'Epic' letter of resignation from Whole Foods employee goes viral

(All Rights Reserved)

It's not as dramatic as the JetBlue exit. But a 2,324-word letter of resignation penned by a disgruntled Whole Foods worker from Toronto has gone viral for calling out the company on business practices he says contradicts their green, organic, do-gooder reputation.

The email, sent to every employee in the system this month, is one long diatribe that alternately lambastes the company's corporate policies and actual business operations, and then goes on to fire off personal missives against his colleagues.

When a fed-up JetBlue flight attendant, Steven Slater, quit last year by famously pulling the emergency chute on his plane, dramatic resignations became known as 'pulling a JetBlue.'

Though much less theatrical, the 'epic' Whole Foods letter - first picked up by popular blog Gawker - has been making the rounds on the internet with mentions on the Huffington Post, Eater.com, and The Daily Mail in the UK.

In the letter, the unidentified bulk food buyer describes the chain as a "faux hippy Wal-mart," and accuses Whole Foods for things like failing to recycle properly, wasting energy, paper and food, selling unhealthy goods, and mistreating workers.

But the employee also has a personal axe to grind and launches into a merciless verbal attack against colleagues which he identifies by name - and that's perhaps where the employee's credibility fails him, Gawker points out. In a spectacular series of jabs, the writer proceeds to call one a sociopath, another a chauvinist and yet another a "cowardly wiener."

Here are a few accusations the writer makes in relation to the company's 'core values.' Whole Foods has not commented on the letter.

"Oh, you don't recycle properly? (Caring about our communities and our environment)"
"Oh, you throw out enough food to feed a lot of hungry university students. (Caring about our communities and our environment)"
"Oh, you waste an absurd amount of energy, ink and paper in your offices for useless bureaucratic nonsense. (Caring about our communities and our environment, Supporting team member happiness and excellence, )"
"Oh, you sometimes intentionally order too much just to guarantee a full shelf, knowing full well the product will most likely be thrown out? (Caring about our communities and our environment)"
"The pizza used to be pretty good but the slices have shrunk, the toppings are sparser and it's usually extremely overcooked" (We sell the highest quality natural and organic products available)
"A lot of the stuff in Whole Body doesn't even work or has absolutely no credible evidence to back any claims up..."

To read the full letter, go to http://gawker.com/5824287/read-a-disgruntled-whole-foods-employees-epic-resignation-letter.