The Inhumanity Of Scheduling Automation

By Matt Pillar, chief editor

March 2015 Integrated Solutions For Retailers

At the NRF BIG Show in NYC a couple months back, I visited with executives from some half a dozen workforce management software companies. Without fail, discussions with each of them turned to the now-infamous New York Times story of Starbucks barista Jeannette Navarro and the unfortunate consequences she suffered at the hands of Starbucks’ lack of control over its Kronos scheduling software.

To be fair, the story failed to take a deep dive into Starbucks’ mismanagement of the controls featured in Kronos’ software. Instead, it painted modern, automated retail associate scheduling as a mechanized, evil means of corporate greed and insensitivity. To her discredit, Times journalist Jodi Kantor squandered an opportunity for Kronos to offer its side of the story.