PJ Sills
Arts & Entertainment Editor
This year at PLU, the GET app is no longer available for students to order lunch and breakfast, while last year, it was the only way to order both. The only option available on the app is pizza, which is fine, that is, if your app works.
At the beginning of September, PLU reassured their students that the app would be up and running by the third week of the semester. As of now, the GET app is aggressively dysfunctional. Every single person I’ve talked to has said that their GET app will not open due to malfunctioning.
With the GET app, students were able to order their food ahead of time, so that workers had more time to prepare orders, and students did not have to wait as long. If the GET were brought back and PLU initiated a hybrid lunch system, it would create a division of labor problem. At that point, you’re asking a crew of maximum 20 people to cater to 3,000 students.
Say for instance there are ten people waiting in line, and then ten tickets pop out of the printer, someone will have to end up waiting for their food. They need to either put a capacity of orders that can go through at all times in the app. If not this, it must either be all GET app, or no GET app, not a hybrid lunch system. More inexperienced workers would have a very difficult time handling this system.
After speaking with Commons Line Cook Joey Casto and a few other Commons employees, the main reason working in the Commons seems to be difficult always comes down to staff shortages. “I would like to see a hybrid form of in-person and Get app lunch just for people who are in a rush so they can order ahead of time,” Casto said. “If we had more people for coverage, it definitely wouldn’t be as difficult. But no matter what, you have to keep making food at the same rate because you want food to be fresh for students coming in.”
Last year, the Commons was dealing with a staff shortage just as severe, and were offering any students who applied and remained employed until the end of the semester a $300 bonus. This year, they have dropped the bonus to $150. Not to mention the fact that the wage for student dining workers is minimum wage, and how they are not allowed to have free food, even when there is an absurd amount going to waste. Not only do they not get enough money, they can’t even eat for free.
This is absolutely unacceptable. The maximum amount of hours you can work in the Commons is 19 hours a week, and some students are supporting themselves. Nobody can do that with a minimum wage job that they work for an embarrassing amount per week with a lousy bonus.
Students’ opinions on ordering in person really vary from person to person. Plenty of students actually appreciate the short, controlled social interaction they can get, as do a lot of Commons workers, as it “brightens their day to be asked how they’re doing,” Casto said.
But for some, ordering in person is a nightmare. In fact, some students have written in anonymously to the PLU Confessions Instagram page (@plu_confessions_2.0) saying that they had severe anxiety ordering in person, especially in front of other people. Some people simply want to go to the dining hall to pick up their food and go back to their dorm. Even if you are an extroverted person, everyone has their days where they simply want to get their food and get the hell out.
Last year when lunch and breakfast were GET app only, (which was the easiest system for dining employees) the staff shortage was immense. Many of the workers last year commented on how stressful the job was, how the working conditions were not ideal. College is stressful enough between social anxiety and expectations, classwork and extracurricular activities, and just dealing with money and administration bureaucracy. No student deserves to have a stressful on-campus job as well.
There is an influx of work to do for Commons employees, and regardless of whether there are any changes made or not, it will never be easy on them. They are getting overworked and underpaid in every scenario. This is just another case of the university pretending to care about their students when time after time they capitalize on their efforts. Stop extorting your students and prioritize them with labor that is ethical and beneficial.
