Daylight savings time ends Nov. 3, setting off an annual ritual where Americans (who don’t live in Arizona or Hawaii) and residents of 78 other countries including Canada (but not Saskatchewan), most of Europe, Australia and New Zealand turn their clocks back one hour. It’s a controversial practice that became popular in the 1970s with the intent of conserving energy. The fall time change feels particularly hard because we lose another hour of evening daylight, just as the days grow shorter. It also creates confusion because countries that observe daylight saving change their clocks on different days.
It would seem to be more efficient to do away with the practice altogether. The actual energy savings are minimal, if they exist at all. Frequent and uncoordinated time changes cause confusion, undermining economic efficiency. There’s evidence that regularly changing sleep cycles, associated with daylight saving, lowers productivity and increases heart attacks. Being out of sync with European time changes was projected to cost the airline industry $147 million a year in travel disruptions. But I propose we not only end Daylight Saving, but also take it one step further.
This year, Americans on Eastern Standard Time should set their clocks back one hour (like normal), Americans on Central and Rocky Mountain time do nothing, and Americans on Pacific time should set their clocks forward one hour. After that we won’t change our clocks again—no more daylight saving. This will result in just two time zones for the continental United States. The east and west coasts will only be one hour apart. Anyone who lives on one coast and does business with the other can imagine the uncountable benefits of living in a two-time-zone nation (excluding Alaska and Hawaii).
It sounds radical, but it really isn’t. The purpose of uniform time measures is coordination. How we measure time has always evolved with the needs of commerce. According to Time and Date, a Norwegian Newsletter dedicated to time zone information, America started using four time zones in 1883. Before that, each city had its own time standard based on its calculation of apparent solar time (when the sun is directly over-head at noon) using sundials. That led to more than 300 different American time zones. This made operations very difficult for the telegraph and burgeoning railroad industry. Railroads operated with 100 different time zones before America moved to four, which was consistent with Britain’s push for a global time standard. The following year, at the International Meridian Conference, it was decided that the entire world could coordinate time keeping based on the British Prime Meridian (except for France, which claimed the Prime Median ran through Paris until 1911). There are now 24 (or 25, depending on your existential view of the international date line) time zones, each taking about 15 degrees of longitude.
Now the world has evolved further—we are even more integrated and mobile, suggesting we’d benefit from fewer, more stable time zones. Why stick with a system designed for commerce in 1883? In reality, America already functions on fewer than four time zones. I spent the last three years commuting between New York and Austin, living on both Eastern and Central time. I found that in Austin, everyone did things at the same times they do them in New York, despite the difference in time zone. People got to work at 8 am instead of 9 am, restaurants were packed at 6 pm instead of 7 pm, and even the TV schedule was an hour earlier. But for the last three years I lived in a state of constant confusion, I rarely knew the time and was perpetually an hour late or early. And for what purpose? If everyone functions an hour earlier anyway, in part to coordinate with other parts of the country, the different time zones lose meaning and are reduced to an arbitrary inconvenience. Research based on time use surveys found American’s schedules are determined by television more than daylight. That suggests in effect, Americans already live on two time zones.
It’s true that larger time zones would seem to cheat many people out of daylight by removing them further from their true solar time. But the demands of global commerce already do that. Many people work in companies with remote offices or have clients in different parts of the country. It’s become routine to arrange schedules to coordinate people in multiple domestic time zones. Traders in California start their day at 5 am to participate in New York markets. True, not all Californians work on East Coast time, but research by economists Daniel Hamermesh, Catlin Meyers, and Mark Peacock showed communities are more productive when there’s more time coordination. Californians who work on Eastern time require services that can accommodate their schedule and see less of their families on Pacific time.
Frequent travel between the coasts causes jet lag, robbing employees of productive work time. With a one-hour time difference, bi-costal travel would become almost effortless. It might make international business harder, but it’s hard to say for certain. The east coast would be seven hours behind continental Europe, but one hour closer to time zones in Asia. Also, the gains from more frequent inter-state communication might outweigh the cost of extra international coordination.
In 1983, Alaska, which naturally spans four time zones, moved most of the state toa single time zone (except for an Native American reservation near Ketchikan and a few western Aleutian islands). The longitudinal distance of Alaska is nearly equal to the entire continental United States, yet the state functions, albeit with some tension, on one time zone. China has been on one time zone since 1949, despite naturally spanning five time zones.
Spain technically should be on Greenwich Mean Time but it is on Central European time. Many Spaniards believe being out of sync with solar time lowers productivity. But that is because the Spanish workday has not fully integrated with the rest of Europe. The major factor throwing them off is the three –hour lunch that many Spaniards and school children observe which starts at 2 p.m. This shows that optimal time zones account for commerce and common cultural boarders, not just longitude. The problems Spain has, being on Central European Time, wouldn’t apply to America because states are better economically integrated and already follow similar work schedules.
Sure, moving the continental states to two time zones would cause two-hour jumps between adjacent time zones and America won’t line up with the time zones of countries directly north and south, unless this catches on as a global trend. But the discontinuity ship already sailed when rich Western countries haphazardly adopted daylight saving and most other countries didn’t. Time is already arbitrary, why not make it work in our favor?
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Noble Professions
We wouldn’t think of going to a plumber to
have a medical operation performed, or an electrician or an insurance salesman
to have our annual physical. No, when it comes to medical care, we want to be
sure that the physician attending to our most precious resource, our body, is
licensed, skilled, operating with the proper tools in a clean and safe
facility.
The same is true of a food operation.
Just as we expect in our medical care, we should be operating our restaurants,
markets and schools with the same seriousness and conscientiousness of a fine
surgeon. It's all about the health of our customers. And just like a doctor,
we need to take the necessary precautions at our job to ensure that customers
leave our establishment as healthy or healthier than when they first walked
through our door.
Let’s take a look at the parallels between
2 very different professions, and compare the seriousness and importance of
proper procedures that a doctor uses in his/her job to that of a foodservice
worker. How alike they really are, in many ways.
1) The facility
The first time you walk into a doctor’s
office or hospital, you get an impression of the quality of care you will
receive. The cleanliness of the floors, walls and examination tables, the
friendliness of the nurses and support staff, spotless lab coats and uniforms,
bright and cheerful lighting, and clean fresh atmosphere all help to communicate
that. Are they equipped with state of the art technical equipment that can
provide you with the medical tests that you need or are they more in the dark
ages, with dingy lighting, tired worn surroundings and
out-dated equipment?
A restaurant gives the same impression to
a customer walking through the door for the first time, and first impressions
are the most lasting ones. Your sanitation practices have never served you so
well. Create a great impression by meticulously clean floors, properly stocked
restrooms, lighting conditions that provide the ambience you want in your
particular facility, employees with neat appearance, clean uniforms and
attention to customers’ needs.
2) Tools
Both doctor and chef equally need the
necessary tools to do their job right. Let’s look at the Tool kit that each of
these professionals brings to work every day:
Doctor: Personal Protective Equipment
(PPE) such as caps, gowns and gloves; scalpels and autoclave for sterilizing
operating tools; handwashing sink; hand sanitizer; Biohazard kit with sponges
and cloths to clean spills; sterile surfaces for holding tools; maintenance
tools to clean and disinfect operating room afterwards; X-rays and medical
records for reference
during operations
Chef: Hair restraints, chef coats,
aprons, gloves, PPE (oven mitts, cut gloves, eyewear), sanitized knives and
kitchen tools, handwashing sink, hand sanitizer, chemical sanitizer/automatic
warewasher for cleaning kitchen equipment, biohazard kit for bodily accidents in
dining room, color-coded equipment to prevent cross-contamination, mops and
buckets/equipment for after hours cleaning, posters and visual aids for
reference during food operations
3) Procedures
The doctor in the operating room is
holding your life in his hands. Similarly, you are holding your customers’
health in the balance, with the foods that you serve and they put into their
bodies. The principles of personal hygiene, cross-contamination and time and
temperature controls cross over both of these professions.
In a medical setting, handwashing is
critical before each patient visit or during hospital rounds, and a doctor
wouldn’t even think of using bare hands to perform any medical procedure. In the
kitchen, handwashing is also extremely important before starting work and any
time hands are dirty, with extra protection from single use gloves for
ready-to-eat foods.
A doctor must be sure that the equipment
and tools he/she is using with patients are sterilized before use and in
between patients. His/her workspace is also sterile, including the patient’s
body itself, even before the knife touches the skin. A chef must also start
with a clean work surface before food preparations, and all cutting boards,
knives, pans and other tools must be clean and sanitized before use and after
every task.
Taking temperatures of patients is also
routine medical practice to be sure that body temperature is in normal range
-elevated temperatures over 98.6° F indicate the patient may be battling an
infection. Similarly, a foodservice worker taking temperatures of TCS foods
during preparation, holding, storage and service is critical to be sure that
foods are staying out of the temperature danger zone (41° F – 135° F [5˚C -
57˚C], according to 2009 US FDA Food Code) and bacterial growth is minimized at
all times.3-501
Finally, hospital protocols should be
followed at all times, just as Standard Operating Procedures should be in place
as a good foundation in any foodservice operation. Proper methods for
Cooking/Cooling/Reheating foods, Receiving, Storage, Personal hygiene, Reputable
suppliers, Chemical usage, and methods for preventing cross-contamination and
temperature abuse should guide establishments daily.
4) Training
In both the medical profession and the
foodservice industry, training is the key to prolonged safety. Medical
professionals not only receive extensive education but also pursue continuing
education to keep up their credentials and stay current with new treatments and
practices. You notice those diplomas hanging on the wall? They are comfort
that you are in the company of a well trained professional. Their support staff,
nurses, orderlies and administrative staff should also be proficient in their
duties.
Similarly, the foodservice professional
should be qualified in food safety procedures and keep their training current in
many areas, including Food Manager Certification, allergen awareness, culinary
techniques, at a minimum. And this training should continue as new regulations
are implemented or good practices are adopted in the industry, perhaps training
in HACCP, Food defense or Recalls. Training of all staff should continue as
changes are made to the food code in your jurisdiction (FDA Food Code is updated
every 4 years) or as employees, equipment and methods change in the
workplace.
5) What can go wrong?
The risks of not following proper
procedures can be disastrous in any profession. Whether it is a doctor or chef
who is using unsafe equipment or tools, dangerous consequences can result. If a
physical object is accidentally left inside a patient or carelessly contaminates
a food product, it can sicken the individual. If liquids, blood, vomit or other
bodily fluids are allowed to remain on floors after an accident in an operating
room or a food facility, dangerous slips and falls can result.
Further, such spillage in an operating
room can lead to hazardous pathogens spreading to surrounding areas and pose
huge dangers to doctors, patients and attending staff. In the kitchen, spilled
foods, grease and debris can also imbed into crevices of equipment and floors, a
perfect breeding ground for flies, rodents, pathogens, biofilm and food
contamination. Subsequent lawsuits, medical costs, media attention and
patient/customer illness and dissatisfaction can escalate and be devastating to
any business.
As food professionals, we need to take our
jobs just as seriously as a physician. We wouldn’t want doctors to contaminate
us with loads of bacteria as they are taking out our spleen. Just as you
wouldn’t any chef to serve you old outdated chicken contaminated with dirty
hands and a healthy dose of Salmonella, covered up with a sauce breeding
Clostridium perfringens. Your customers trust that you are handling their foods
with care, just as you put your trust in your physician. Keeping foods cold,
datemarking and properly rotating them, cooking and cooling them to keep
bacteria at safe levels are basic good practices.
We need to keep our foods well protected
at every step in the flow of food, in kitchens stocked with proper tools and
gloves, implementing handwashing, personal hygiene, temperature controls,
cross-contamination prevention, equipment maintenance and sanitation. Your staff
should be as well-trained as a medical professional, carrying out safe
foodhandling procedures every day, so that customers are protected from the
foods that they consume and enjoy at your establishments.
And just as people do with a revered
family doctor, with whom they’ve developed a good relationship and stick with
for life, your customers will refer you to their friends and relatives. They
will look to you with respect, thanks and satisfaction, and be a devoted
customer for life.
HOW CHINA'S ONE-CHILD POLICY FORCED STARBUCKS TO RETHINK ITS BEIJING STORES
BRANDS EXPANDING IN CHINA CAN'T IGNORE THE IMPACT OF THE ONE-CHILD POLICY. LIZ MULLER OF STARBUCKS TALKS ABOUT A NEW BEIJING STORE THAT IS AS MUCH ABOUT CONNECTION AS IT IS CAFFEINE.
The effects of China’s one-child policy are manifold. Studies show people raised under the program are less trusting, men are unable to find mates, and then there's the "4-2-1" phenomenon, where working young people must assume financial responsibility for themselves, their parents, and four grandparents. The policy has likely had the strongest impact on a nation’s demographics of any social initiative, save genocide, in history.
More than 30 years later, the one-child policy also raises an important question for brands looking to make inroads into the country: Is there something the young adult Chinese demographic is missing on account of growing up alone? And if there is such a thing, how can we provide it?
Liz Muller, the director of concept design for Starbucks, makes it her job to answer these sorts of questions. She’s the mind behind some of Starbucks’s most creative flagship stores. As the brand expands internationally, each of her far-flung creations aims to introduce customers in Europe and Asia to the Starbucks take on the subjects of coffee and service in a way that makes sense in their culture.
She has, for instance, replaced the brand’s homogenous retail stores with a friendly coffee-and-cookie bar in a former bank building in pastry-loving Amsterdam, and plans to help open Starbucks lounges aboard two intercity trains in rail-travel loving Switzerland, a first for the brand.
Her most recent completed projects are two flagships in Beijing: a coffee tribute store in the Kerry Centre meant to introduce home brewing methods to a well-traveled, affluent demographic, and a 24-hour store in Taikoo Li Sanlitun geared toward the young adults who the one-child policy left relatively companionless. Though the two stores are just a few miles apart, the differences are significant, and the Taikoo Li site is the one that caters specifically to those impacted by China’s infamous rule of one.
“A lot of these children have grown up in one-child families, they use our store as a connection of truly interacting with, I would say, their brothers and sisters that they don’t have,” says Muller. “Unless you want to sit in a restaurant or a bar, there is nothing in that area [around Taikoo Li] that truly gives you a safe environment where you can have a meeting or chat, or get together with friends.”
The solution, says Muller, was to create a store that would cater to a late-night crowd and have a “lounge feel,” with lower softer seating where strangers could sit across from each other and potentially make friends. There would be live music on the second floor on weekends, which the company would call Club 1971, in honor of Starbucks’ inaugural year. “It has lower lighting, and a beautiful mood, a stage for you to truly engage,” she says. “What we found is that most everybody is normally on their iPad or theiriPhone, but what happens there is they put them down and they truly connect. They take pictures with each other. I think it is interesting because if you think of how they are raised, they might not have extended family that we all have, so they truly take the time to connect with people.”
The challenge, for Muller, was in maintaining the bar’s open feel all day long. Taikoo Li, which is surrounded by gardens and event space, is a beautiful site, she says, but as a glass box with few walls, the store itself was a difficult place to establish an environment where people felt comfortable looking out during the day, but also would be enticed to come in once night fell and all eyes were on the lighted lounge. Warm tones were key here, and Muller reports that the evening hours when the store gleams like a beacon in the dark are the most popular for business. “At this time, the response has been overwhelming,” she says. "People are just in awe."
Taikoo Li has been so successful that she was called back in to add more seats, presumably for all the single people looking to connect.
