Metrics and Macchiatos: Challenges for Service-Industry Workers and the Need for Worker-Driven ICTs

Nearly 30 million people work in the foodservice and retail industries in the United States, representing approximately 18 percent of the total U.S. workforce. These service-industry workers contend with pressures from algorithmic management and other workplace technologies, yet they typically do not benefit from technologies that might help foster mutual support in the way that white-collar workers do. Recently, Starbucks, a major service-industry employer, has garnered media attention for issues with understaffing, labor law violations, and algorithm-based operations. We conducted interviews with sixteen Starbucks employees about their workplace issues, interactions with technology, and communication practices. These interviews illustrate how workplace technologies worsen existing issues for service-industry workers and how challenges to worker-to-worker communication reduce their capacity to rectify these issues, especially at the cross-store level. Our participants want better communication with other workers, such as through labor unions or new information and communication technologies (ICTs), to help improve their working conditions. We discuss how HCI scholars can use action research to help design localized, worker-driven ICTs to facilitate more connectivity and collaborative practices outside of the workplace. We conclude by outlining our ongoing work studying and designing ICTs for service-industry workers.