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Starbucks' Music Is Driving Employees Nuts (www.cbc.ca)
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.
In Yodobashi in Japan, they have this on loop all day long. Over and over. It gets to you pretty quick.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
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.
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.
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
https://youtu.be/hntaaDWKco4
https://youtu.be/yFLYuKUKXoY
https://youtu.be/iQqPLYUu43s
https://youtu.be/y5XfsHaB730
https://youtu.be/KOQ9HVGoGsY
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SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
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.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.