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

[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.