banky's Journal: Snidely Whiplash does not work for Wal-Mart

This story about a Wal-Mart protest is interesting to me.

At face value, it is the BIG EVIL WAL-MART against poor, brown people. You can almost hear the management in Bentonville rubbing their hands and saying, "muh-ah-ah-ah". The new practices are "inhuman".

But let's read a little more into it. While never stated explicitly in the article, it seems a pretty fair bet this has "efficiency consultant" written all over it.

From a certain point of view, it is inhuman: human factors are often quite inefficient, and thus these sorts of people don't consider them. But it's not malicious. To wit:

Problem: Managers spend N hours per shift tracking down and accounting for late or absent employees.
Problem: Habitually tardy or absent employees can often go unnoticed in reviews, and thus continue to tax management and store resources.
Solution: Require employees to call an 800 number, which records their absence or late arrival, so this information can be tracked by the Big Giant Head in Bentonville; repeat offenders can be dismissed with cause.

Problem: Managers spend N hours per week juggling schedules, accommodating employee changes (often at the last minute), and regularly make mistakes in terms of coverage required for busy shifts, holidays, and the like.
Solution: Centralize scheduling.

And so on.

It just seems so ... MBA. If it seems wholly inhuman, it's because they're not concerned with Rosalita's 8-year-old getting picked up from ballet, they're concerned with a corporation that's, what, 8% of GDP or something insane?

I can't say I would *like* these policies, but to apply the Snidely Whiplash Factor to them - upper management in Bentonville saying, "How we can REALLY fuck over the brown people!" - seems oddly out of place.

MANNA

[Blackneto]

Read this story when you get a chance.

It's about a computer program created to improve staffing in a fast food resturant.

http://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm [marshallbrain.com]

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[nizo]

Wow that is an awesome story; thanks for sharing it!

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[robi2106]

Heh. Interesting story. Yes I read the entire tale, and I call it that because it takes too high of an opinion of people and assumes the best as opposed to much else. Having said that, it sure is a good read and does provide lots of food for thought.

The only thing that kept popping into my mind was the story's desire for a heaven on earth. Why? Why not get the real thing. I read more about the author and realized why. Because he is an athiest and cannot allow himself to believe in anything other than

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[TechnoLust]

I started reading that and uhh... read the whole damn thing. That's just... wow. Can I buy stock in the Australia project?

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[arb]

Ineresting story, but based on some flawed premises. It seems to be equating open source with a supposed Nirvana, yet everyone there had to become a part of the Borg and become assimilated in the society; conversely they paint "closed source" as a worlkd where you will become obsoleted by robots and forced to live in jail-like enclaves. On the one hand agree to become a part of the Matrix; on the other retain your humanity and live out your days in a dirt box.

At least the author got one thing right - Austra

Ezra should have some whine in this soon.

[GMontag]

These Wal*Mart complainers are a trip.

Now, the elements that you describe are EXACTLY the same measures the Leftists who whine about Wal*Mart want to impose on everybody who needs a prescription, stitches or a cast. Yes, the list is much longer but lately I have been hearing them whine about health care and Wal*Mart.

To be fair...

[TopShelf]

The "poor brown people" part is purely inferred by you, there's nothing implied within the article stating such an angle to this protest. The changes are being rolled out around the country, not just in certain areas.

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[banky]

On the topic of "brown people", my best friend is Mexican; but not Mestizo, which is to say derived from native stock. He's basically a white guy, since as near as his family can tell, they're all descended from Europeans, mostly Spanish and German, who came as the middle class of Mexico during the 1800's. In other words he's as Mexican as anyone else, but only a couple shades whiter than my pale blue Scottish ass. But he speaks fluent Spanish, and mine is not the best in the world.

Anyway, it's a common cri