Trader Joe’s Worker on Upper West Side Fired for Not Smiling Enough, He Says

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — You've been there before. You just want to pay for your almond milk and get out of Trader Joe's, but the next thing you know some guy in a Hawaiian shirt is talking your ear off about rice milk, coconut milk, soy milk, and hey, have you heard of hemp milk?

But have you ever wondered if there's something behind that too-good-to-be-true attitude?

A worker at the Upper West Side location of Trader Joe's is filing a suit against the supermarket for improper labor practices and being fired because he wasn't bubbly enough, the New York Times reported.

Thomas Nagle worked at the Trader Joe's on Broadway and West 72nd Street for years, but was eventually let go because, as he says, he stopped delivering the “Wow customer experience," according to the report.

Nagle secretly taped performance evaluations with his manager in which he was reprimanded for not smiling enough, and not being genuinely happy to see his boss, the Times reported.

“I don’t remember the last time I’ve seen you like genuinely smile,” one manager said in the tapes show to the New York Times.

In his final evaluation before being canned a manager told Nagle, "It’s not like, 'Hey what’s going on,' it’s like 'Heh,'” reported the Times.

Nagle had become dissatisfied with the workplace environment at Trader Joe's and in his complaint filed with the National Labor Relations Board he cited managers that would scold employees over the public address system, harsh fumes and stock falling on workers, reported the Times.

In response to the allegations Trader Joe's sent the Times this statement:

“We do not fire crew members for trivial reasons. We pride ourselves on operating our business with integrity and adhering to the law at all times.”

>>> Read the full New York Times article here.

Photo: Google Maps street view crica September 2014