Jenny, Jenny, Who Can I Turn To?
I have a dirty, dirty secret.
Umm, that's not what MY Jenny meal looked like.
It was 1992 and I was a young fun lovin’ single gal who had just moved to Atlanta after college graduation. The music scene was thrilling, the climate mild and temperate and you could rent a historic two bedroom apartment downtown with the fifty cents you managed to scrape out of your couch cushions. In other words, a slackers paradise.
After about two months of fun and frolic it was time to subsidise my lifestyle with a job. Why I didn’t look for work in my field is still a mystery, but I happened across an ad looking for Jenny Craig “consultants” and I applied immediately. I was guaranteed decent pay, benefits, and thorough training.
With no idea what I had signed up for, I was in.
I was cute, perky, and needed to lose a little chunk myself so I was the ideal candidate. After several heartfelt speeches from the management about how we were there to make a difference in peoples lives we were locked in a giant “training” room to endure the stylings of our instructors for eight hours a day for two weeks.
I remember a lot of doodling, some note taking and too few bathroom breaks .
Strange that what I remember most was not the outrageousness of their claims nor the price of their prepackaged meals but the size of their marketing department.
Some of the lowly trainees pointed out that even with the minimal lifestyle changes the fake dietician would be touting the clients would be fucked as soon as they went off the calorie restrictive slop that passed as food.
At that point they got slapped for being enemies of the program and sent packing. They did this so as not to taint the pool of trainees that could manage to stick around for the rest of the two weeks.
That’s another problem most of the potential employees had. The “experts” you were talking to about your health, your struggles, your hopes and dreams for a thin future were falling of the deaf ears of overworked minimum wage employees who probably had less dietary knowledge and understanding of overall health than your recent prison parolee. You were also “asked” to start purchasing Jenny Craig meals to take home with you so you could speak with true authority about the yummy deliciousness of what you were selling.
Back then I had no idea nor did I care that the weight loss industry was a forty billion dollar a year monster trying to bilk every last cent out of those who were desperate to achieve their ideal weight. I wanted enough money in my pockets so I could stop scouting watering holes for five cent drafts on weekends and drink real beer…with wings.
I only lasted two months with Jenny. I wish now I had spent some time looking at some of their claims with scientific eyes and stealing files for the scorching inside man expose I could have written. But I didn’t.
All I knew was that the program didn’t work. My “clients” didn’t lose the kind of weight they expected nor did they keep off the pounds they did manage to lose. There wasn’t a realistic plan for people going off Jenny’s cuisine and back on real human food. I know this because I kept in touch with some of these people for years.
They didn’t have an answer about what to do when they found themselves having to go out to eat (bring a Jenny meal!) or facing an onslaught of holiday goodies. They wanted these poor sheep signed up and feasting on goop from the big freezer as soon as possible. (A majority of Jenny’s profits come from the prepackaged meals) We were pimping Jenny and all she stood for.
Finally my anarchist friend put her combat boot down and read me the riot grrrl act. She told me I had no business working in a place that dictated what women should look like and wanted to control their bodies. I didn’t really understand what the fuck she was talking about at the time, all I knew was that I felt like Norma Rae standing on the factory table with her Union sign and I wasn’t sure why.
I slept in the next morning and blew off work to make her happy. The phone call from my supervisor came a half hour later and instead of giving her a slice of truth I made up an excuse about my Nana passing away. When my mother got wind of that she was nearly able to teleport to Atlanta from NY on the power of anger alone to kick my ass.
So to sum up.
Jenny Craig is a rip off and a big fat lie.
They killed my Nana.
Wait a second… how do we know you’re not still working for Jenny Craig and you’re not just a plant sent here to spy on the Fat Acceptance community to learn how to best market more frozen meals to fatties?
And to think, I trusted you!
Peace,
Shannon
I have a fantastic frozen chicken marsala that I can send you. Provided you sign on for at least a years worth of “counseling”.
Okay!
Hey, wait a minute…
Peace,
Shannon
working for jenny craig…ick…reminds me of a friend’s mom..who doesnt eat for a week at the end of every month…because all the trainers have a weigh in at weight watchers, and if shes toof at she’ll lose her job…hows that for freaking diet secruity…./shudder
That was the part that I should have found so appalling as I sat there like a moron. The woman at the front of the room was basically telling me that I had to drop weight to properly represent their company. While I was sitting there dreaming of the Bass Ale and spicy fries I would be ordering at 6:00 pm she went on and on about being the “face” of Jenny and how we would be held up to some pretty high standards.
I was young, hungry and wading in the shallow end of the pool at that point in my life but even working with so few cards in the deck I did recognize the insanity. I just wasn’t motivated enough to do something real about it. I just stuck my head in the sand and ran away when I got sick of it. The true cowards way out but a way out none the less.
That is a dirty dirty secret, but we all havent been as amazing as we are now for all of our lives. Glad your friend kicked you in the ass and now we have your wonderful presence here.
Funny, I still have that friend and she always has a great story about that period in our lives. She still kicks me in the ass too- minus the combat boots.
LOL Great story, glad you came to your senses eventually. Also, GREAT punchline, I laughed hard!
Thanks. Youth and foolishness go hand in hand.
Wow, is this the thread I needed to comment on!
I worked for Jenny, and rose fairly high up as a manager of one of the biggest centres in the company. It took me a while to realize it, but that job crushed my soul.
Jenny Craig does NOT care if anyone loses weight on their program. I saw morbidly obese people coming in every week, buying a full week of food, and staying morbidly obese because they still ate their Chinese takeout in addition to the Jenny food. We didn’t care, as long as they kept buying. Food addiction? Tough, go to a therapist, we’re not there for your mental health. Consultants are paid based on how much they sell, not how much their clients lose. The consultants who had 2-week clients who bought were more highly valued than those that had 2-year maintenance clients. Ass-backwards for people who tell you maintenance is “OUR” goal at the sales pitch.
They also do not play fairly internally and will screw their own employees out of just compensation. Most centres (plus they don’t spell “center” right) are open 6 days a week, mine was 7. Yet our monthly quota was calculated based on 6 days. Long story short, as my monthly deposits grew, mathematically I never made quota, just because they decided to expand hours on my centre alone, and eventually was put on probation because of it. I knew it wasn’t fair, my supervisor was shocked I figured it out when I brought it to her attention, she knew it all along but did NOTHING to help me, just kept writing me up. I had employees that stole food from the food room and money out of my purse, and she wouldn’t let me fire them. During all of this time I wasn’t getting bonuses, she often commented on how I needed to buy new suits. With what, bitch?
Jenny Craig is full of corporate whores, the upper eschelons of the marketing department bow to the almighty dollar, and the only ones who care about your weight loss are MAYBE the consultants who get paid shit. Fail.
Hey, if you’d like to write a guest post detailing your experience, we’d gladly welcome it. I like the idea of a Jenny Craig expose.
Peace,
Shannon
It may take me a while to mull and compile, but I think it would be good for me and my soul to purge the evil that is Jenny Craig from my psyche. Let me know if you want certain specifics, I’d be happy to work on it.
Definitely mull it over. I have no idea what specifics I’d want to ask since I don’t know what goes on behind closed doors. But just think about what bothered you the most, what frustrated you the most, and, most importantly, what *they* don’t want their customers to know. A lot of what you wrote in your comment would qualify. Maybe expand on that, think of specific examples. Flesh it out and tell your story in full and let us know what it was like to work there. Kick it around a while, punch it out and send it to me. I’ll happily post it.
Peace,
Shannon
OOhhhh girl! How did you last that long? You have GOT to write your tell all. Especially considering that I didn’t even last three months.