Starbucks' Music Is Driving Employees Nuts (www.cbc.ca) 267
An anonymous reader quotes a report from CBC.ca: You may not give a second thought to the tunes spinning on a constant loop at your favorite cafe or coffee shop, but one writer and podcaster who had to listen to repetitive music for years while working in bars and restaurants argues it's a serious workers' rights issue. "[It's] the same system that's used to [...] flood people out of, you know, the Branch Davidian in Waco or was used on terror suspects in Guantanamo -- they use the repetition of music," Adam Johnson told The Current's Anna Maria Tremonti. "I'm not suggesting that working at Applebee's is the same as being at Guantanamo, but the principle's the same."
Earlier this year, irritated Starbucks employees took to Reddit to rage about how they had to listen to the same songs from the Broadway hit musical Hamilton on repeat while on the job. One user wrote that if they heard a Hamilton song one more time, "I'm getting a ladder and ripping out all of our speakers from the ceiling." As a solution, he suggested health inspectors could enforce better working conditions, or a tip line could be created for people to report poor working conditions, like repetitive music. Another solution? Communication, says neuroscientist Jessica Grahn. She studies music, which science has shown to be one of the strongest influencers of mood, she said. It can calm dementia patients struggling with depression or anger, or increase our endurance when we're working out. However, there are downsides to the power of music. Unlike how we can close our eyes to things we don't want to see, we can't close our ears to sound. Having control over one's environment can make a big difference, said Grahn, which is why she recommends employers and employees talk about why certain music is being played, or what they can do to switch things up.
Earlier this year, irritated Starbucks employees took to Reddit to rage about how they had to listen to the same songs from the Broadway hit musical Hamilton on repeat while on the job. One user wrote that if they heard a Hamilton song one more time, "I'm getting a ladder and ripping out all of our speakers from the ceiling." As a solution, he suggested health inspectors could enforce better working conditions, or a tip line could be created for people to report poor working conditions, like repetitive music. Another solution? Communication, says neuroscientist Jessica Grahn. She studies music, which science has shown to be one of the strongest influencers of mood, she said. It can calm dementia patients struggling with depression or anger, or increase our endurance when we're working out. However, there are downsides to the power of music. Unlike how we can close our eyes to things we don't want to see, we can't close our ears to sound. Having control over one's environment can make a big difference, said Grahn, which is why she recommends employers and employees talk about why certain music is being played, or what they can do to switch things up.
I sympathize (Score:3)
Given that a simple old ipod shuffle could hold a couple of days worth of music and change things up automatically, why would any business use a tape loop these days?
Re: I sympathize (Score:3, Informative)
Licensing four hours of music is cheap compared to licensing what even the tiniest of iPods can hold.
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You generally either pay to be able to play music at all or maybe a cost per play so I can't see that the length of loop makes any difference.
if you're big enough you can license it directly and keep the inspectors for that stuff away, I suppose.
same for public domain music. note that this is not possible even in some countries if you don't find artists and composers not signed up on local riaa/mpaa equivalent. also they might play that crap on purpose to drive people away..
generally, in a western country, a place like that would just pay a fee per month depending on how many people there are place for(and the cache then gets distributed to top r
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BMI/ASCAP/SESAC would be to differ. Per-play royalties. They might save money by negotiating a flat per-month, but it's going to be a big number.
Someone Think about the Theme Park Employees! (Score:4, Funny)
What about the theme park employees stuck in the same non-stop single-song loop forever?
Now, for the grace of the mighty heroes and heroines that have survive those Gitmo-like circumstances every day... let us sing a song:
It's a small world after all...
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Have you ever seen the little dolls without their attire? Even with the lights on it's like Daft Punk's Technologic video gone berserk.
Why music ? (Score:5, Insightful)
why the hell is there a need to continuously blast music in a coffee shop, to begin with?
have human gotten so used to watching movies that they can't imagine anything in life without a background music track?
or is the the coffee shop's attempt to try to do the same manipulations as clothes stores to try to maximize profits? (playing catchy upbeat music apparently increases the probability of impulse buys ?)
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"why the hell is there a need to continuously blast music in a coffee shop, to begin with?"
For the same reason music is blaring in bars...
You have to talk louder, thus get more parched, and have to drink more.
I kid you not, that is the logic!
Re:Why music ? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: Why music ? (Score:3, Funny)
Often the places had instruments and you made your own music. If you played Greensleeves five times in a row you'd get the lute taken off you.
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I think the point is that "A repetitive stream of tiresome noise" is not quite the same thing.
Has anyone done any research into the extent to which "Muzak" in supermarkets contributes to mass shootings?
Re:Why music ? (Score:4, Interesting)
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Vote parent up. I find music played in pubs, supermarkets, sports halls, ... highly irritating and either do not go or do what I need to and leave as soon as possible. I agree with the screeching woman comment. If you asked me what music I would have: Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, Handel, ... which I accept many would not like -- you cannot please everyone, so: just switch it off!
Support Pipedown [pipedown.org.uk].
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Almost every ancient Pub in England now has mindless music, usually with yodelling foreign women lamenting their love-life incomprehensibly. Staff will sometimes turn it down, but are not authorised to turn it off because the management has paid for the mandatory licence. Props to 'Weatherspoons', which has a mind of its own and no music.
Not sure which Pubs you're going to but most of them I've gone to in Berkshire don't have music playing. Especially the owner/operator pubs. Weatherspoons are at least cheap, apart from them I rarely go to a chain pub (Greene King/Chef and Brewer). Brewdog has to be the exception, but Brewdog itself is exceptional.
Supermarkets on the other hand... In late November ASDA started to play Christmas music and I pretty much walked out until mid January. Wen't to Morrison's almost exclusively as they weren't pl
Premature Christmas Music (Score:2)
Check your receipts from the store to see if they accept feedback. Let them know that the premature Christmas season music was annoying and when you stopped shopping there and when you came back. Tell them the approximate amount of money they lost.
Supposedly, they would be interested and might see you as an indicator of lost sales.
I live the US and have noted that many stores have Christmas stuff out for purchase in October. Back on topic, I rarely notice music at the places I buy groceries, and my department stores have live piano music (I go there for the clothes, not the music).
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Check your receipts from the store to see if they accept feedback.
Let them know that the premature Christmas season music was annoying and when you stopped shopping there and when you came back.
Tell them the approximate amount of money they lost.
Supposedly, they would be interested and might see you as an indicator of lost sales.
Of course they all "accept" feedback. I take it you're an American so you're unfamiliar with the culture here in the UK. Complaints are universally ignored. In fact every complaints department in the UK is staffed by Helen Waite, so effectively all our complaints go to Helen Waite.
Ditto in gyms (Score:2)
If the music played in the gyms I go to actually had a decent beat/energy/aggression and made me want to train harder I wouldn't mind, but its invariably a diet of R&B syrup with autotuned wailing woman who all sound identical and sing the same moronic love crap with the occasional special needs rapper chiming in. And the problem is its so loud I can still hear this shit even when I take my own music in.
Because they sell it (Score:2)
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why the hell is there a need to continuously blast music in a coffee shop, to begin with?
have human gotten so used to watching movies that they can't imagine anything in life without a background music track?
I don't know what you mean with "gotten". The psychological impacts of silence are well understood and the practice of adding background music to a relaxing environment dates back to the days of bards and mead.
Now if Starbucks is "blasting" music that's different, but the reality is we don't tolerate silence well in a mixed environment and the only time we truly appreciate silence is when the silence is complete and we're alone with our thoughts. Typically at that point many people will distract themselves
Comfort and familiarity (Score:2)
why the hell is there a need to continuously blast music in a coffee shop, to begin with?
I would ask why some people feel the need to have earbuds blasting music into their skull for most of their waking hours. I think the answers are probably related. It creates an environment where people feel comfortable and/or familiar. It's why so many places play top 40 music from 20-30 years ago - it's the sound track their target customers grew up listening to. They play music because it creates a mood and it's what people expect. That matters.
For me I find background music or earbuds remarkably di
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I think it has little to do with being 'entertained' and much more to do with reverting back to 'I could be prey' mode when in silence. For instance, I work in an office environment. There is nothing 'entertaining' going on, no music or anything like that. If you walk around you will hear snippets of conversations, people will say 'hi' in the hallways, etc. But, every once in a while the air conditioning temporarly stops. As soon as that happens, everyone behaves differently. Instead of normal conversa
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Chipotle? (Score:2)
Every Chipotle I've been in has very loud music that makes it difficult to have a simple conversation. My guess is they want the patrons to eat and get out as seating is limited.
I thought it was the e.coli and salmonella that made patrons eat and then leave...
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why the hell is there a need to continuously blast music in a coffee shop, to begin with?
Because Market Research TM says that it promotes the spending of money.
Then Legal says that we have to pay to play music.
Sales comes up with the brilliant idea of getting a discount on the license fees by playing the latest crap from popular culture.
Management says that this has to be on repeat.
Its reasons like that why I refuse to go to chain coffee shops if I can at all avoid it. Costa Coffee, should have called it Costa BleedinFortune.
There's a small coffee shop near where I live, owned and ope
Same with gyms (Score:2)
I asked the manager why the cheap to license, repetitive music had to be blasting all the time even in an empty gym and he said it's the company policy to make it more attractive to customers and it's hard for you but imagine how it is for me he said, I have to listen to it all day.
I have quit that gym since but left wondering, what was that policy based on? What if customers, occasional and frequent, hate it as much as the manager? Why exactly are we all suffering then?
Recently I heard through another trai
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Yes I have. People yelling at each other to hear each other over the music, only to have the music get louder to drown out the screaming...
Re:I sympathize (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:I sympathize (Score:4, Funny)
I can never get over how banal the lyrics are. "Convenient shopping in the middle of the Chuo line, easily accessible from Shinjuku on the Yamanote line?" I'm already here!
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I lived there in the mid-Seventies, and Yodobashi Camera had the same ad, which mostly consists of directions to the store, playing on every radio station all the time. The Japanese theory of advertising effectiveness is that constant repetition always works.
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So they think that constant repetition always works?
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A long time ago, I would frequent a store in Collingwood, Melbourne, that sold Amiga hardware. At one point they were demonstrating an audio sampler by playing an eleven second loop of John Farnham's hit song "You're the Voice", starting at https://youtu.be/tbkOZTSvrHs?t... [youtu.be] .
Apparently, this loop ran all day. I don't know if any of the store clerks went postal, but I can easily imagine it.
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Starbucks(along with most other retail establishments) has clearly gone to a lot of trouble to establish a particular 'feel'/'branding' in their interior and exterior design, staff uniforms, product graphic design, even what's printed on their paper cups and napkins and stuff.
If they sweat those sorts of details, rather than just ordering generic FoodCo napkins, odds are that some branding consultancy has laid out the soundtrack wi
Deliberate choices (Score:3)
It would not be at all surprising if the tape loop is quite deliberate:
Oh it's absolutely deliberate. Large consumer product and retail companies don't do stuff like that by accident. Doesn't necessarily mean it's a good choice but it's probably a deliberate one. To be fair, there is only so much budget for music choices and the people selecting the music probably don't have to listen to it all day long. (or if they do they need to get psychiatric help...)
Starbucks(along with most other retail establishments) has clearly gone to a lot of trouble to establish a particular 'feel'/'branding' in their interior and exterior design, staff uniforms, product graphic design, even what's printed on their paper cups and napkins and stuff.
Exactly which is why they are loathe to take needless risks with something as mundane as a playlist. It's not hard to
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A lot of businesses seem to use a Sirius channel as background music. Sirius offers a lot of musical genres and subgenres, but each channel is about a 3-hour loop of the same selections over and over again. And people actually pay for this!
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Music can have benefits, or it can have damaging consequences. Phil Collins causes damage. Garbage "Nu metal" bands butchering The Who causes damage.
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Fellow Staples alum. We generally had the 60s/70s/80s soft rock sort of thing going on; I don't know artists or titles but I know the first ten seconds of every song to this day...
The funniest story I remember was one year on Back to School Wednesday (the day when all four local school districts got their BTS lists and every register did over $200,000 in pencils and folders...), our GM was cool and our BM guys knew how to plug in an iPod from the Muzak system, so she let us put on whatever we wanted once al
Applebee’s vs Guantanamo (Score:5, Funny)
"I'm not suggesting that working at Applebee's is the same as being at Guantanamo, but the principle's the same."
Food’s probably better at Guantanamo, for one thing.
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Oh, and the coffee is pretty bad too. Has anyone else ever tried it?
Brainwashing (Score:5, Insightful)
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Soooo true. This could have been me (even the 40 or so years fits.)
I spent 4 years at a crappy little department store chain in the southeast, while in college. The music came on large reel to reel tapes, so no shuffle and the pops and cracks repeated exactly, and not nearly as many breakdowns as one would hope for. Oddly, I don't remember the rest of the year, just Christmas.
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Back in the 1990s, I used to work in an independent electronics store when home cinema was taking off. We had the Laser Disc of Jurassic Park on a continuous loop all day, every day to demonstrate the 5.1 system and the subwoofer. If I never see that film again, it'll be too soon.
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I worked in a video rental store when I was in high school (part time, but 20+ hrs per week). The manager had an obsession with the movie "Grease", so it was played over and over on TV screens in the store. While I do remember getting some of the tunes stuck in my head and finding it annoying, my brain developed a noise filter pretty quickly. To this day I still don't know, nor care to know, the plot of that movie, even though I probably have been exposed to hundreds of hours, if not over 1000 hrs of it pla
Re:Brainwashing (Score:5, Interesting)
It's far worse in Japan. I don't know how staff there put up with it.
Many shops in Japan have their own theme music. Actually a theme song, with lyrics. The Yodobashi Camera one is a jaunty take on Auld Lang Syne and they actually have a different version for every branch... On repeat, all day, every day.
If you spend too much time in the shop you can't get it out of your head. The staff must be hearing it in their dreams.
Here's a little selection. Don't say I didn't warn you.
https://youtu.be/cwTJEbqQy4U [youtu.be]
https://youtu.be/hntaaDWKco4 [youtu.be]
https://youtu.be/yFLYuKUKXoY [youtu.be]
https://youtu.be/iQqPLYUu43s [youtu.be]
https://youtu.be/y5XfsHaB730 [youtu.be]
https://youtu.be/KOQ9HVGoGsY [youtu.be]
6 song rotations = justifiable homocide (Score:3)
It's far worse in Japan. I don't know how staff there put up with it. Many shops in Japan have their own theme music. Actually a theme song, with lyrics.
That sounds awful. I used to work at a company in an engineering office that for some reason felt the need to have a 6 song rotation playing on the overhead speakers all day. I don't care how much you like a piece of music (and I didn't like these) you will be ready to burn the place down after enough repetitions of a song. After the literally 200th+ time I heard the theme song to Titanic I came in after hours and disabled the speaker above my cubicle just to get some relief. (No we weren't allowed to
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If it's the first link, it's actually The Battle Hymn of the Republic [youtu.be]. Anthem of the Union during the U.S. Civil War.
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Well spotted. Thanks for the correction.
I think I was confused by the fact that all shops use Auld Lang Syne to signal that they are closing soon.
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That was the first thing I noticed about Japan: Everything has the unsurmountable urge to make noise. Even the garbage trucks played music.
Re:Brainwashing (Score:5, Interesting)
If you spend too much time in the shop you can't get it out of your head. The staff must be hearing it in their dreams.
To play devil's advocate here, I also worked for a while in a major regional grocery store as a cashier when I was in high school. We had no music whatsoever there. The main sound the cashiers heard was the beep of the register telling us we had successfully scanned an item. After working a shift and going home, I would still hear the same beep for hours while trying to get to sleep. I'm not fully sure which is worse, crappy music or endless beeping.
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The bad news is that they have that as well in Japan. For example in many public buildings they have bell sounds near all the exits. Apparently they are to assist people with vision problems locate the way out. "Bong" every 10 seconds or so, all day every day.
Some train stations have some chirping sounds too. At first I thought some birds had got in to the Tsukuba Express underground stations, but the sound is actually electronic and something to do with the platform safety system I'm told.
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It's far worse in Japan. I don't know how staff there put up with it.
70 people per day top themselves in Japan.
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Can't believe I forgot the best one, the Don Quixote theme song "Miracle Shopping". The shop is actually called Don Quixote, and the mascot is a penguin... But it's commonly called "donkey" because "don-ki" are the first two syllables in the Japanese transliteration.
https://youtu.be/lUsJsealYxM [youtu.be]
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Ha. My folks keep their jingle bells ringers on their landline cordless phones. It drives me bonker. Its ringers are even changeable. [sighs]
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Changing the ringers in the phones. You know, the tune when incoming calls happen.
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Changing the ringers in the phones. You know, the tune when incoming calls happen.
I think the more common term is "ring tone"
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Anyone who has worked in retail knows the torturous effects of Christmas music. It's hard to be festive or jolly when you have heard Jingle Bell Rock too many times.
Not to mention as a shopper, after the first couple day of hearing Christmas music starting after Halloween (OK, more like around Thanks Giving), I just want to get into the store, buy what I need, and get away from there as fast as possible.
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"It's hard to be festive or jolly when you have heard Jingle Bell Rock too many times." once or twice is usually pushing it, even if it is just different covers of the same 3-5 xmas songs over and over and over and over......
Reminds of idiot radio stations that start 24-hour xmas music the day after Halloween....
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There used to be an electronic parts store here in Denver where you'd hear "Comin' Through the Rye" every time the door opened. I can only imagine what it did to the guy who worked there.
At my former workplace, one tune or another would occasionally begin running through my head; then it would come up next on the Muzak. My subconscious had memorized the bloody sequence.
Ace of Angels (Score:2)
If I want music, I just put AoA on repeat. Hyejeong forever!
Is there really a point anymore? (Score:5, Insightful)
Loud music is the aural equivalent of lasers and strobe lights. Unless you're operating a club please don't harass your employees and customers with it.
If silence is a problem, textured ambient sounds can give your business far more personality than blaring the Billboard Top 40.
These days everybody carries around earbuds and a smartphone. If people actually want to listen to music, they will.
silence: indeed (Score:3)
If silence is a problem,
indeed, what's wrong with silence?
Re:silence: indeed (Score:5, Interesting)
Psychologically speaking, a lot of people have issues with silence.
One often effective method of getting a suspect to talk is just sitting across them and saying nothing.
Re: silence: indeed (Score:3, Funny)
Plus royalties to the Cage estate would be huge.
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No. It's quiet until you take your dog for a walk which causes all the neighborhood dogs to start barking
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You'd hear the mice crawling over the ceiling tiles? *shrug*
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If silence is a problem,
indeed, what's wrong with silence?
Tinnitus is what's wrong with it.
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You would be able to think - and where would that end?
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A lot of people view a silent business as a dead business. Sure, once you get a critical mass of couples and groups chatting it sounds lively, but the first few through the door wonder what's wrong with the place. One guy drinking at the bar in dead silence does not make a place seem friendly and inviting.
And a lot of people want to talk in a public place without it seeming like everyone else in there is listening to them. If there's some background noise, psychologically you'll think that you can't be hear
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Wait, are you suggesting they play The Sound of Silence on a perpetual loop?
They did, on the subway in Serfaus (Austrian skying resort).
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I drink it for your safety.
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If the top 40 was any good it would be bearable.. (Score:3)
... but the way the charts are measured these days means is basically the musical taste of young teenage girls.
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Shaken? or Stirred?
Where's the RIAA when you need them? (Score:2)
You could try anonymously reporting them to the RIAA and get them to send an extortion collector.
Maybe they already paid. But maybe they didn't...
I propose... (Score:2)
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I can see how both sides have a stake in this issue. It is the Starbucks prerogative to play music that supports the businesses overall goal of making money, however questionable their musical choices are (Hamilton soundtrack?!?), however, it's also important that the employees have the right to not work in a torturous environment.
In this case, I propose that if Starbucks is going to loop repetitive music in their stores to the possible detriment to their employees, then Starbucks allow employees to wear discreet Bluetooth earbuds that play the music of their choice. There, win-win.
How about noise cancelling blue tooth headphones? You could probably still hear orders.
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They aren't going to get your name right without earbuds either....
it's driving nuts everybody (Score:3)
consumers and customers. People should not be forced to listen to modern versuon of Muzak.
I'm a Chillout Guy ... (Score:2)
... and even I have pondered what it would be like to hear the same loop for months on end, for 8+hours every day.
I'd probably sabotage either the system or its playlist after a few weeks.
Repetitive music = abuse after enough reps (Score:2)
... and even I have pondered what it would be like to hear the same loop for months on end, for 8+hours every day.
I've lived through that and it's maddening. The worst part is there is no need for it. It's just laziness and/or cheapness on the part of the people choosing the music. To this day there are some songs that get me triggered because I've heard them WAY too often.
I'd probably sabotage either the system or its playlist after a few weeks.
I worked at a place with a 6 track loop. After a few months I came in after hours, got a ladder and disabled the overhead speakers closest to my cubicle just to get some relief. I can't imagine working retail during the holiday season. You'd f
Welcome to retail (Score:2)
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Ahhh CompUSA. The place where I could buy a mouse pad and get a 3 foot long receipt, which then had to be checked by a security guard at the exit.
Music suppressing headphones (Score:2)
We have shazaa et al to determine which song plays, so the software knows exactly which sound comes next, minutes in the future, so it should be a piece of cake to create such headphones.
Also for barkeepers, diskjockeys, people who hate xmas-music, the gym and so on.
It Does Affect Your Brain (Score:2)
Snowflakes and first world problems (Score:2)
Try Working in a Factory (Score:2)
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Employee morale matters. A lot. (Score:3)
There's a simple solution for employees that no longer care to operate per the environment I created, find somewhere else to work
Oh it's adorable that you think employee opinions don't matter. You have never run a business have you? Piss off your employees and they'll run you out of business faster than you can say "Chapter 11 bankruptcy". Just because you have the legal right to do something as a business owner doesn't make it a good idea. Employee moral matters. More than you can imagine. If you care about the bottom line you do as much as you can to keep employee morale high because happy employees by and large make better e
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That's why he says "_IF_ I own a business". He doesn't. He never will.
If he ever tried, the employee churn would destroy it soon enough.
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isn't confiscating the surplus profit produced by your employees' labor sufficient? do you have a psychological need to be both a sociopathic tyrant in addition to a self-righteous parasite?
There are lots of cushy government jobs waiting for people like this.
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Isn't it interesting how all the middle class white liberals who push the ideas of rainbow diversity, multiculturalism, inclusivity and tolerance of every medieval cultural facet imported into the west never actually go and live in any of these melting pot ghettos that their beliefs help foster.
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"that their beliefs help foster."
Actually, being a Republican since my junior hear in high school, it's not my beliefs that help foster these melting pot ghettos... And it's certain that my reverence for, and defense of, Constitutional rights for even these 'melting pot ghettos' would have served them well. As it is, they are cesspools of violence and corruption, designed so.
No, not by the Right. Recall that the Republican Party got its start as abolitionist, a civil rights champion. The NRA early on did n
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I've been in places where the volume was so high it was distracting to have a conversation.
It's to encourage to you finish your coffee and get the hell out of there. So they can free up those seats for more customers.