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posted by Fnord666 on Monday March 04 2019, @01:23PM   Printer-friendly
from the not-just-employees dept.

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

Starbucks' music is driving employees nuts. A writer says it's a workers' rights issue | CBC Radio

You may not give a second thought to the tunes spinning on a constant loop at your favourite café 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."

Johnson argues it wouldn't take years of research to understand that "yes, playing the same music over and over again has a deleterious effect on one's mental well-being."


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  • (Score: 4, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Monday March 04 2019, @01:43PM (10 children)

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Monday March 04 2019, @01:43PM (#809766) Journal

    Just wear some high quality ear plugs, and a pair of high quality ear muffs. For extra points, install speakers in your muffs, and play your favorite music to yourself. Then, you can stand at the counter, shouting, "EXCUSE ME, CAN YOU SPEAK A LITTLE LOUDER?"

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  • (Score: 1, Redundant) by kazzie on Monday March 04 2019, @02:21PM

    by kazzie (5309) Subscriber Badge on Monday March 04 2019, @02:21PM (#809771)

    And you can scribble any old name on the paper cups, just like you do now!

  • (Score: 3, Funny) by Phoenix666 on Monday March 04 2019, @02:46PM (4 children)

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Monday March 04 2019, @02:46PM (#809775) Journal

    That would work pretty well these days, because if anyone complained about your inability to hear you could state, "I'm deaf, you insensitive clod!" If the customers or Starbucks persisted, the employees would chalk up an instant win with a discrimination lawsuit.

    --
    Washington DC delenda est.
    • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Monday March 04 2019, @04:52PM (3 children)

      by Freeman (732) on Monday March 04 2019, @04:52PM (#809846) Journal

      Except, I'm pretty sure it's illegal to lie to your employer, the judge, and the jury. It's a totally different situation, if you're actually deaf.

      --
      Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
      • (Score: 2, Troll) by Phoenix666 on Monday March 04 2019, @05:09PM

        by Phoenix666 (552) on Monday March 04 2019, @05:09PM (#809858) Journal

        There are lies that everyone cares about, and there are other lies that nobody bothers with. If the lie you are telling falls within a narrative many people accept, it will be overlooked or excused in all kinds of creative ways.

        Lying about disabilities or various flavors of victimhood has become common. Even candidates for president have done it, without much backlash. Lying about being deaf in a Starbucks to win sympathy or status as a member of a protected group rather seems to fall under that aegis.

        --
        Washington DC delenda est.
      • (Score: 5, Touché) by FatPhil on Monday March 04 2019, @10:53PM (1 child)

        by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Monday March 04 2019, @10:53PM (#810024) Homepage
        "I identify as deaf".
        --
        Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
        • (Score: 3, Interesting) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday March 05 2019, @12:31AM

          by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Tuesday March 05 2019, @12:31AM (#810065) Homepage Journal

          Proper hearing tests show that my high frequency response in my left ear falls off sharply at roughly between the pitches of typical male and female voices

          That I at times experience dissociative trances really does lead others to conclude I’ve suddenly been struck deaf and blind, despite my own actual experience of idle mind wandering

          Severe Tinnitus - not so much ringing in my ears but hissing - leads me to be completely unable to understand the speech of those who do not Enunciate, that is those who do not clearly separate each syllable of their every word.

          Finally my largely solitary nature leads me to remain largely uncognizant of the presence of those of people that I have no specific requirement to take notice of.

          All these put together lead me to actually live the same life as that of most deaf people.

          --
          Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 04 2019, @03:21PM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 04 2019, @03:21PM (#809794)

    > ...and ripping out all of our speakers from the ceiling."

    Not repetitive, but annoying none the less: Used to live about 100 feet from a business that operated 24/7. At one of their side doors (facing my house) they had a PA horn tied to the internal building PA system. The horn might have been installed to call employees who stepped out for a smoke? After being woken up a few times and complaining to the manager a few times, I moved to direct action--it was easy to knock the wires off the elevated outdoor speaker with a short stick. Iirc, they reconnected them once, but after the second round they gave up and I could sleep through the night.

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Monday March 04 2019, @04:59PM

      by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Monday March 04 2019, @04:59PM (#809851) Journal

      Been there, and I empathize with you. I'm the employee, not the neighbor. We started out with 4 outdoor speakers. I couldn't figure out how to turn them down, so I cut wires to two of them. Those are the two that pointed toward the little subdivision across the road. Even after cutting those wires, the neighbors bitched to the city about being woke up at night. FINALLY, the bosses had a rheostat installed so they could cut the volume down to something reasonable.

      Inside the building was just as bad. The speakers would blast your eardrums out if you were close to them. Investigation showed that some of the speakers could be dialed down, and others, like those outside had no dial. I cut some wires, and dialed the rest down. It took some time to get things "right".

      Unlike most people, I got away with my alterations because I'm maintenance. No one had reason to be suspicious when Runaway was up in the scissor lift, messing with lights, and wiring.

      And, I have no explanation for the previous occupant's need to blast out announcements at leventyleven decibels. It made no sense at all.

      The sole mitigating circumstance for all that noise is, the subdivision was built after the plant was built. Meaning, the previous occupants didn't install all of those speakers with the intention of blowing away the neighbors.

    • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday March 04 2019, @05:10PM (1 child)

      by Phoenix666 (552) on Monday March 04 2019, @05:10PM (#809862) Journal

      Set up an LRAD to reflect it back at them.

      --
      Washington DC delenda est.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 04 2019, @07:32PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 04 2019, @07:32PM (#809935)

        > Set up an LRAD to reflect it back at them.

        Wrong target. AC here, the 24/7 business was owned by a rich guy who lived elsewhere. If I blasted (or even reflected) the PA speaker back at the brick building it would accomplish exactly nothing. Well, the "echo" might amuse/puzzle any smokers who were standing outside the door...

        Which reminds me, that rich guy was in the (paper) phone book. One night when his company PA system woke me up at 4am, I called his house and woke him up!