100 signatures reached
To: Hobby Lobby Corporate
Hobby Lobby Music Change
Below is the initial letter I sent to corporate. I’m asking other employees who agree with me to sign this petition so that we can kindly show corporate the importance of making a change like this in their stores. Thanks for any and all support!
Dear Mr. Green (or to whomever this may apply),
Let me start by saying that I’m super grateful to work where I do with the people that I do. This letter is in no way meant to speak negatively towards Hobby Lobby or the higher-ups at corporate, but on the contrary, is sent out of a desire for positive change. As a loyal employee who has been with the company for almost 3 years now, I just wanted to bring something to the attention of those who don’t work directly in the stores. The main music playlist that y’all distribute to the store locations which plays over the loudspeakers has been the same for the entire time I have worked here. Of course, it changes for the Christmas season, but, besides that, I have been listening to the same set of songs for almost three years. To some, this may not seem like a big deal, but let me explain my concern. As a musician and just a general lover of all things music, music is something that my brain is just attuned to focus on wherever I am. Whether I’m at work, in the car, or at the grocery store, music is all around. Music is known to help change people’s mood, be therapeutic and healing, and most importantly is a huge form of how we worship the Lord. All that to say, the music we listen to on a daily basis makes a big impact on us. So imagine walking into the Hobby Lobby store every single day for weeks and months on end like many of your long-time employees do and hearing the exact same set of songs on loop. Over and over and over and over. After a while, you start to feel like you’re in the twilight zone. It starts to feel never-ending. And personally, it affects my mood daily. I can literally sing and hum along to each and every note of every song subconsciously at this point. Because of this, I tend to get agitated super easily and it affects the whole work day. I’ve talked with many of my coworkers that feel the same. Now yes, many of us joke that we tend to just tune out the music at this point, but I would still bet that it’s having some form of effect on everyone who works in that environment. When it’s your job to be at that store for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, the music situation becomes frustrating. Like with anything in life, things get old after a while. Change is good and necessary. Your employees spend a lot of their time and effort at Hobby Lobby, they should be able to focus on their tasks and enjoy their time working, while simultaneously cultivating a peaceful environment for those shopping at the store. Also mental health is a huge issue being brought to light in our society right now. This music situation is something that may seem low-key, but can definitely affect people mentally over time. So what’s the solution here? Simple. I would suggest having someone at corporate curate a new playlist of songs (a completely new set of songs, not just a few new ones thrown in with the old ones) to distribute to the stores once every four to six months, and change up the Christmas playlist each year. This way the music never feels stale to the employees or the customers. Overall I feel like you will see a change in the attitudes of the longer-term employees, and it’ll help keep daily morale up. I assume y’all have to use instrumental music for copyright purposes, and although there are a few songs from the past decade on the list, most of the songs are from the late 90s/early 2000s or earlier. If Chick-fil-A is able to have instrumental worship music that is current to the times, then surely Hobby Lobby can too. Music is such a powerful thing, and we should be using it wisely. Thank you for listening and I hope you highly consider what I have presented.
Travis Hester
Store 822
Dear Mr. Green (or to whomever this may apply),
Let me start by saying that I’m super grateful to work where I do with the people that I do. This letter is in no way meant to speak negatively towards Hobby Lobby or the higher-ups at corporate, but on the contrary, is sent out of a desire for positive change. As a loyal employee who has been with the company for almost 3 years now, I just wanted to bring something to the attention of those who don’t work directly in the stores. The main music playlist that y’all distribute to the store locations which plays over the loudspeakers has been the same for the entire time I have worked here. Of course, it changes for the Christmas season, but, besides that, I have been listening to the same set of songs for almost three years. To some, this may not seem like a big deal, but let me explain my concern. As a musician and just a general lover of all things music, music is something that my brain is just attuned to focus on wherever I am. Whether I’m at work, in the car, or at the grocery store, music is all around. Music is known to help change people’s mood, be therapeutic and healing, and most importantly is a huge form of how we worship the Lord. All that to say, the music we listen to on a daily basis makes a big impact on us. So imagine walking into the Hobby Lobby store every single day for weeks and months on end like many of your long-time employees do and hearing the exact same set of songs on loop. Over and over and over and over. After a while, you start to feel like you’re in the twilight zone. It starts to feel never-ending. And personally, it affects my mood daily. I can literally sing and hum along to each and every note of every song subconsciously at this point. Because of this, I tend to get agitated super easily and it affects the whole work day. I’ve talked with many of my coworkers that feel the same. Now yes, many of us joke that we tend to just tune out the music at this point, but I would still bet that it’s having some form of effect on everyone who works in that environment. When it’s your job to be at that store for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, the music situation becomes frustrating. Like with anything in life, things get old after a while. Change is good and necessary. Your employees spend a lot of their time and effort at Hobby Lobby, they should be able to focus on their tasks and enjoy their time working, while simultaneously cultivating a peaceful environment for those shopping at the store. Also mental health is a huge issue being brought to light in our society right now. This music situation is something that may seem low-key, but can definitely affect people mentally over time. So what’s the solution here? Simple. I would suggest having someone at corporate curate a new playlist of songs (a completely new set of songs, not just a few new ones thrown in with the old ones) to distribute to the stores once every four to six months, and change up the Christmas playlist each year. This way the music never feels stale to the employees or the customers. Overall I feel like you will see a change in the attitudes of the longer-term employees, and it’ll help keep daily morale up. I assume y’all have to use instrumental music for copyright purposes, and although there are a few songs from the past decade on the list, most of the songs are from the late 90s/early 2000s or earlier. If Chick-fil-A is able to have instrumental worship music that is current to the times, then surely Hobby Lobby can too. Music is such a powerful thing, and we should be using it wisely. Thank you for listening and I hope you highly consider what I have presented.
Travis Hester
Store 822
Why is this important?
As Hobby Lobby employees, we pour our time and energy into our respective stores on a daily, weekly, and yearly basis. As the store employees, we are the ones who have to live with the environment of the store and everything that entails; including the customers, the products, and the music that constantly plays throughout the day. It’s only fair to provide a welcoming and uplifting workspace that keeps the workers and shoppers feeling creative and loved. Also, for the mental health of those of us working at the store level, it’s imperative that the music changes, just as the seasons change, layouts of each department change, products change. It keeps us moving forward in a healthy way.
How it will be delivered
I have already sent the above letter to corporate where I’ve been informed that they’ve seen it. Unfortunately nothing has been done about the music thus far. I’m hoping that if more employees show their desire for change by signing this petition, we can get corporates attention and have them finally take action on the issue.