Incident 10: Kronos Scheduling Algorithm Allegedly Caused Financial Issues for Starbucks Employees
Entities
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CSETv1 Taxonomy Classifications
Taxonomy DetailsHarm Distribution Basis
none
Sector of Deployment
accommodation and food service activities
GMF Taxonomy Classifications
Taxonomy DetailsKnown AI Goal
Market Forecasting, Scheduling
Potential AI Technology
Regression, Diverse Data
Known AI Technical Failure
Underspecification
Potential AI Technical Failure
Tuning Issues, Misconfigured Aggregation
CSETv0 Taxonomy Classifications
Taxonomy DetailsFull Description
The staff scheduling tool used by Starbucks has led to staff working hours volatile and erratic schedules. Some store managers use a scheduling software, Kronos, to optimize scheduling and cut labor costs, however Starbucks refuses to accept or deny using Kronos.
Short Description
Issues with Starbucks worker's schedules may be linked to a staffing software, Kronos.
Severity
Negligible
Harm Type
Psychological harm
Location
Global
Named Entities
Starbucks, Kronos
Technology Purveyor
Starbucks
Beginning Date
2015-01-01
Ending Date
2015-01-01
Near Miss
Unclear/unknown
Intent
Unclear
Lives Lost
No
Infrastructure Sectors
Food and agriculture
Incident Reports
Reports Timeline
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SAN DIEGO — In a typical last-minute scramble, Jannette Navarro, a 22-year-old Starbucks barista and single mother, scraped together a plan for surviving the month of July without setting off family or financial disaster.
In contrast to the…
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Liberte Locke, a 32-year-old "barista" at a Starbucks (SBUX) in New York City, is fed up.
"Starbucks' attitude is that there's always someone else who can do the job," she said in running through her complaints about life at the java giant.…
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In April, the New York attorney general's office launched an investigation into the scheduling practices of 13 national retail chains, distributing a letter to the Gap, Target, J.C. Penney, and 10 other companies. The letter asked, among ot…
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Caitlin O'Reilly-Green, a barista at an Atlanta Starbucks, says a manager blames her erratic hours on the staff scheduling software used by the giant coffee chain.
"When you try to bring up issues with it, they just kind of blame it on the …
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A 2015 nationwide survey of Starbucks workers reveals that the company is not living up to its commitment to provide predictable, sustainable schedules to its workforce. Starbucks’ frontline employees bear the brunt of the management impera…
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For Starbucks (SBUX) barista Kylei Weisse, working at the coffee chain helps him secure health insurance and some extra money while he studies at Georgia Perimeter College. What it doesn't provide is the kind of stable schedule that the com…
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An internal memo from a Starbucks executive this week urged store managers to "go the extra mile" to improve workers' schedules.
The letter was distributed on Tuesday and refers to a New York Times story that was set to be published the fol…
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On Tuesday, I wrote about Starbucks baristas and other food service workers who marched downtown at sunrise to call for fair scheduling from their employers. Workers said they often get little notice of when they're scheduled to work and th…
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The best schedules deliver two things; they ensure a business maximises profit while at the same time keeping the workforce happy and motivated.
At first glance, these two outcomes seem to be coming from opposite sides of the spectrum. To m…
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Originally published on Seattle Times on June 4, 2016 at 8:00 am
The company took a lot of heat in 2014 when The New York Times described scheduling practices that made some employees miserable. But the coffee giant says its policies and so…
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