So it's September of 1997, I'm driving my garbage truck almost at the end of my route. It's raining heavily and I'm soaked to the skin. I get a call on the radio from Jeff, the big boss at the company telling me to come upstairs and see him as soon as I'm done . Oh boy, what am I in trouble for now? I make my way back to the yard and with wet hair clinging to my cheeks and enter the office. Two other drivers are already there along with Jeff. The boss announces that the route supervisor had given notice of leaving and would one of us be interested in taking that position.
The boss also says there will be a pay raise and a company truck to whoever takes the job. He doesn't want an answer right then, just go home and think about it and get back to him. I found it strange that he was asking all three of us at once and said as much to him.
I come home and Christy is at work. I go around the corner to my friend Dan's house and he's not home either. I had no one to talk this over with. So I pace the floor thinking should I do this or not. My knees and back were getting worse from years of wear and tear and I liked the idea of not driving the truck and not dumping cans. On the negative side this is the dreaded middle management position, taking heat from all sides. The owners, the customers, the crew and just about everyone else.
After much thought I called back to work and accepted the position that afternoon. Jeff was glad to hear it but there was a catch. I had to attend a training seminar from an outfit called Rapport Leadership International. This is a three day seminar held at an old ranch out in the middle of the Nevada desert about, 100 miles east of Las Vegas. Jeff and some of the other owners of STR had been through this training as well. I agree to go through with this and Jeff signs me up for this program and makes plane reservations.
After a bit I start getting newsletters from this Rapport outfit. They are all really vague as to what they're really about and whats in this training. I ask the owners at STR and they won't talk about it either, it's all a big secret. Then shortly before my departure for the desert, Jeff hands me a paper sack containing an odd assortment of items. A little plastic knife like a kid would play with, some cough drops, a compass, a package of balloons and some other stuff. Again with no explanation.
The big day arrives and I fly into Vegas and take a cab to this office building where this outfit is headquartered, duffel bag with fresh clothes in one hand and my little sack that Jeff gave me in the other. I walk into this room and there's about thirty people there all with there little paper sacks and over night bags. Everyone is full of questions. "What's this all about?", "what am I supposed to do with these kiddy toys my boss gave me?".Suddenly a very large black man dressed all in black enters the room and starts shouting at everyone to set down there suitcases and paper bags and form a line single file, shoulder to shoulder and there's to be no talking. The guy standing next to me saw I was wearing a Dale Earnhardt t shirt and whispered he is a fan to. The big guy in black heard him and got in his face shouting at him to shut up and then glared at me.
We were then instructed gather up our stuff and to pile into the vans outside for our trip to Rainbow Ranch, "and NO talking". It was a long bumpy ride on the unpaved desert road.Me and my new NASCAR fan buddy sat in the back of the van comparing the odd items given to us by our bosses in our paper sacks.
Rainbow Ranch was at one time a real working ranch, although old it's in pretty fair shape. A large dining hall and kitchen with several adjoining rooms that had bunk beds and a couple of bathrooms at the end of the hall. There is a river off in the distance with some trees but we were immediately told that it was off limits to go over to the river.
I was assigned to one of the rooms to share with three other guys.Once in the safe confines of our bunkhouse everyone wants to know "why are they yelling at us?", "what kind of program is this?". One guy says he'd been in the military and that's how they treat you in boot camp. Break you down, then fill you with their propaganda and then build you back up with all kinds of positive talk making you believe the bullshit.
In no time at at all we were all called in for our first training session or class or whatever the heck it was. There was a blond woman all dressed in black and right off the bat she starts shouting at everyone to shut up and pay attention.We are all wearing name tags and she calls on me first to give a speech on the importance of punctuality, five minutes in lenght. Oh yeah and you have to say everything in a very loud voice and you also have to address everyone there by their last names. So as the seconds tick by I gave it my best shot. I did okay but the last couple of minutes I'd run out of stuff to talk about punctuality so I resorted to telling jokes. The blond in black called on a woman after me and this lady was pissed off. She says "Everybody here had there company pay for them to be here. I'm self employed and I didn't pay 600 bucks to be yelled at and treated this way". She was told they would give her a ride back to Vegas and her 600 dollars was un refundable.
We were forced to write letters to friends family or our bosses saying how much we loved being there and what a positive experience it was and that they to should sign up for the "training". After writing numerous essays and shouting out lots of speeches on the most ludicrous of topics, group hugs and a bunch of other nonsense, we got closer to graduation.
Now this final day at this place was most interesting. You were required to give an impassioned speech about how much you got out of the time you spent at Rainbow Ranch and the training. If you don't do it good enough you have to keep doing it until the people in the black clothes are satisfied. The first person chosen gave a good talk but the harsh instructors said "not good enough, not enough emotion". I'm called up next. Now I'd seen thru this whole scam early on, plus I figure I'll never see these people again so what do I care. I take the floor and go all out. Flailing my arms about and shouting what a marvelous journey this has been and now I'm a changed man. I throw myself to the floor and start crying and blubbering what a wonderful program it is.
I passed with flying colors. A nod to my brother Eric, you're not the only actor in the family!So I set the bar pretty high for the rest of the contestants. After my performance everyone was rolling around on the floor and doing anything they could to get approval of the people in black.Once that was all done we sat in a circle and the lady in black goes on to explain the more advanced class that is more physical in nature and gives out the dates and then she passes around a sign up sheet for the date you want and the big black guy is there with a device to slide there credit cards through.And you know what? Everyone but me signs up for phase 2 ,even the girl that was so angry at the beginning. Brain washing at its finest my friends.
So after they get every ones money to come back and climb ropes and walk on burning coals(yes, that was part of phase 2)we are all marched out to the back deck of the ranch house and shout out the "America The Beautiful" ., the full song. There were only three people in attendance to watch this . Two of them being my boss and his wife . I thought that was cool as they came all that way to hear me do this and then drive me back to the airport. My throat was as everybody elses extremely hoarse from shouting for three days. And yes, if you didn't shout it out loud enough you had to keep doing it until you were approved by the people in black.
Now I can't say this whole thing was useless. I came away with more self confidence and I found out how easily people can be manipulated. Looking back on it I guess in some ways it helped me(but mostly it was bullshit). Oh a couple of last things. The paper sacks with kid toys? Really they meant nothing other than to make you curious and nervous about what your going to be involved with in this adventure. This outfit was sued out of existence as there were many injuries during phase two. Some people had there toenails catch fire while walking on the hot coals and suffered severe burns. The safety harness failed while people were climbing the rope and there were broken bones. The cafeteria failed many inspections by the health dept.
Another thing I learned while there was from and older gentlleman who was a CEO for a large steel company and was in charge of a huge number of employees . I expressed my nervousnes about becoming the new supervisor at the garbage co.. As we had lunch together one day I asked....Should I be strict?... should I be freindly? Or what? He told me quite simply "Bob, just be yourself". Good advice. Well it was good advice for a long time and then they got tired of old Bob at work and was abruptly shown the door.But thats a whole ' nother story.
Take care, Bob
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