The Wikiness

Since I’d already eaten, I sit down in a booth with the two other employees over 50. They’re eating the free sandwiches the General Manager laid out near the door. These sandwiches are being added to our menu in April, which is what tonight’s meeting is for. 

For weeks we’ve seen the notice: “Team Huddle on 3/17. Attendance is MANDATORY. We want everyone on board to learn about the exciting changes at Panera.”

Seated around me where customers normally sit is the rest of the crew–about 25 sandwich makers, meat and cheese preparers, bakers, cashiers, barista makers, and assistant managers. My co-workers are people of color, some cognitively or otherwise disabled, current high school students, speakers of Spanish, or immigrants. None of them has a higher education and all of them rely to a greater or lesser extent on the hourly wage and scant benefits of this fast-casual chain. 

Our “team huddle” tonight is to introduce the “New Era” at Panera, JAB Holding Company’s latest initiative to grow profits. 

Our GM stands before his seated workers and reads his corporate script. “Panera is happy to announce its biggest menu transformation ever. We’ve listened to our guests, and come up with a new, simplified menu, more items under $10, new operations, and new craveable flavors.  Streamlining everything means new sales and new customers. On our side, it will mean less preparation and greater speed of delivery. It will improve our order accuracy. And yes, this will mean fewer hours on our schedules, but there will be raises coming soon, based on attendance and performance. And we’ll be getting a lot of extra hours to train for the New Era.”

As he speaks, my spirit constricts, recognizing what’s happening again: in the corporation’s push to extract maximal productivity from workers, and to pursue machine-like, frictionless delivery, human lives are about to get mangled in the gears. I look around at the quiescent faces of my co-workers. They accept this hit to their earnings as an unquestionable fact of existence, like the weather or doctor bills.

I see in their cowed postures the same acquiescence that I and my fellow faculty showed when a Superintendent forced extra dehumanizing work on us, or an inefficient new protocol for teaching. We needed the job, so we smiled weakly at each other and shrugged, “What are ya’ gonna do?”.

I sit and seethe quietly.

The GM then informs us we are free to go once we finish a lesson on the required learning app we need to download to our phones. It requires a passing score of 80. A humanoid woman in a Panera manager shirt asks me  “How about the exciting changes at Panera? Underneath are three responses: “Mmm, I have questions. I’m not sure I like them. ” And “I will wait and see how it works out.” And what turned out to be the right answer, “It’s awesome. Let’s go!” 

When I chose either of the first two responses, a big red minus number drains my points. My support is compelled. 

It proceeds to ask me detailed questions about sandwich order builds and substitutions for new soups, two areas not in my job description. I bus tables and wash dishes. Nonetheless, I need to answer correctly or I literally can’t go home. 

At my second failure to pass, the AI manager on my phone smugly tells me to “try again.” She is keeping me from my bedtime with this pointless game, 

I stand up. And in righteous indignation, I emphatically tell her,  “Fuck. You.” 

Assistant Manager Johnetta looks up at me and smiles. “Damn, Andrew. I never hear you curse.” 

I look around at the downturned heads of my seated co-workers, engrossed in their phones, passing the quiz. I feel embarrassed and out of step,  

“Well, I’m pissed.” I tell Johnetta in a quieter voice. “I feel profoundly disrespected by this whole thing. I don’t like how this new era treats us like objects. And I refuse to win this stupid game.”

I hand my phone to Johnetta, who hands it to Priscilla, who aces it for me and I go home. 

I haven’t sat down until now, when I can process this trauma. 

My heart aches for my co-workers. In my privileged situation, it is only I who can stand against this brazen predation on wages and human dignity. They are demoralized, feeling they have no option but to lie down and take it.