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