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Restaurants have adopted predictive scheduling practices that allow them to adjust worker schedules based on demand. This improves business efficiency but poses difficulties for workers with unstable and changing schedules that make it hard to work multiple jobs, attend school, or arrange childcare. Some governments have passed laws requiring advance notice of schedules to protect workers, which has led restaurants to use scheduling software to predict demand and allow workers flexibility in selecting shifts. Ethical managers see scheduling as recognizing workers' lives outside of work.

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Lưu Hồng Hạnh 4KT-20ACN
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152 views1 page

Case 1

Restaurants have adopted predictive scheduling practices that allow them to adjust worker schedules based on demand. This improves business efficiency but poses difficulties for workers with unstable and changing schedules that make it hard to work multiple jobs, attend school, or arrange childcare. Some governments have passed laws requiring advance notice of schedules to protect workers, which has led restaurants to use scheduling software to predict demand and allow workers flexibility in selecting shifts. Ethical managers see scheduling as recognizing workers' lives outside of work.

Uploaded by

Lưu Hồng Hạnh 4KT-20ACN
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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New on restaurant menus: Predictive scheduling

Restaurants and other businesses have improved their efficiency by adjusting workers'
schedules day by day and even hour by hour. If the weather turns bad, some waiters and
kitchen staff might get a call not to come in for hours they expected to work. A surge in traffic
after a local event might lead managers to call in extra workers. With this approach to
scheduling, the business is paying only for the workers it needs.
This practice poses difficulties for the workers, however. Many restaurant jobs are part-time,
and many employees say they want to work more hours. One option would be to take a
second part-time job, but being on call at the first job makes it impossible. Other challenges
with a schedule that changes from week to week are that these employees have difficulty
attending school and arranging child care.
When variable schedules combine working through closing one night and starting at the next
day's opening. it may also be impossible to get enough sleep. Despite these challenges.
workers typically say they are available anytime, because they have found that employers
otherwise do not hire them.
In New Hampshire, Oregon, and some U.S. cities (including Chicago, New York.
Philadelphia, and Seattle), workers’ complaints about these conditions have led governments
to pass laws requiring "predictive scheduling." These laws specify the amount of notice (say,
seven days) that restaurants must give employees before they have to compensate them.
Employees called with less notice must be paid extra. Employers may also have to pay a few
hours' wages to employees who are on call but not called in. Some of the laws set a minimum
amount of rest time between the end of one shift and start of the next.
Where predictive-scheduling laws apply, restaurant managers are scrambling to meet the
challenge of predicting work far enough ahead, often with scheduling software such as
Homebase, shifts, and HotSchedules, which estimate demand and provide a way for
employees to opt-in or out of working certain blocks of time. Even where these laws are not
in place, some managers consider predictable schedules as the right way to treat employees.
Mary Cho, co-owner of Dak & Bop in Houston, says scheduling is a constant challenge but
also "an essential part of being a good employer." because it recognizes that workers are
human beings with a variety of obligations, not just being available to work. She asks
employees to tell her when they're available, and then she uses Homebase to assign workers
to hours they have not blocked off.

Questions
1. Would you describe the way restaurants schedule workers as an example of a
"flexible" work schedule? Why or why not?

2. What would you say are a restaurant manager's ethical responsibilities in scheduling
workers? How would a policy of ethical scheduling practices affect a restaurant's
business outcomes?

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