Starbucks to Revise Work Scheduling Policies

[Omaha Steve]

Source: NYTimes

By JODI KANTOR

Starbucks announced changes to its worker scheduling policies on Thursday, in response to a New York Times article about a barista and single mother struggling to manage life amid her erratic hours set by automated software.

“We must do all we can to deliver the best for our partners because they deserve our very best,” said Cliff Burrows, the group president in charge of United States stores, in an email to 130,000 workers.

Mr. Burrows told them the company would revise its software to allow more human input from managers into scheduling. It would banish the practice, much loathed by workers, of asking them to “clopen” — close the store late at night and return just a few hours later to reopen. He said all work hours must be posted at least one week in advance, a policy that has been only loosely followed in the past. And the company would try to move workers with more than an hour’s commute to more convenient locations, he said.

Though the coffee chain prides itself on progressive labor practices for low-paid, hourly workers, such as offering health benefits and stock, many current and former Starbucks workers said that the experience of Jannette Navarro, the barista described in the Times article, mirrored their own. “Almost every time I tried to change availability for a new semester it became a battle to get both the right schedule sorted out,” Shara Munns, a former barista from Henderson, Nev., wrote in a Facebook comment. “My schedule was virtually never the same week to week, and it was always difficult to try and schedule things like doctor’s appointments.”

FULL story at link.



Jannette Navarro and her son Gavin are dropped off at the Starbucks where she works as a barista. Her erratic schedule creates chaos that ripples through her family. Credit Sam Hodgson for The New York Times


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/15/us/starbucks-to-revise-work-scheduling-policies.html?partner=EXCITE&ei=5043&_r=0

[frazzled]

1. That was fast!

I just read that story this morning, with my coffee (not Starbucks, just home brew).

[LynneSin]

2. I remember working at Houlihans and they gave everyone set schedules each week

Mind you it was seniority to get the better shifts. But it was nice to have some sort of consistency so I could plan things out a month ahead of time and I knew I was going to be off at that time.

[nirvana555]

3. You know, at least Starbuckss tries to correct and make things better. I saw a posting

when I was in a Starbucks the other day on their bulletin board and they have a 100 percent tuition reimbursement policy through an agreement with Arizona State University's online program for full-time and even Part-time employees for a Bachelor's Degree. I have to say I was impressed. I also saw an interview with the CEO on an Oprah show a few months ago and was further impressed with him.

[LynneSin]

4. yes but how can one go to school if their schedule is different each week

It does sound like they are trying but that scheduling system sucked.

[SoapBox]

5. I simply have never understood...

The bullshit schedules that these companies make for employees. Is it a power and control thing? Is it to create turn over by pissing people off? And only a week notice of their schedule? What crap.

As it is, I get a months schedule about 2 weeks before the schedule begins.