3 ms·

When you work in a job with no required skills, yes you are (at least until recently) an easily replacable cog. The employees who realize this work to gain skil

When you work in a job with no required skills, yes you are (at least until recently) an easily replacable cog. The employees who realize this work to gain skills, become more valuable, and become less easily replacable. I have worked in fast food management (decades ago, started as a minimum-wage burger-flipper while in high school), and the last thing the employee schedules are based on is "management whim." Labor is the biggest controllable cost in a restaurant and you always base schedules on projected sales volume. We had schedules posted at least a week in advance and followed employee's stated availability. I'm sure, though, that not all retail/restaurant businesses are this professional. And now that $15/hr restaurant jobs are going unfilled, I guess people aren't so easily replacable. I would not want to be running a restaurant in this economy.

steveBK123 5y ago
Yes, management whim is not what I should used maybe "algorithmic optimization" which to those on the other side experiencing it, feels like whim? The problem with this model is that few of these companies give people more than 20-30 hour schedules.. therefore people usually need to take on 2 jobs, however each of these jobs has a non-fixed schedule, updating weekly.. So some of what may appear us unreliability and flakiness is people needing to call out to go to their other job which is programmatically booked as well. Add to this any further complexity like childcare or attempt to up skill with education and good luck.
- throwawayboise 5y ago
  There are actually a lot of people who only want 20 hour schedules. Students, young people, people who are looking for a little supplemental income. Not everyone wants a full-time job. Companies are also not wanting to work people more than 30 hours because they then need to provide healthcare under the ACA. That's a whole other topic but it definitely hurts folks who wanted full-time or near-full-time work but didn't need health insurance.

steveBK123 5y ago

Yes, management whim is not what I should used maybe "algorithmic optimization" which to those on the other side experiencing it, feels like whim? The problem with this model is that few of these companies give people more than 20-30 hour schedules.. therefore people usually need to take on 2 jobs, however each of these jobs has a non-fixed schedule, updating weekly.. So some of what may appear us unreliability and flakiness is people needing to call out to go to their other job which is programmatically booked as well. Add to this any further complexity like childcare or attempt to up skill with education and good luck.

throwawayboise 5y ago
There are actually a lot of people who only want 20 hour schedules. Students, young people, people who are looking for a little supplemental income. Not everyone wants a full-time job. Companies are also not wanting to work people more than 30 hours because they then need to provide healthcare under the ACA. That's a whole other topic but it definitely hurts folks who wanted full-time or near-full-time work but didn't need health insurance.