive
I feel bad for your rep. I would be the bigger person and help him out :/.ย 
BigCheese
Notorious Answer
0
Agency Recruiter
Not my rep or company, but I would step in if I was there.
OnlySales
Opinionated
1
Regional Enterprise Sales Manager
He needs to go to HR and then get the fuck out of thereโ€ฆ Iโ€™m wondering if itโ€™s the company Iโ€™m thinking of because I heard about this. Staffing company at a big city on the east coast? ๐Ÿง๐Ÿง
OnlySales
Opinionated
1
Regional Enterprise Sales Manager
Oh and then needs to review it poorly on Glassdoor so others can avoid it like the plague
BigCheese
Notorious Answer
0
Agency Recruiter
That particular office has a 4.5 star review lol. I don't think HR doesn't do anything besides push paper.
draculina
Fire Starter
1
process development specialist
When you said hazed, I imagined something like making (mostly harmless jokes) in their expense etc. This is straight up weird. I personally wasn't hazed (sales support/tender management sorta position) and most hazing in sales I've seen was having the new person buy dessert with their first salary and like i mentioned, jokes. Wtf was that bullshit. Poor kid.
BigCheese
Notorious Answer
1
Agency Recruiter
Yeah, see I don't mind harmless jokes to break the ice and welcome the new recruit but this is over the top. I've talked to him since this post and he said that even the other new coworkers are all down for it too and are looking forward to the next hire. Seems like something they all get off on.
SignThis_SalesGirl
Good Citizen
1
Director of Business Development
Definitely a little extreme ... How old are his colleagues? Maybe they're all stuck in the collegiate mindset. Time for a wake up call
BigCheese
Notorious Answer
0
Agency Recruiter
He said like mid-upper 20's, sounds like all the AEs just reliving the frat days
GDO
Politicker
0
BDM
Thatยดs just stupid. Why would a company allow it. The worst I had to do was sing a song or something.
BigCheese
Notorious Answer
0
Agency Recruiter
Being forced to sing can be quite traumatic though
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