Comments

1
Of all the horrors of modern day retail is this software that creates schedules that are nearly impossible to live by. I'm shocked that alone hasn't lead to more strikes
2
Seattle is becoming a city of Whiners.
3
Jesus Christ, You got a fucking job get to work and shut the hell up! Quit being a bunch of crybabeeee wussies. Enough.
4
Even prior to a full city-wide bill, the council could make such fair scheduling of those employed be a part of the public benefit measure used for street and alley vacations.

The Seattle City Council is slated to vote on the Occidental Avenue street vacation for Hansen's SoDo arena and a whole bunch of arena employees are low wage and part time. Considering events are usually scheduled well in advance and all the tax breaks being given to the arena, it would be fairly easy to test the waters for this type of legislation by requiring it on that project.

http://www.seattle.gov/dpd/cityplanning/…
5
Shorter (albeit longer) @3: "I want my Double-Tall Extra-Hot Soy Triple-Pump Vanilla Chai Latte - AND I WANT IT NOW, you worthless piece of shit! And no I DON'T care if you're running on six hours turnaround or working three jobs to pay off your student loans - you're a fucking barista - DO MY BIDDING, MINION!"
6
@1:

And it's not just scheduling: algorithms are now designed to precisely pinpoint how many keystrokes-per-minute, widgets-per-hour, or dollars-per-shift an employee is expected to generate, and woe betide the hapless Minimum-Wage grunt who falls below the scientifically-analyzed, mathematically-calculated, management-required quota even for a fraction of a second.

About a hundred years ago we feared we'd all be living in a future where machines threatened to take away our jobs; instead we've created a future where WE are expected to BE the machines, to the point that today we treat corporations like people and people like things. So far as those who play the Game of Capitalism are concerned, any living, breathing human being below the level of Executive Vice President is nothing more than a commodity, a meat-device the only purpose of which is to generate profit for the greater glory of the Corporation and the enrichment of the Shareholder.
7
@2 you should leave and not come back.
8
@6: Metrics by management are also required for programmers, writers, managers, and on up the "white-collar" food chain as well. More often than not, they improve efficiency and give us more time in the end.
9
Why wasn't this done way before the $15/hr BS?
I'm usually anti-labor-regulation but "give people sufficient notice to plan their lives if you are going to change their hours constantly and require they show up" is not a burden to any manager that's even half-way competent.
11
@10:

What you call "lack of responsibility" could just as easily be a desperate need to prioritize responsibilities, because what they really lack is a dependable schedule, one that gives them some minimum assurance of having a relatively set number of hours per week on a reasonably predictable time-frame, so they don't have to bail on a shift at the last minute because they have to take a child to a doctor's appointment, or to a school activity, or have their car fixed, or any of a score of other things people need to get done that can be nearly impossible to accomplish when ones hours are jerked around from week-to-week or even day-to-day by this sort of "flexibility".
12
+1 to Comte. Tough crowd here. Why is the poorest paid workers who gets the least representation, often less protection, are so pissed upon? I guess those who are kvetching over this never had to call in sick, take a day off for a colonoscopy, or work a second job where having a reliable advanced schedule makes you a better and responsible worker in both jobs because you know, it's far easier to plan when you know your schedule in advance. It's called logistic.

And for pete's sake, it's freaking Starbucks. I'm sure Howard Schultz has already signed up for a seat on the Bezos spaceship once this place has gone to hell with all the carbon tax and precise and efficient German engineering. That's advanced planning.
13
@12:

Blame it on USAns Libertarian, Calvinist Protestant, boot-strappy moral certitude which dictates that anyone below you in the dog pile is too: stupid, lazy, brown et al to improve their lot by their own efforts, and thus have no one to blame but themselves for being born into poverty and not having the wherewithal - like they did, naturally - to get themselves out of it, despite the fact that 99% of those whinging can't recognize the quite obvious fact they themselves were born on first or second base to begin with while most of those they condemn never even got a chance at-bat.
14
@7, give me money and I'll move 3 miles north of the center of the universe.
15
@14

Don't ask for handouts, princess.
16
Wow, how many of you work retail or retail food-service industry jobs? If so, what size business is it: 3-5 employees? 7-10? 15-20? 25+? Employees have lives and other responsibilities outside of their main job, be it a second job, school, spouse, child, etc. These things of course are important and may impede on their primary job. A manager for, lets say, a coffee shop that is of the 10-15 employee size, in his/her wildest dreams would be able to make a set schedule with two-weeks advance notice and have it last for 6 months uninterrupted. Everybody shows up on time for their shift and does great work. This would benefit everyone. But no, people get sick, get "sick," get called in to another job, have a dentist appt, etc., etc., etc. Thus schedules are constantly re-made and revised. Most typically not out of laziness or greed or whatever, but out of necessity. Using a software program to set a schedule? Algorithms? Don't make me laugh. It's calling and texting your employees while you hunt and peck filling in those little rectangles on an excel file. Don't think of Starbucks as the metric, think of them as the exception.
17
@16:

But, in truth Starbucks (and Nordstroms, and Forever 21, Macy's, Jimmie John's, Quiznos, McDonald's, et al) ARE the metric; collectively they employ millions of retail shift workers, compared to small mom-and-pop businesses, and these algorithms are designed specifically to allow them to extract every erg of productivity out of their employees, because that's how they make their profit. If you work at one of these places, not only are you subject to the seemingly arbitrary (from your perspective) vagaries of scheduling, but while you're on the clock your every move is constantly monitored and analyzed in order to make sure you're working at peak efficiency for the entire time you're on the floor. Small-scale businesses have more of a tendency to make allowance for their workers being actual human beings, because they have neither the desire nor the resources to do otherwise. But, when you work for a multi-billion dollar corporation that generates revenue primarily from retail sales, you can pretty much expect to be treated like a modular, disposable component in the Big Money-Making Machine that comprises their business model.

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