Service industry social network
HotSchedules used for official business and workplace chats
Zoom fatigue, layoffs in Slack chat, reply- all meltdowns and the general destruction of work- life boundaries: The digitized plight of the white- collar office employee, 9- to- 5- ing remotely, has been documented extensively.
In non- white- collar industries, hit even harder by the pandemic — small businesses such as restaurants, bars and independent retailers — managers have spent much of this year dealing with more immediate and brutal dilemmas, making major staff cuts and furloughs, navigating complicated loan applications, and weighing closures both temporary and permanent. Their employees, many unable to collect unemployment benefits that are now running out anyway, are not only eager for work but also wary of its new risks.
The pandemic has accelerated the service industry’s embrace of new tech tools, many of which are being adapted to the industry’s peculiar new needs. Online delivery platforms such as Grubhub and Uber Eats became vital — and sometimes demanding — partners for restaurants where takeout had been an afterthought.
Plans for touch- screen tableside ordering were expedited. Reservation and point- of- sale software is now being updated to help restaurants comply with new and frequently changing state- by- state capacity and spacing rules.
Some changes are less visible. Apps used for assigning and trading shifts have become, for some workers, the last thin thread connecting them to their jobs and colleagues.
In the beginning of September, HotSchedules, an employee scheduling and communications app, was one of the 10 bestselling apps in Apple’s App Store, just ahead of the hugely popular Plague Inc. — a pandemic simulation game — and FaceTune, the photo touch- up app.
While HotSchedules is primarily used for setting work schedules, it also includes email- style messaging that owners, managers and employees can use to talk. In many workplaces, this talk is limited to official business and haggling over shifts; in some, HotSchedules becomes a de facto social network.
DM- ing with ( and around) the boss: Amber Hitchcock,
27, who works at a steakhouse in Florida, said that most employees use the app for its intended purpose. “But then people are like, ‘ Hey, I have a pressure- washing business,’ or, like, ‘ Here’s a cat I found.’ ”
How people use the service is largely a reflection of workplace culture. A restaurant worker in South Carolina, who was granted anonymity by The New York Times to protect his job, described how a male coworker once used the app to send inappropriate messages to a woman he worked with; when the co- worker was let go, he sent a message to the entire staff lashing out at his managers.
HotSchedules is, at its core, a tool for managers, and so managers dictate how, and how well, it’s used.
“I’ve used HotSchedules at four to five different restaurants now,” said Sierra Cordell, a supervisor at a restaurant in Denver. “I’ve worked places where it was discouraged to use it for anything other than strictly scheduling,” Cordell said, “but at other places, we’ve set up our fantasy football league through HotSchedules messaging.”
In March, when local restaurants were ordered to close for in- house service, Cordell’s employer told staff members they wouldn’t be working for a while. “One server sent out a lot of very detailed information about unemployment in Colorado and sent over some helpful tips regarding getting contact with the unemployment office,” Cordell said.
Chatter shifted to Facebook and group texts until June, when workers started getting their first notifications from HotSchedules: Shifts were once again available. Since then the app has been key as a hub for weekly updates about changes to service, coronavirus precautions and staffing issues.
Brave new world of workplace chat: Apps such as HotSchedules share an attitude, and central tension, with their white- collar counterparts — such as Slack, Microsoft Teams and Google’s G Suite — and encourage somewhat free and casual exchange. These apps often obscure, although not always effectively, conventional power dynamics.
A restaurant, of course, is not a tech startup, and compared with the overlapping communications systems used for remote office work, the social veneer of a service such as HotSchedules is thin. ( The app asks workers how they might rate their recent shifts, using emoji.) Still, messaging is one of the app’s most robust functions; according to the company, employees interact with it on average 3.5 times per day, even during a period of curtailed work.
“One of the ways employees have stayed engaged is using the communications tools,” said Casey Clinkenbeard, who works in product development for HotSchedules. “It’s kind of like a watering hole.”
The problem is, with reduced or eliminated in- person interactions, there isn’t much to talk about except anxiety and fear about job security and health.
One factor in HotSchedules’ sudden spike in popularity may be a new feature: an option to require employees to answer a health survey before they’re able to schedule a shift.