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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: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 04 2019, @03:21PM (3 children)
> ...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
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)
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
> 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!