Archived How can I get weekends off? Should I say i have a weekend job?

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I work early 4am every day, so I must be on bed early. Here me a young man wanting to visit and be with my significant other and friends, partying, 23 year old man college student. I miss a lot meeting up with my friends on Friday and Saturdays. I can't go to parties anymore because the manager assigns the days off randomly like during the weekdays, and I've asked other co-workers about it and they say I should just tell him I have another job and can't work those days? and I should be fine, but i'm also scared because one of them said that the manager gets mad if I ask for weekends off, so I don't know, I'm kinda scared to ask. I mean I could work Monday to Friday no problem. Any suggestions?
 
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Well you're 23 now, I think it's time to quit worrying about partying. I'm 27 and am still in college because I too was more worried about catching up with my friends when I was 23. Trust me when I tell you in all seriousness find time to hang out with them when you can don't make it a priority. They are not going to be the ones putting money into your pocket.
 
How important is this job?
Do you need a certain number of hours a week to pay your bills?
Because yes, you can tell them you have a weekend job and change your availability, but what will happen is you will find that you will get fewer and fewer hours.
Why schedule you when they can get someone who is willing to work the weekends.
Also how long have you been working there?
If it's under 90 days you can't change your schedule.

It's all about priorities.
 
Why should you have weekends off so that you can party, when other people at your store can't spend time with their kids on the weekends because they're forced to work?

If you're in your 90 days and I was your TL and you asked for weekends off, I would give you every weekend and weekday off by firing your ass.
 
Well I need the job, but I don't have a lot of priorities and things to pay. Only my credit card, other than that I'm only saving to buy a car.
I'm absolutely ok if I only work 20-25 hours a week which is alright all the hours I get because of my availability due to school. I get two days off.
Yes my 90 days passed early November.
 
What's your work center I can try to help you out?

The thing is, if you try to close off your availability anymore than it is your probably going to want to open in up in other areas as best you can in order to keep hours up. They will not hesitate to cut the crap out of them.
 
Well, I don't know what to say. Retail is always weekends. Did you not realize this when you took the job? We would all like weekends off. Age is immaterial. That would make my day to have any of my team members get the weekend off. I work with a lot of college kids. They never whine about not having time to party. I guess they have a better work ethic than you.
 
I unload the truck and stock everyday there. I'm always off by 9.30am. Normally I can't stay at lunch because I have to go to school at 10.30am. I get Tuesday and Friday off because I have school earlier those days. This week is the last one of school. Now I can offer stay longer, Monday Wednesday and Friday I also help to unload Produce, Meat Market, Dairy and Frozen truck which is when normally take us more time than usual those days I'm off at 10am. I mean I now get two days off, how different would it be to change those days to Sat and Sun?
 
I unload the truck and stock everyday there. I'm always off by 9.30am. Normally I can't stay at lunch because I have to go to school at 10.30am. I get Tuesday and Friday off because I have school earlier those days. This week is the last one of school. Now I can offer stay longer, Monday Wednesday and Friday I also help to unload Produce, Meat Market, Dairy and Frozen truck which is when normally take us more time than usual those days I'm off at 10am. I mean I now get two days off, how different would it be to change those days to Sat and Sun?

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Always to be the devil's advocate, I get it (at least a little bit of it).
I worked full time from 16-22 at Spot as a full-time team lead. Being someone who had to work for every penny, I didn't have the luxury of being able to do any less than that. I WILL say that especially at stressful times of year, I felt like I was competing against the world for time.

I will say these things:
-Fourth quarter is NOT the time to figure these things out. You're going to get a better answer by waiting a month.
-Retail is demanding. It's give-and-take. Don't expect an "I win-You lose" type of resolution.
-Early mornings are the MOST constricting time frames. Consider a switch to a workcenter (possibly with a pay cut) that will allow shorter shifts and more flexible scheduling. (Cashier shifts are always available!)
-Priorities are a big deal. However, I have a bit of compassion for someone burning out not being able to have any sort of human interaction outside of work. It doesn't get better when you get the degree, in fact--tons worse. So, make sure you are centering your decisions correctly.
-Conversations go a ton further than demands. Who do you have a rapport with? Would you be willing to take other undesirable shifts? I was the "goto" closer in school, which really helped me, since I could meet up with whatever I wanted to do AFTER work a ton easier than bedding myself in prep for an early one. I also had tons of co-curricular involvements for my scholarship program in college. This was my savior.

If not, reevaluate where you are at, and possibly look for on-campus (lower paying) jobs that may meet your needs.

Good luck! NO job should identify you, full or part time. Sometimes we get too wrapped up in where we make our money. Spot tends to bank on TM/TL/ETL's doing thi$ for maximum profit.
 
Some responses are very mature (I get what you're trying to tell me) than other responses that just rather bash and not help at all. I'm not planing on doing this this month because it's quite obvious I can't do it now. I'll do it in January. Some of you act as I would have said "I only want to work only two hours a day" that's not what I said. What I said was that wanted to get my two days off changed from the day I normally hace tham to Saturday and Sunday.
 
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Figure out when your etl is about to leave/get termed and submit an availability request right beforehand. They wont care since they are leaving. That's how I did it.

OK I didn't really know beforehand but a leaving ETL approved my weekends off. It was just luck for me.
 
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If you try to switch your availability to weekends off, don't expect to just have your days off switched to Saturdays and Sundays. Expect to have your two days off AND Saturdays and Sundays off. If you're lucky, you'll only have three days off. But they could very well give you four days off.
 
I don't have a lot of experience with Target, but working every Saturday and every Sunday every week does not sound like a good work/life balance no matter what your age. This is a minimum (or slightly above) wage job at Target and you are going to school, so I'm presuming that Target is not where you plan on building a career. This job is not an investment in the future for you, it's just a job.

My question is - does every single person in the department work both Saturday and Sunday? If the answer is no, then you should not have to work every Saturday and Sunday either. There is nothing wrong with placing life outside work as a priority and unless it's administratively easier to do so, there's no reason that it should involve lying about your availability. I would definitely have a discussion with whomever creates the schedule and tell them that you are completely burnt out and need a break from working every weekend.

Honestly, if there's one thing I've learned in life, it's that people interpret silence as acceptance and that they don't read too much into things. Right now, you've got weekends open and you haven't complained, so the scheduler believes everything is fine. You have to voice your opinion on the issue. Getting every single weekend off doesn't sound reasonable for a retail job, but I think blocking off one weekend day might be a reasonable solution, or if you can just maintain the availability, but get a weekend day off a few times a month, that might also be a good resolution.

Target does seem like it takes advantage of availability though. I started a thread about a week ago about how Target is scheduling me for many more hours that I wanted. This most recent schedule that came out is about 10 hours more than the maximum that I said I was willing to work. This "creep" of hours (starting at 13, then 23, then 25, then 34) is, in my opinion, taking advantage of me as a worker and if I were planning on staying long term would absolutely warrant a discussion with HR about how to solve the problem.

Remember, you let people take advantage of you. You just have to decide where to draw the line.
 
Some responses are very mature (I get what you're trying to tell me) than other responses that just rather bash and not help at all. I'm not planing on doing this this month because it's quite obvious I can't do it now. I'll do it in January. Some of you act as I would have said "I only want to work only two hours a day" that's not what I said. What I said was that wanted to get my two days off changed from the day I normally hace tham to Saturday and Sunday.

I'm 23 and going to school full time. In the almost three years I've been with Target, I've worked every single Saturday and every other Sunday. On Fridays I focus on homework because taking 18 units and working 25 hours does not bode well for completing homework during the week. Would've I liked to not work weekends so I could actually have a social life and catch up on homework? Hell yes. But did I know the expectations when I was first hired that I would be working weekends? You betcha. And so did you.

Your reason for wanting weekends off is one of the poorest I've heard. If they approved yours, then they would have to approve everybody else's weekend off requests to be fair, because I can't think of a worse reason for needing the weekend off than "I want to party with my bros."

Next time you're at work, flip through the posted schedule and count the number of TMs that have every weekend off. You'll understand why I'm annoyed.
 
Target does seem like it takes advantage of availability though. I started a thread about a week ago about how Target is scheduling me for many more hours that I wanted. This most recent schedule that came out is about 10 hours more than the maximum that I said I was willing to work. This "creep" of hours (starting at 13, then 23, then 25, then 34) is, in my opinion, taking advantage of me as a worker and if I were planning on staying long term would absolutely warrant a discussion with HR about how to solve the problem.

Remember, you let people take advantage of you. You just have to decide where to draw the line.

Don't worry. In about a month and a half, you'll be back down to 8 to 12 hours a week.
 
In my experience... if they like you and feel that they really need you to make them look good... it will be approved. It's hard to prove that though if you are in hardlines or softlines, a cashier or in market. If you are in a specialty area like food ave, deli, etc they will cater to your needs because those positions are harder to fill. My suggestion is to close off your weekends in MyTime and see if it's approved/denied, then go from there. But don't you dare tell them you are closing it off to "party". That reason will only make you look like a selfish irresponsible kid, no matter how old you are.
 
I unload the truck and stock everyday there. I'm always off by 9.30am. Normally I can't stay at lunch because I have to go to school at 10.30am. I get Tuesday and Friday off because I have school earlier those days. This week is the last one of school. Now I can offer stay longer, Monday Wednesday and Friday I also help to unload Produce, Meat Market, Dairy and Frozen truck which is when normally take us more time than usual those days I'm off at 10am. I mean I now get two days off, how different would it be to change those days to Sat and Sun?

Sounds like you're on flow. So am I. In my store Saturday is always 2 truck day. No flow tm's have Saturday as unavailable. Switch to another work center like Plano or pricing. No weekends, usually
 
Target does seem like it takes advantage of availability though. I started a thread about a week ago about how Target is scheduling me for many more hours that I wanted. This most recent schedule that came out is about 10 hours more than the maximum that I said I was willing to work. This "creep" of hours (starting at 13, then 23, then 25, then 34) is, in my opinion, taking advantage of me as a worker and if I were planning on staying long term would absolutely warrant a discussion with HR about how to solve the problem.

Remember, you let people take advantage of you. You just have to decide where to draw the line.

Don't worry. In about a month and a half, you'll be back down to 8 to 12 hours a week.

But it shouldn't happen at all. If the understanding was that I was hired expecting 15 hours a week, then that's the understanding. However, I am in the exact same position as Joel. I have not said anything to HR and by not saying anything, it's the same as acceptance.

HR might even think I'm excited to get these hours; they aren't thinking about the fact that I am unhappy because I'm missing dinner with my siblings, my son's two soccer games, my daughter's band concert, and that I won't be around for most of my daughter's sleepover birthday party (I'll get home about 12:45 am). And they aren't thinking that if I was scheduled for 15 hours for the week, it would have been impossible for me to miss all of these events. It is, however, up to me to draw the line and since I expect to be at this job for only another 3 weeks, I've weighed the pros and cons and have decided to just work the hours. And, yes, I have tried putting shifts on the swap board - no one wants to work weekends or close on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, that seems perfectly clear.
 
Target does seem like it takes advantage of availability though. I started a thread about a week ago about how Target is scheduling me for many more hours that I wanted. This most recent schedule that came out is about 10 hours more than the maximum that I said I was willing to work. This "creep" of hours (starting at 13, then 23, then 25, then 34) is, in my opinion, taking advantage of me as a worker and if I were planning on staying long term would absolutely warrant a discussion with HR about how to solve the problem.

Remember, you let people take advantage of you. You just have to decide where to draw the line.

Don't worry. In about a month and a half, you'll be back down to 8 to 12 hours a week.

But it shouldn't happen at all. If the understanding was that I was hired expecting 15 hours a week, then that's the understanding. However, I am in the exact same position as Joel. I have not said anything to HR and by not saying anything, it's the same as acceptance.

HR might even think I'm excited to get these hours; they aren't thinking about the fact that I am unhappy because I'm missing dinner with my siblings, my son's two soccer games, my daughter's band concert, and that I won't be around for most of my daughter's sleepover birthday party (I'll get home about 12:45 am). And they aren't thinking that if I was scheduled for 15 hours for the week, it would have been impossible for me to miss all of these events. It is, however, up to me to draw the line and since I expect to be at this job for only another 3 weeks, I've weighed the pros and cons and have decided to just work the hours. And, yes, I have tried putting shifts on the swap board - no one wants to work weekends or close on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, that seems perfectly clear.
If you are scheduled outside your availability they have to make it right. You should have brought it to their attention immediately. I had this happen once. It never happened again. Someone is messing with your schedule. I don't believe my time would do this. Jump on it and make them fix it. Their bad, not yours. That's why Target asks for availability. If they don't abide by it, then why even gave a schedule. Your time is as important as theirs.
 
Dude, you're only 23. 3-4 hours sleep a day should be enough for you.

Have you also heard of energy drinks? How about coffee?
 
Well there was a dude there who started the same as me 5 months ago who told me that he had gave our ETL a fake school schedule where he apparently had to go school weekends. He was off those days always until he changed his position there in the store I no longer see him cause he works in the afternoons, so what if I really had a weekend job? I recently did apply for Macy's as backroom for weekend job, the shift was 6am - 3pm. If I got to get hired I would indeed need those days off. AND I wouldn't have much trouble cause I could stay up longer night and get some sleep get up at 5.30am.

How do you get to change to another position here at Target? A lot of my co-workers have suggested me that, and I would like that but I have no idea what process to do this involves or whatnot?
 
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Even if you had another job, they don't have to accept your availability change. If it doesn't work with their staffing needs, they'll deny it and tell you to choose one or the other.

I find it odd you applied for a weekend job at Macy's, and yet you're complaining about working weekends.
 
Because it starts at 6am so I can have some nightlife Friday and Saturday, so wouldn't matter much since I'd be able to stay up longer than usual while at here at start at 4am and get up at 3am thus going to bed way too early.
 
They could be giving days off based the truck schedule - you're days off my be the same days there aren't trucks....and not be random as you think.
 
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