The Musical Chick-Fil-A Tradition You Never Knew About
Here's one for anyone who ever sang, "Happy, happy birthday / From all of us to you / We wish it was our birthday / So we could party too, HEY!" If you thought that was bad, just be glad you weren't a Chick-fil-A employee in the 1980s. Chick-fil-A is famous (or perhaps infamous) for business practices that often reflect a religious and staunchly conservative moral compass, but that doesn't mean the people flipping your chicken and handing out little packets of liquid gold (aka Chick-Fil-A sauce) are all given a hymnal sheet to sing from while they work, does it? Apparently in the '80s, it kind of did.
According to Business Insider, one of the unique business practices promoted by the fast-food chain was encouraging workers to sing their company's praises. Literally. The blog quotes Michelle Nickerson's 2014 book Sunbelt Rising: The Politics of Space, Place, and Region, and its study of Chick-fil-A's approach to team unity. Apparently, the founder of CFA wanted to present the restaurant as "a devoted, hard-working, harmonious, purposeful family — a corporate facsimile of the ideal suburban family." And as we all know, the family that sings together, stays together.
Some things are just complicated
One of the songs meant to display devotion was called "Movin' On," and, while we don't know the tune, the lyrics went something like this: "Chick-fil-A we're movin' on / Chick-fil-A we're growin' strong / We're one big happy family / That's the way at Chick-fil-A" (via Sunbelt Rising: The Politics of Space, Place, and Region).
Now, Chick-Fil-A has done a lot of worse things than forcing it's employees to hum a happy tune — for instance, donating money to organizations that are in opposition to same-sex marriage, as Snopes reports. It's also done a lot of better things, like donating to charity. But, it's also done a lot of worse things, like discriminating against employees based on religion (via Forbes) and gender (via GLAAD). On the other hand, it's also done a lot of better things, like sending kids to college. (Plus, those famous Chick-fil-A sauces.) So, 'round and 'round we go, Chick-fil-A, and according to your website, this will be your 75th year in the biz. Which means there's only one thing left to say...
"This is your birthday song / And it's not very long / HEY!!"