Archived I call out because

[HRZone]

Also, if I could pad my hours with sick time, or cash it out, I would call out a lot less. In my store, they strictly can only be used if you call out. It's very easy to justify a call out when you're maxed out on sick time, and desperately need a weekend.

I hate the way sick pay laws are written in most states.

My state just got it in January and absenteeism is up.

Targets also prohibits you from coaching tms for attendance if they have enough sick pay to cover the whole shift

 

[HRZone]

I can't see the results of the poll without voting, and none of the options would fit me anyway (I've never called out). HRZone, can you post the results sometime down the road (or add a "results" option, if it doesn't alter your stats so far)?

Yes I did just that

 

[LearningTree]

Yeah while we aren't supposed to technically schedule based on performance. I definitely give preferential scheduling not to who I like but to who shows up.

Even if you're a great worker if you call out a lot I can't rely on you

If not on performance then how are you supposed to write your schedule? My STL has always said to schedule based on performance. Doesn't make sense to give a crappy TM just as much as or even more hours than a good TM.

 

[Spot the doge]

I requested the day off weeks in advance and it never got processed after many reminders.

 

[HRZone]

If not on performance then how are you supposed to write your schedule? My STL has always said to schedule based on performance. Doesn't make sense to give a crappy TM just as much as or even more hours than a good TM.

Reliability and availability. Be careful about writing it your way. You risk being accused of playing favorites.

My last etl hr got a hotline call for cutting someone's hours. As apart of the investigation they wanted our grids for several weeks and the availability of each tm in that workcenter.

If you were to give say a tm with open availability 8 hours a week and a tm only available Monday thru Friday 40 8am to 5pm all in the same work center. A hotline call could cost you your job

 

[TM2]

A couple that I know happen in my store:
I need to study/do homework
I need to use my sick hours

 

[Amity]

I call out when I get a series of short 5 hour shifts that are all closing. I like getting work out of the way up front. I hate waiting around for work and 5 hours isn't worth it. Having to work 5 days a week for 25-26 hours pisses me off.

 

[NPC]

I call out when I get a series of short 5 hour shifts that are all closing. I like getting work out of the way up front. I hate waiting around for work and 5 hours isn't worth it. Having to work 5 days a week for 25-26 hours pisses me off.

100 times this! Or work, 24 hours...across 6 days. This truly infuriates me, because it absorbs so much of my time, for such a small pay off. Work is inevitably a distraction from your personal life, I understand that. But spreading someone so thin across the week is just such a disruptive way to ruin someone's ability to spend their time off in a meaningful way. Shit happens, and schedules like this every once and a while aren't the end of the world. But for the long term, it's just not fucking healthy. Even as just a peon, store level worker, my well-being should still be of interest to the company's bottom line. How does it not make sense that miserable overworked people, are EVER going to perform how you want? Especially if guest service is top priority, you need happy people. Happy people care. Companies that understand this, do better than us. /rant

In a fantasy reality though, if I could write my own schedule, I'd give myself 4, 10 hour shifts, Monday - Thursday. Lol, so maybe I have unrealistic hopes and dreams. But dammit! It's expensive where I live! My time is valuable! Don't make me waste time commuting, 6 times a week, for fucking 24 hours a week.

 

[IWishIKnew]

I think short shifts make more sense for the true part-timers--I don't mind 3 5-hour shifts per week, but people looking for more hours should have longer shifts as much as possible. Not sure if there's a way to balance that as a schedule writer, but maybe something to keep in mind--allocate the short shifts to the part-times as much as possible.

 

[LearningTree]

Reliability and availability. Be careful about writing it your way. You risk being accused of playing favorites.

My last etl hr got a hotline call for cutting someone's hours. As apart of the investigation they wanted our grids for several weeks and the availability of each tm in that workcenter.

If you were to give say a tm with open availability 8 hours a week and a tm only available Monday thru Friday 40 8am to 5pm all in the same work center. A hotline call could cost you your job

I'm saying reliability is part of performance. You can't perform if you're not there. So if you're someone who calls out too much or shows up late, I'm cutting your hours and giving them to someone without attendance issues.

 

[SilentCrow]

My problem is the mountain of sick hours I have that I pretty much can't use because laeaders are encouraged to never call out.

 

[Sanzano]

My problem is the mountain of sick hours I have that I pretty much can't use because laeaders are encouraged to never call out.

My HR team is cool enough to let me use them when I take time off too, for that exact reason. It’s kinda under the table though, your results may vary.

 

[HRZone]

I'm saying reliability is part of performance. You can't perform if you're not there. So if you're someone who calls out too much or shows up late, I'm cutting your hours and giving them to someone without attendance issues.

I'm on board. I think the issue is some people cut hours to people who don't perform well rather than actually mentoring and managing them

 

[Kompa]

I'd have to question why an HR TM is even written the schedule, based on performance or not

Not anything against them, but imo they seem to know the least about TMs as far as skills goes. Like, why did you give the guy who backstocks slow as shit more hours than the normal closer who can twice as much work in half the time. Or why does the new early morning BR TM have more hours than the ones that have been htere for years that are quick. Honestly this extends to salesfloor as well

 

[Yetive]

I'm on board. I think the issue is some people cut hours to people who don't perform well rather than actually mentoring and managing them

This.

 

[Kaitii]

I keep trying to request a day off for it to keep getting auto denied

And no one wants to cover it (not like anyone on my team is trained or willing to do the truck anyways)

 

[Frontlanegirl]

I think short shifts make more sense for the true part-timers--I don't mind 3 5-hour shifts per week, but people looking for more hours should have longer shifts as much as possible. Not sure if there's a way to balance that as a schedule writer, but maybe something to keep in mind--allocate the short shifts to the part-times as much as possible.

Great point!!

 

[Greenie]

I only call out if I’m sick and can’t function. That’s puking and junk like that.

 

[Thunderbird1956]

In a fantasy reality though, if I could write my own schedule, I'd give myself 4, 10 hour shifts, Monday - Thursday. Lol, so maybe I have unrealistic hopes and dreams. But dammit! It's expensive where I live! My time is valuable! Don't make me waste time commuting, 6 times a week, for fucking 24 hours a week.

It depends on the TMs goals. We have some that do this as a retirement job, one is looking for 20-30 hours a week, one is looking for 40. We have one that this is there first job and want 30-40 hours a week, but doesn't prioritize and is super slow. We have some that want mommy shifts to be done before 3PM, and others that their shift length is based on the whims of their baby sitter. We have people with school that are truly part time, and those that are part time only because they haven't been buddy, buddy with an ETL. Some of the people that would like close to full time said it's too physically exausting to work longer than 8 hours, and some that hate anything over 6 and less than 8. Basically every single TM is differed, sometimes painfully so.

 

[OverworkedHRTM]

Hey friends I'm doing a study on absenteeism. I know there are some of you who call outwhenever, some who call out only when sick, and some of you who wouldn't call out even if your mother died.

I am most interested in avoidable callouts.

What other than sickness, injury or a sick child or loved one would cause you to call out?

I'm curious if there are things stores can do schedule wise to decrease absenteeism.

Reasons I've heard are...

• Don't like who the LOD is that shift
• only scheduled a 4 hour shift and not worth their time to drive for 4 hours of work
• we have some TMs that don't like long shifts
• scheduled too many consecutive days
• don't like the work center they are scheduled in (however only complain about this to other TMs instead of talking to the people that write the schedule! super frustrating).
• Don't like closing shifts or don't like opening shifts.
• got denied a day off (because too many people we already off).
• also a lot of people like to have two days off in a row to have some sort of a "weekend"

When I write the schedule I try to accommodate people's preferences the best I can to avoid hearing everyone complain and avoid having a lot of call outs and swapped shifts (plus it makes everyone happy and improves morale). My ETL-HR I swear purposely gives people crappy schedules just because she's bitter and she can. Ultimately, I think the only way to cut down on call outs is to come up with a system of accountability. In my store for example, we have our TLs write PDDs every time a TM is late or absent for a shift then at the end of the month we go through and look to see if there are any TMs that are over a certain percentage of attendance issues for the month (we use 20% so basically they can have one late or absent per week assuming they work 5 days a week) and if they are over the percentage we move them to a corrective action and if it still hasn't improved within the 6 months they get put on a final warning. The only thing I don't like about our system is that we assign the same value to lates and absences. Personally I would rather have someone be 15 minutes late for their shift rather than not show up at all. And if your TLs suck it's hard to get them to write the PDDs. But it seems to be working my store has the best absent percentage in our district

 

[HRZone]

When I write the schedule I try to accommodate people's preferences the best I can to avoid hearing everyone complain and avoid having a lot of call outs and swapped shifts (plus it makes everyone happy and improves morale). My ETL-HR I swear purposely gives people crappy schedules just because she's bitter and she can. Ultimately, I think the only way to cut down on call outs is to come up with a system of accountability. In my store for example, we have our TLs write PDDs every time a TM is late or absent for a shift then at the end of the month we go through and look to see if there are any TMs that are over a certain percentage of attendance issues for the month (we use 20% so basically they can have one late or absent per week assuming they work 5 days a week) and if they are over the percentage we move them to a corrective action and if it still hasn't improved within the 6 months they get put on a final warning. The only thing I don't like about our system is that we assign the same value to lates and absences. Personally I would rather have someone be 15 minutes late for their shift rather than not show up at all. And if your TLs suck it's hard to get them to write the PDDs. But it seems to be working my store has the best absent percentage in our district

Nice, yeah our best SF TM is consistently 7-9 minutes late. Never anything crazy like half an hour but I will take him over many others because he never calls out. We can survive without you for 10 minutes, you missing a whole 8 hour shift is death.

 

[NPC]

It depends on the TMs goals. We have some that do this as a retirement job, one is looking for 20-30 hours a week, one is looking for 40. We have one that this is there first job and want 30-40 hours a week, but doesn't prioritize and is super slow. We have some that want mommy shifts to be done before 3PM, and others that their shift length is based on the whims of their baby sitter. We have people with school that are truly part time, and those that are part time only because they haven't been buddy, buddy with an ETL. Some of the people that would like close to full time said it's too physically exausting to work longer than 8 hours, and some that hate anything over 6 and less than 8. Basically every single TM is differed, sometimes painfully so.

I don't get the point of your response. I mean holy fuck, as if that shit wasn't obvious. Do I seriously have to fucking disclaimer shit even more?

 

[TheBeastPMT]

I don't get the point of your response. I mean holy fuck, as if that shit wasn't obvious. Do I seriously have to fucking disclaimer shit even more?

HE TOLD YOU!!

 

[NPC]

HE TOLD YOU!!

He told me a whole lot of nothing!

 

[TheBeastPMT]

He told me a whole lot of nothing!

LMAO yeah but at least he tried