Franchisees behave as if they were prey creatures. Under extreme stress (in the clutches of a predator) they “freeze”.
The “lifers” have learned to become hyper-sensitive to danger. They cope in the one way they can: keep their mouth shut, especially to outsiders.
Franchisee Trauma is the Franchisors Stock-in-Trade: Only franchisees and their spouses know the pain of the abuse (violence in word form) that their franchisors have doled out over the years. Name-calling, intimidation, vulgarity, threats, shame-humiliation: intentionally done in front of your peers and staff. Opportunistic behavior designed to demonstrate who is “it” and who is siht. That you have lost control of your life. That you are the weak; that you are worthless. Impotent.
But most of all: alone and dependent.
Mammals has evolved over millions of years to survive in only 3 ways: fight, flight or freeze.
Tim Hortons franchisees cannot talk for many explainable reasons:
- experts in trauma psychology know that voicelessness is very closely aligned to powerlessness.