Why Luckin Coffee One-Person Holiday Shifts Sparked Debate

A Luckin Coffee notice from its Guangzhou branch requires stores with fewer than 200 items to run the Spring Festival triple-pay shift with a single employee from opening to closing. That person handles preparation, packaging, cleaning, and sudden order surges alone. Staff must apply to the district manager in advance and submit a screenshot of the item count to close briefly for a restroom break.

The notice covers January 28 to January 31, with early opening and closing assigned to experienced staff and rest breaks scheduled every four hours. From 17:30, stores averaging fewer than five freshly made items in half an hour may apply for an emergency closure, stating property requirements as the reason. Employees described the arrangement as harsher than the King of Hell.

The Spring Festival is traditionally a time for family reunions, but for frontline employees at Luckin Coffee, this year's triple-pay shifts have brought unprecedented challenges. The Guangzhou branch recently issued a notice requiring stores with fewer than 200 items to have only one person on duty all day during the Spring Festival, from opening early to closing, all handled by the same person. This means that the employee on duty must single-handedly take on multiple tasks such as preparation, packaging, cleaning, and handling sudden order surges, with timely output rates, physiological needs, and sudden order spikes becoming the three major problems weighing on their shoulders. What worries employees even more is that if they need to temporarily close the store to use the restroom, they must apply to the district manager in advance and submit a screenshot of the item count. This high-intensity labor efficiency management has sparked widespread discussion, with some employees bluntly saying it is "harsher than the King of Hell." This article will provide an in-depth analysis of the details behind this shift adjustment and the voices of the employees.

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Recently, with the official announcement of Spring Festival duty arrangements, Luckin Coffee has once again become a hot topic of discussion due to its "one-person on duty" model. Judging from feedback from grassroots employees, this scheduling approach seems to have pushed work intensity to a new high.

It is understood that the Luckin Guangzhou branch, known in the industry as the "most competitive in the country," issued a notice on Spring Festival shift adjustments last week in multiple internal management groups. The notice explicitly stated: "For the triple-pay shift schedule, for those with fewer than 200 items, one person on duty all day. From January 28 to January 31, one person opens early and one person closes (experienced staff), rest breaks must be scheduled every 4 hours... Starting at 17:30, if the number of freshly made items in half an hour is below 5, an emergency store closure can be applied for (reviewed by the district manager), with the reason stated as: property requirements, accompanied by a screenshot of the item count."

When Luckin employees saw this notice, their emotions felt like a plummeting roller coaster, shifting from the initial small joy of "earning triple pay during the Spring Festival" to instant distress and anxiety. Because working during the Spring Festival not only means being on duty alone all day (from opening early to closing), but also means that the person on duty will face three major problems head-on: timely production rates, human urges, and sudden order surges.

Anyone familiar with Luckin's work culture knows that timeliness has always been one of the performance indicators most valued by management, with both food preparation and packaging strictly limited to minutes and seconds. Now, however, this hard indicator is different from before, because it falls on just one person.

In other words, employees scheduled to be on duty alone during the Spring Festival must not only bear the workload originally completed by two to three people, but also simultaneously juggle the store's output efficiency, sanitation and cleaning, positive review rates, and a series of other standard requirements, while responding at any time to unexpected situations that may arise in the store, such as suddenly increased delivery orders.

Once a certain step delays time, or there is a sudden order surge, the work intensity of the "store watcher" immediately doubles, making them wish they could grow three heads and six arms to cope. For example, a few days ago, a customer witnessed firsthand the "despair and breakdown" of a Luckin employee working alone; although the employee was spinning like a top the entire time within the few square meters of the bar counter, they still could not keep up with the pace of the equipment "spitting out orders."

However, for grassroots workers, rather than worrying about being too busy, what gives everyone the biggest headache is actually how to handle physiological needs while on duty alone. Output is certainly important, but after all, people have urgent needs, and going to the bathroom is ultimately a big deal. As more and more people confirmed they would be standing guard alone, employees began planning ahead and offering suggestions, and related search terms accordingly became associated with the top results for the brand.

According to everyone's past experience, if no one is at the bar counter and they have reached the point of "unbearable urgency," they can first choose forced store closure in the system, then post a notice note in a conspicuous place, so that customers temporarily cannot place orders online, and workers do not have to risk being complained about by making the trip.

However, in the latest notice, Luckin branch management clearly pointed out that during the triple-pay shift schedule, if store employees want to apply for emergency closure, they must first pass review by the district manager and attach the reason and a screenshot of the item count before the operation can be carried out.

Under such extreme labor efficiency management, frontline employees already face enormous pressure, and now additional requirements have been added. In the words of Luckin employees: "One person on duty, applying for store closure to go to the restroom, having to accept bad reviews—harsher than the King of Hell."

Image source: online screenshot

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