Brad,
Could Kronos systems possibly be programmed to take stock of the wasted
hours of CEO's, government management teams, public representatives,
government investigative/research committees and such, rather than be
used to focus on the low wage earner who hasn't actually adversely
affected corporate profits to the extent the multi-million dollar
executives and many of their irresponsible decisions have.
Natalia
*********************************************
Brad McCormick wrote:
I guess there will be no end to negative innovation.
I had not thought of this one, although, as often, once I become aware
of it, it's trivially obvious. Once again, the root issue is whether
persons are "treated" as members of the community to which all things
contribute, or as part of the things contributing to that community.
(My -- Habermasean -- definition of a community is not just an
aggregation of living human bodies, but a conversation deciding the
shape of the conversants' lives.)
I also had a more personal thought about this: working as a computer
programmer, it would not be ethically neutral to be helping produce
the software that enables this kind of changes in persons' lives.
A less material irony is that the article says the company making the
software is "Kronos Inc." Emphatically, Kronos Inc is changing the
nature of time [kronos] for these persons, in deeper ways than just
"scheduling", and the specific nuances of the time we live are basic
and pervasive qualities of all our experience in living.
A question is whether and, if so, how this kind of new technology
could be used in ways that would be beneficial to the workers (as well
as for the customers and the enterprise).
brad
>
> Wal-Mart Seeks New Flexibility In Worker Shifts
> 3 January 2007
> The Wall Street Journal
> A1
> The nation's biggest private employer is about to revamp the
> way it schedules its work force, in a move that could shake up many
> employees' lives.
>
> Early this year, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., using a new
> computerized scheduling system, will start moving many of its 1.3
> million workers from predictable shifts to a system based on the
> number of customers in stores at any given time. The move promises
> greater productivity and customer satisfaction for the huge retailer
> but could be a major headache for employees.
>
> The change is made possible by a software system that can
> crunch an array of data, part of a shift toward computerized
> management tools that can help pare costs and boost companies'
> bottom lines. But it also could demand greater flexibility and
> availability from workers in place of reliable work shifts -- and
> predictable paychecks.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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