I admit it. I shop at Wal-mart sometimes. Many of you have already read about Wal-mart's new scheduling software. See article below. This software scheduling would end up forcing the employees into some sort of split-shifts from hell which would be virtually unpredictable for them--IOW, it appears it would make Wal-mart employees be on call like doctors or something, and so they wouldn't be able to reliably schedule anything (like little leisure-time activities such as raising their families, etc.) in their off-hours. (And yes, I know doctors are only on-call when they agree to be, and it is done so THEY can plan for it.)
"Flexitime?
Remember the idea of giving workers flexitime? Making it easier to cope with family obligations without necessarily reducing productivity at all?
Well, now flexitime has quite a new definition; one which turns it upside down and makes family obligations harder to combine with work:
'Wal-Mart is moving towards widespread implementation of new employee scheduling software. Sounds innocent enough -- the software tracks customer habits over seven week periods, and reschedules workers for each one. Moreover, it also creates a range of daily possibilities, allowing Wal-Mart to schedule workers to be on-call during surges, or send them home during lulls, or implement a variety of other strategies to create a more flexible, adaptive, workforce. All sounds routine enough, right?
But pity the workforce. The new software will make advance scheduling and reliable paychecks a thing of the past. According to The Journal, "experts say
can saddle workers with unpredictable schedules. In some cases, they may be asked to be "on call" to meet customer surges, or sent home because of a lull, resulting in less pay. The new systems also alert managers when a worker is approaching full-time status or overtime, which would require higher wages and benefits, so they can scale back that person's schedule...That means workers may not know when or if they will need a babysitter or whether they will work enough hours to pay that month's bills. Rather than work three eight-hour days, someone might now be plugged into six four-hour days, mornings one week and evenings the next.'
Neat. Unpredictable work schedules are exactly what Wal-Mart workers need."
http://atrios.blogspot.com/
If they start doing this, couldn't we somehow organize groups of people to descend on Wal-mart to flood them during regular 9-5 hours, and try to find some way to discourage people from shopping there after 5 p.m.? I mean, wouldn't it be great if WE could somehow set it up so the Wal-mart "scheduling software" would reliably set the same hours for the "surges" and the "lulls"? And if this could force the software to call in the employees at more or less the same time periods every week?
I admit it. I've shopped at Wal-mart in spite of reading more and more unsavory things about it. But with this article I have finally reached my limit. I am ready to never shop there again. I want to know if they really implement the crap that is described in the above article; if they do, I am finally ready to never set foot in a Wal-mart or Sam's again.
Furthermore, if they implement anything like what is described in this article, PEOPLE LOOKING FOR JOBS NEED TO JUST SAY NO TO WAL-MART. Yes, I KNOW people need jobs. But there's GOT to be another way!