short takes

[cellio]

Welcome to LJ, osewalrus (aka hfeld_blog).

Last night's D&D game was fun (though long). The campaign will be ending soon, and that makes me sad even though it's necessary. Ralph set out, four years ago, to play out a particular story arc, and we're almost done. We've had some great moments, and we have some good story yet to come. I wonder what we'll do when it's all over.

We're nearly done watching Wonderfalls, a half-season TV show we borrowed on DVD. The first half-dozen episodes were wacky and quirky in a fun way, and on that basis we bought a copy for a friend as a gift. The last few episodes have been growing more dark and weird. While I know that the decision to kill it was made by episode #4 (that's all that aired), I'm not sure the outcome would have differed if the entire run had been allowed to air. But then, maybe something's coming in the last episode to tie it all up; we'll see.

From the "just shoot me now" department: We got a glimpse of the new time-tracking system we'll have to use at work starting in a couple weeks. The first sign that this would not meet our usual high standards for user interfaces came in the text shown in the desktop icon: "3270". Yup -- text-based COBOL system, no shortcuts, no UI brains. Whee.

One WallMart now requires employees to commit to work any shift, 24x7, or be fired (link from revlaniep). Got kids with specific day-care hours? Have a problem working on the sabbath? Tough noogies. I found this quote from the article ironic: "The officials who did know were attending a conference on diversity and could not be reached, he said." Diversity, huh?

Comments

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

There's something to be said for the VA "sabbath" law, I guess.

I'd refuse to work there. (Working hourly for The Evil Store That Shall Not Be Named has got to be one of the worst "normal" jobs in the world anyway.) And I strongly recommend that nobody shop there. (Or at any ESTSNBN, but that one in *particular*.)

[cellio]

I'd refuse to work there.

Oh, so would I. I have that luxury. Some people, sadly, probably don't.

[msmemory.livejournal.com]

Have a problem working on the sabbath? Tough noogies.

Yep, not exactly a new policy. I applied for a number of fast-food and retail jobs in the summers during college, and was told that at least some of them wouldn't interview me because my parents forbade me working on our sabbath (Sunday).

[estherchaya.livejournal.com]

that's not entirely surprising. In general employers aren't required to hire you regardless of sabbath restrictions. The problem comes in if at the time of an interview and job offer you make it clear that you cannot work on the sabbath and it is agreed at that time that you will not have to work on the Sabbath. If, later, you are told you must work on the sabbath or lose your job, that's when the problem kicks in.

[cellio]

Yup. They're within their rights to not hire you, but changing the rules on people they've already hired sounds like breach of contract. I don't know how breach of contract interacts with employment at will, mind, and WalMart has bigger lawyers than anything their workers can afford, so they'll get away with it.

[cellio]

I was limited in summer retail jobs to places I could walk to because I wasn't allowed to drive at night. None of them outright said "we require you to work any shift", but given a choice between unskilled labor with no restrictions and unskilled labor with restrictions, guess who got hired. It's not that there weren't enough shifts to go around and satisfy everyone (I think the late-night folks got paid better, which is incentive), but they didn't want to be bothered. They wanted interchangable employees.

[ellipticcurve.livejournal.com]

Holy. Farking. Shiznit. That is one messed-up policy.

I loved this:
“It shouldn’t cause any problem, if they [store employees] are concerned about their customers,” Knuckles said.

Earth to asshole! Work isn't the sum total of a person's life!

[caryabend.livejournal.com]

“It shouldn’t cause any problem, if they [store employees] are concerned about their customers,” Knuckles said.

Riiiiiight.

Many moons ago "caring for someone" meant stoning them to death when they broke religious laws.

[grifyn.livejournal.com]

The Wal-Mart thing... pisses me off more than I can adequately convey.

To the tune of "How can we lure all the boardmembers who thought this was a good idea into the desert?"

[schulman.livejournal.com]

I don't think I've set foot in a Walmart since I read Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By In America (http://www.henryholt.com/holt/nickelanddimed.htm).

[cellio]

I've never set foot in a WalMart; by the time there were any near me I'd heard about their practices.

[dvarin.livejournal.com]

We got a glimpse of the new time-tracking system we'll have to use at work

Truly, it is incredibly bad. Rumor has it that in a few months they're switching to an Oracle-based system that presumably wasn't built in the 70s.

[cellio]

Yeah, maybe it was built in the 80s instead.

There was, at one point, a rumor that they were actually going to adopt our system more widely, but that seems unlikely. If they improve the system all well and good, but I'll believe it when I see it.

[madfilkentist]

18 x 7, actually; 7 AM to 11 PM.

The effect will be that they'll keep only the employees who are most desperate for work, and anyone who's any good will find a job elsewhere. This will mean a decline in customer service, even though they say they're doing it for the customers.

People who make a show of capital-D Diversity are seldom concerned with the actual diverse requirements of real people. Stereotypes are much more convenient.

[cellio]

I didn't realize that WalMart ever closed. Ok, 18x7, but that's still pretty rough.

This will mean a decline in customer service, even though they say they're doing it for the customers.

Yup. You do not get a good customer experience by harrassing the employees who provide that service. But that's ok by WalMart -- they don't thrive from customer service (leading to customer loyalty) but rather by being cheap. People will put up with crappy service if the price is low enough. Not all people, but enough to build a business plan on it.