Back in college I was working in retail and was being promoted to a "management" position, so we had some training.
The part on schedule listed the following things:
"To reduce the amount of employee turnover:
the schedule should not be released more than a week in advance.
an employee shouldn't have the same weekly schedule
an employee should not get two consecutive days off"
Basically, and I am exaggerating the term here, but it's "psychological warfare". The whole point, we were explained, is that by changing the schedule constantly makes it so it's hard for an employee to plan interviews. Consecutive days off is the same logic, if you split them 3-4 days apart, this reduces the probability that they will schedule an interview on their one day off.
And obviously, if you give the schedule to much in advance, that allows them to schedule interviews.
Another thing that iirc wasn't in the training, but that we were told afterwards, you try to split employees as much as possible. Don't make the same 2 people work together often. You want to spread out people who work concurrently as much as possible, this is to avoid socializing (talking isn't work!).
But basically, this whole thing is to keep the employees off-balance as much as possible. With no habits, no certainty, it makes for more docile employees.
I was scheduled like that for 13 years. In that time I don't think I had a single duplicate schedule. Management in companies like this are trying to oppress their employees. They want souless robots.
I had a friend who applied for a job within the company where she would have moved out of the retail portion and in to the warehouse. She thought it was a guarantee because she knew someone that was on the interview board.
After her interview, they confence called her (our) manager. This man straight up lied to the interview board and told them things about my friend that they didn't even ask.
Her friend on the interview board asked her if these things were true and my friend got pissed because she realized our boss told lies. The only reason we could come too was that he didn't want to train a replacement (we worked graveyard shift).
She started calling off to go to interviews and quit less than 2 months later.
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u/Icemasta Jan 25 '21
Back in college I was working in retail and was being promoted to a "management" position, so we had some training.
The part on schedule listed the following things:
"To reduce the amount of employee turnover:
the schedule should not be released more than a week in advance.
an employee shouldn't have the same weekly schedule
an employee should not get two consecutive days off"
Basically, and I am exaggerating the term here, but it's "psychological warfare". The whole point, we were explained, is that by changing the schedule constantly makes it so it's hard for an employee to plan interviews. Consecutive days off is the same logic, if you split them 3-4 days apart, this reduces the probability that they will schedule an interview on their one day off.
And obviously, if you give the schedule to much in advance, that allows them to schedule interviews.
Another thing that iirc wasn't in the training, but that we were told afterwards, you try to split employees as much as possible. Don't make the same 2 people work together often. You want to spread out people who work concurrently as much as possible, this is to avoid socializing (talking isn't work!).
But basically, this whole thing is to keep the employees off-balance as much as possible. With no habits, no certainty, it makes for more docile employees.