ch.annel2-i.s-n.ow-a.ngry

Via the charmingly acerbic Tanta on CR:

LANGHORNE, Pa. — Retailers have a new tool to turn up the heat on their salespeople: computer programs that dictate which employees should work when, and for how long. . . .AnnTaylor calls its system the Ann Taylor Labor Allocation System — Atlas for short. It was developed by RedPrairie Corp., a retail-operations software firm based in Waukesha, Wisc. “We liken the system to an airplane dashboard with 100 different switches and levers and knobs,” said AnnTaylor’s Mr. Knaul. “When we launched that, we messed with five of them.” Giving the system a nickname, Atlas, he said, “was important because it gave a personality to the system, so [employees] hate the system and not us.” 

But maybe Mr. Knaul should worry a bit more about what those other 95 switches and knobs do:

Mr. Knaul said the new system exceeded the company’s targets for converting more browsers into buyers. He said that AnnTaylor hopes to refine the system, possibly with features that rank employees based on skills other than their sales proficiency, such as how well they operate cash registers.Another option, Mr. Knaul added, was to begin using the system to more efficiently schedule managers.

I think this is GREAT news. It is going to totally backfire on these chumps. Know why? Because it’s a computer, and it’s going to do what you tell it to do better than you could ever think. They are going to make it the absolute master of HR after it fucks with line employees lives enough to make them completely miserable but the company highly profitable. AND THEN… and then it’s going to do shit like fire the CEO for underperforming and being too much of a drain on finances, and they are going to freak the fuck out when that happens.But it will be too late. The programmers will be laughing their way to the bank (assuming Atlas didn’t fire them first, because after Atlas works what’s the need for new programming? - in that case they’ll be laughing in their new jobs on the way to the bank) while AnnTaylor shits its corporate britches. The reason I can divine this is the the line: Giving the system a nickname, Atlas, he said, “was important because it gave a personality to the system, so [employees] hate the system and not us.” They mean to take all the human out of human resources. “Sorry, Atlas said you gotta go,” or “Sorry, too bad you have class during this hour, Atlas says you have to work so you have to either quit school or this job,” or whatever other petty bullshit will go on. When a computer is told to seek efficiency it will ruthlessly do so, thousands of times faster than a human organizer, but with no moral compunction for what it is doing. Schedule an empoyee to work till closing the night before and then make them open the next day? Humans already do that, but know they’re messing with people; computer’s can’t care. At least humans can say “sorry man, I had no choice, but I’ll make it up to you,” (unless they’re bastards) but in this case they can only say “Atlas shrugs when you complain about it’s tactics.” Which brings me to my next point. You don’t really think there’s a coincidence that this objectivist system is named after Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged?”