Archived New TMs and availability?

[ForeverInMMB]

We desperately need TMs for Sundays in all departments, mainly flow and cashiers. Since a lot of our older TMs get alternating weekends off, my store is pretty good about recognizing seniority and loyalty, so it's rewarded. It seems like a lot of applicants don't want to work Sundays, understandable, but in retail, beggars can't be choosers. So HR will ask them if they can open up their availability, they either say no, or say yes, then immediately begin trying to change it.

I'm a Monday-Friday TM with occasional weekends (which I choose and ask for depending on my workload), but when I started out I was all over the place, days, nights, weekends, and I just dealt with it. My availability is still completely open. I guess I just don't understand. If you want a job, why put all these restrictions on your availability? I understand if you have class or another job, but from what I hear, that's mostly not the case with applicants these days.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

That's a normal thing for new folks. They don't want to work on a weekend, they call out instead.

 

[PassinTime]

Is the applicant really the beggar?

 

[NPC]

Asking for one day off isn't absurd. Working for an employer isn't one sided. You offer your time and services in exchange for money. Most people don't dedicate 100% of their time for retail jobs, and I don't think retail jobs should expect that for always being so skimpy on hours. It's better that they're upfront about their availability from the get-go rather than try and change it after the fact.

When I started at Target, I had a set availability, with set days off. That's how it's been my whole time with Target, and it's been great. Applicants should be flexible, of course. However, I encourage people to not be afraid to save some time for themselves.

 

[tgtguy]

There was a point in time that if you didn't have open availability Spot wouldn't hire you....or if they did hire you ...they would let you know up front you more than likely wont get many hours at all. Now, not so much. Spot hires these applicants with their availability....then complain cause they don't have any tms to work weekends etc. Then, they will schedule the ones with open availability almost every weekend and burn them out . I have been with Spot quite a while. I do get every other weekend off. However, I have been told over and over again that's not something that is written in stone. If a new stl, etl, etc decided that was a viable option it could change. You would think that after 19 years....it would be a no brainer.

 

[StrawberryBanana]

I agree with @Target NPC; I think don't think it is ridiculous for someone to limit their availability especially if they are only working part-time. Our store is open 8am-11pm everyday plus we have that 5-8am shift on Sundays so that is 108 hours a week a person would have to be available if they didn't block out any time which is a lot of hours to keep open for an employer if you are only working 20 hours or less a week.

 

[FredPanda3]

I was constantly harassed by my team lead to put in open availability, when it finally kicked in on the 8th, I still always close Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays with the occasional weekday close. I wish I was making this up, I'm not.

 

[Blackbutler42]

I worked at spot for a year and never got a weekend off. I remember one semester I worked Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night. Barley ever got an opening or mid during the weekends. Kinda sucked as I was always stuck working Friday and weekend nights and couldn't go out and have a social life.

 

[PassinTime]

When I was hired HRTM told me I HAD to have availability to close on 2 of the 3 weekend days. Found out when I quit, that that is not a requirement to work in that store. I used to get scheduled to be the closing (solo) cashier. Man, that Sunday shift went into the swap book so f-a-s-t. I really wasn't interested in working Sunday at all, but naively listed it to help me get hired by Target. Then HR lied and told me I had to have closing availability for 2 of the 3 weekend days, so I agreed to let her list me as a closer on Sundays, and Fridays as well.

My payback to HR was giving away shifts that didn't really fit into my schedule and needed to be updated in the system once someone claimed them on the swap board. My last 6 months I did that almost weekly HRTM took it personally since she made the schedule for all of front end.