GameStop invites its employees to compete for ‘10 additional labor hours’ in a TikTok dance contest

American video-game retailer GameStop is inviting its employees to participate in an online dance competition, and one of the top prizes appears to be — getting scheduled to work 10 extra hours during the week of Black Friday.

TheGamer.com drew attention to the contest on Tuesday afternoon.

The “TikTok dance challenge,” sponsored by consulting firm Incisiv, is part of the company’s virtual 2020 GameStop Conference. The retailer’s website encourages store workers to learn a particular dance routine, upload a video of it to Woobox, and then vote on the team with the best entry.

“The winner of the challenge will receive an Echo 8, Echo Auto, $100 Visa gift card, and 10 additional labor hours to use during Black Friday week,” the conference website reads. “Imagine what you could do with all those prizes!”

GameStop did not immediately respond to request for comment.

“In practice, does this mean 10 more hours of work that week? Or ‘personal time’? Bonus pay? I’d love to report any sort of clarification about this,” I said in an email.

But there’s a good chance this really is what it looks like: underpaid retail workers being asked to humiliate themselves in front of their colleagues for the chance to work more hours during (a) the holidays and (b) a pandemic that has claimed a quarter million lives in the U.S. alone.