Starbucks removes "life" portion from work-life balance

According to an article by Liza Featherstone on Slate.com, Starbucks is the latest company implementing a slew of new cutbacks, but they’ve found a clever way to do it without directly doling out the pink slips.

The article says that two weeks ago the Seattle-based coffee company introduced a new HR strategy in an attempt to curb profit losses that have been mounting, dragging America’s favorite coffee spot down with the rest

The new directive, according to Featherstone, uses words such as “philosophy” instead of program, and “optimal scheduling” instead of minimum hours—just one of the many ways they are essentially forcing workers to quit their jobs if they can’t meet the new conditions. Understandably, companies across the board have to maximize business with what they have, and often scale back. But Starbucks is asking their “partners” (employees), be available to work for 70 percent of the stores’ open hours if they want to work full-time.

For a store that is open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m., they are asking their full-time “partners” to be available for 80.5 hours. Considering that most “partners” make about the same amount-per-hour as a Wal-Mart employee, and often have a second and third job, or their educations to complete and families to care for, this is completely eliminating any semblance of work-life balance, and in fact the entire “life” portion of that equation. It would be one thing if they offered all of the remaining partners health benefits or some other form of compensation to offset their scheduling demands, but according to Tara Darrow, a spokeswoman for Starbucks, only 65 percent of “eligible” employees are covered by the company plan.

All in all, the new Starbucks plan is quite the contradiction to the socially and environmentally conscious image the company has been so successful at presenting until recently. While we wish them the best (Who doesn’t like their mocha frappuccinos and caramel macchiatos and those lazy afternoons reading and listening to the lovely Aretha Franklin?), it may be best that they look into the empirical ways of improving performance through employee motivation and incentive programs and offering them a manageable work-life balance.   

Comments

[Belstaff Jackets]

For any folks invested in more and better resident contribution, that is a knock back, i believe. But strangely enough, the newest one-pager Can involve many responsibilities around consultation.

[Love Dolls]

hey inside the vocab. do we must do the academic vocab. and also do we must do region 1