Catherwood LibraryILR School

Several well-known retailers, Ann Taylor Stores Corp., Limited Brands, Gap, Williams-Sonoma, and GameStop Corp., have recently switched their scheduling calendar from man to machine ? they have installed computer software programs to do the work for them. The software measures employees ?performance metrics? (i.e. number of sales, etc.) and schedules the most successful salespeople for the busiest hours. Companies have embraced the software as helping to organize workers and up efficiency and sales but some employees are not so happy. They dislike the system as impersonal, saying that it makes scheduling more difficult and often assigns shorter shifts. Many also feel that the software creates an unhealthy survival-of-the-fittest atmosphere on the sales floor.