I’m not overly fond of Wal-Mart – I’ll come right out and say it.

That doesn’t mean I haven’t shopped there, but I try to avoid it when I can. Part of it is the ambiance, part of it is a general dislike of the company. Mind you, that’s a dislike, not a slobbering hatred like some exhibit. Wal-Mart is one of many stores of that kind (Meijjer / Target / etc.), each of which either has a territorial stake or caters to a particular type of shopper. Target is a good example of this; the goal of Target isn’t the lowest prices on everything. The mood and layout of the store shows this; it certainly feels different than a Wal-Mart.

This should not be confused with “Target good / Wal-Mart bad”. Different, not better.

Today the San Francisco Chronicle (a copy of which I found on the mens room floor at my place of employment) had an article on the newest plan from Wal-Mart to squeeze out some more profit.

In a nutshell, the idea is that employees that used to have fixed shifts no longer will; instead, they will be called in, piecemeal, as needed throughout the day, evening or weekend. Wal-Mart says this will produce more staff when needed because a computer system will be monitoring staffing needs and calling people in as needed.

Welcome to the “fast food” style of employment. You will be called in as needed, and let go as needed. You can no longer rely upon a fixed shift, or a fixed number of hours. I can only imagine the effect that this would have on someone who has daycare arrangements or other issues of this kind.

Wal-Mart says that you will be able to tell them the hours you are unavailable. Employees claim this is a move to try to move full-time employees to part-time, thus saving Wal-Mart untold amounts of money as they will not have to pay benefits to part-time workers.

And, I suspect if you refuse to come in too many times you just might find your hours cut down so much that it would probably be better if you just, well, quit. Just like fast food. And just as intended.

I could not find the SFChronicle article online at sfgate.com; instead I have this link [cnn] that pretty much summarizes the same information and arguments.

That being said, I’ll get to the point of this post. Reading this today reminded me of a story I found on the web, Manna.

Manna is a piece of speculative fiction about a dystopia created by workforce management software that is similar to what Wal-Mart is planning to use, only a lot more complicated, capable and scifi. Once the dystopia is established the story veers off into another direction that I think the author would like to see the real world achieve. So would I, actually.

Anyway, I found the story interesting. Hopefully you will, too.