To the Editor:
Re “Part-Time Work Has a New, Predatory Logic,” by Adelle Waldman (Opinion guest essay, Feb. 20):
This essay resonated with me. After retiring from academia and relocating to Maine, I took a part-time seasonal position at one of Maine’s iconic retailers. The seasonal employees comprised two distinct groups.
Many, like me, were retirees whose employment was a diversion, perhaps even recreational. A way to get out of the house — and out of a significant other’s way a few days a week. The other group was consistent with the employees described in Ms. Waldman’s essay: people who needed the income and who juggled more than one part-time job, always desperate for more hours. After getting to know them, I sometimes felt guilty taking any hours for myself.
We were assigned shifts through a smartphone app. The system scheduled in two-week blocks. We could make plans only two weeks into the future unless we had used the software to list ourselves as unavailable for any upcoming day. For my group that meant no social plans beyond two weeks. For the other group, their income hung on that two-week window.
In retail environments, the seasonal, part-time sales representatives are the public face of the company. It is in employers’ self-interest to understand that and create a more supportive workplace.
I did the work for only two seasons, and then reminded myself why I’d retired in the first place. My colleagues who need the job don’t have that option.
Andrew J. Grant
Scarborough, Maine
To the Editor:
In our quest for efficiency and profitability, millions of part-time workers have become trapped in a cycle of low-quality jobs.
Beyond fair compensation, workers deserve reliable hours. Wages shouldn’t be a gamble, and every worker deserves the stability to set and achieve long-term goals, with work enabling their long-term success, never standing in their way.
At the very least, employers should provide all workers with their schedules and work locations three-plus weeks in advance and develop policies to prevent last-minute changes. They should also automatically enroll all part-time workers in a comprehensive benefits plan upon hire.
But the onus isn’t all on employers, or at least the responsibility for fixing this problem isn’t. Many companies are accountable to their shareholders, regulated by policymakers and subject to the will of their customers. And right now, we’re incentivizing them to prioritize profits over worker well-being. We can change that.
Policymakers must hold employers accountable, advocating policy changes and enforcement that protect workers’ rights. All work has value, and all workers deserve dignity on the job.
Molly Blankenship
Chattanooga, Tenn.
The writer is a director at the nonprofit Jobs for the Future.
To the Editor:
I worked a store manager at one of the big companies mentioned in this article for over 25 years. To suggest that retailers could hire and guarantee the same number of hours each week of the year to anyone is not a sustainable business model. Sales and freight flow vary wildly throughout the year.
If a majority of employees are already working full time, who can be called in to take their shifts when they are sick? Would you be OK with waiting longer at checkout because I couldn’t replace an absent cashier? Fluctuating hours are part of the reality of running a retail business of any size.
My part-time staff was largely college students. Each semester I scheduled them around their changing class schedules.
We strove to accommodate our employees’ life needs while serving our business. My company offered legal counsel and psychological counseling and always stepped up when help with groceries or medication was needed, regardless of whether they were full- or part-time.
Retailers hire young, untrained and unskilled workers. They give people a place to start. A place to learn how to be part of a team. To take on greater levels of responsibility. To accept part-time employment and expect it to morph into full-time with benefits, and complain when it doesn’t, is not fair to the company.
Are there bad actors out there? Sure. But Ms. Waldman, the next time you decide to pretend to be a part-time employee, try being a retail manager instead.
Dorreen Daffer
Louisville, Ky.
To the Editor:
In the 1980s I was a branch manager in a high-end neighborhood bank in Arizona with customers who expected good service. All the tellers were full-time workers, women who had been with the bank for years, knew the customers well and were knowledgeable about bank products and services.
I received orders from higher-ups to let go of all the full-time employees and fill those positions with part-timers. Of course, that meant employees who did not know the customers well, did not stay long enough or had little incentive to really learn the products and policies, which reduced good service overall.
So thanks for the in-depth article about how employers of all types enhance the bottom line at the expense of what they call their most valuable resources — their employees.
Judy J. McDonald
Phoenix
To the Editor:
I greatly appreciated Adelle Waldman’s comprehensive article about how corporations exploit part-time workers in the name of profits. She explained how companies may pay higher than minimum wage, but then rely on part-time workers to avoid paying benefits.
However, she did not mention how taxpayers are subsidizing these employees. The largest number of employees in several states who receive Medicaid and SNAP benefits (food stamps) work at Walmart and McDonald’s.
Large corporations are making billions in profit by hiring part-time workers; maybe they can pay back the American taxpayers who are subsidizing them.
Anna Sterne
Santa Barbara, Calif.
To the Editor:
The question is how do workers force their employers to assign regular schedules with reasonable hours. And the answer is unionize.
Being part of a union means having a contract with the employer that stipulates working conditions including wages, hours, schedules, time off, benefits and more. It’s a legally binding document, and when employers renege, employees can take legal action with union backing. It levels the playing field and gives the workers, together, an advantage that a single worker would never have.
No wonder corporations like Walmart, Target and Amazon are so virulently anti-union!
Linda Ferrazzara
Randolph, Mass.
To the Editor:
Not long ago, I took a part-time job for six months, at a chain supermarket, after decades of working in stable full-time jobs. I still found this article illuminating, such as how wildly variable the workweek hours and days actually are, tempered a bit at my unionized employer. I liked my colleagues and the job, but not the demeaning management.
I would argue that unpredictable job schedules also reduce civic engagement, preventing many citizens from being a school board member or coaching a youth sports team or joining an advocacy movement. With these practices, employers are quietly undermining civic involvement.
James Racine
Montclair, N.J.