Technology

cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/37546974

Letter.

A new Harvard survey found that 41% of Amazon employees get their schedule less than two weeks ahead of when they are scheduled to work, a practice known as “just-in-time” scheduling. For many employees — especially for those with responsibilities outside of their Amazon job, like caregiving, education, or additional jobs — just-in-time arrangements are unworkable.

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Just-in-time scheduling could have other consequences beyond leaving workers with little control over their own schedules and lives. The practice could mean that workers aren’t given enough hours, forcing them to become part-time workers with virtually no notice or ability to budget accordingly. Workers in the warehousing and transportation sectors are particularly likely to report high rates of anxiety, stress, and lack of control over their jobs as compared to other sectors — on top of elevated risk of injury and illness. And Amazon’s use of just-in-time scheduling could be indicative of other unfair scheduling practices, like “on-call” requirements — which force workers to remain available for shifts that may or may not come to be — or refusal to reschedule workers.