Archived NY Times piece on retail scheduling

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Today's Times has a front page article headlined "A Part-Time Life, as Hours Shrink and Shift." The most telling qoute is "...the burden of market fluctuations is being shifted onto the workers , as opposed to the companies absorbing it themselves."

Target is never mentioned, but everything in the article applies to us.
 
Today's Times has a front page article headlined "A Part-Time Life, as Hours Shrink and Shift." The most telling qoute is "...the burden of market fluctuations is being shifted onto the workers , as opposed to the companies absorbing it themselves."

Target is never mentioned, but everything in the article applies to us.

Honestly, I think this doesn't apply to Target. (the part about the cause of this being the economy/market) Target was working on cutting pay, benefits, and hours long before most people even knew what the word "recession" meant. This is nothing new. They were doing it 10 years ago.

I also think that the articles insinuation - that most retail workers would work full time if given the option - is totally bogus.

When I was a GSTL, I used to have certain TMs complain to me that their hours were too few and that they wanted to be full time. Obviously, they couldn't be full time.... but in response to that, I made sure when I was doing the schedule I gave them more hours.

What happened you ask? Nearly all of them started calling out, and some of the same ones who told me they wanted more hours actually went to the ETL-HR and complained about me! What did they tell her? I was "making them work too much". I even had one complain that her welfare benefits got cut because of me, because she was making too much money. I was freaking floored. Keep in mind, these were all people who complained to me they weren't getting enough hours - so I thought I was doing them a favor.

One of those NY Times writers should get a TL/ETL job and see what happens when TMs who *say* they want more hours actually get them....

Not saying this applies to all TMs, but it applies to a good number of them.
 
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Honestly, I think this doesn't apply to Target. (the part about the cause of this being the economy/market) Target was working on cutting pay, benefits, and hours long before most people even knew what the word "recession" meant. This is nothing new. They were doing it 10 years ago.

I also think that the articles insinuation - that most retail workers would work full time if given the option - is totally bogus.

When I was a GSTL, I used to have certain TMs complain to me that their hours were too few and that they wanted to be full time. Obviously, they couldn't be full time.... but in response to that, I made sure when I was doing the schedule I gave them more hours.

What happened you ask? Nearly all of them started calling out, and some of the same ones who told me they wanted more hours actually went to the ETL-HR and complained about me! What did they tell her? I was "making them work too much". I even had one complain that her welfare benefits got cut because of me, because she was making too much money. I was freaking floored. Keep in mind, these were all people who complained to me they weren't getting enough hours - so I thought I was doing them a favor.

One of those NY Times writers should get a TL/ETL job and see what happens when TMs who *say* they want more hours actually get them....

Not saying this applies to all TMs, but it applies to a good number of them.

My takeaway was not that the economy was driving fragmented scheduling, but that increasingly better technology (scheduling programs) enables complex scheduling at little cost. The programs have made marginal cost savings from more fragmented scheduling affordable. They don't have to pay someone 8 hours to write a scedule, they just pay 2 hours to fine-tune one generated by computer.

I agree that many TMs neither need nor want more or full-time hours, but I know many who do, and who would show up.
 
As much as folks carp about universal health care, some (not all, but some) would continue to work part-time if health care weren't part of the problem. The reason many (again, not all) attempt to work full-time is for health benefits. Take that out of the equation & businesses couldn't hide under the excuse of fines & penalties. Many folks work for crap wages just for benefits.
 
As much as folks carp about universal health care, some (not all, but some) would continue to work part-time if health care weren't part of the problem. The reason many (again, not all) attempt to work full-time is for health benefits. Take that out of the equation & businesses couldn't hide under the excuse of fines & penalties. Many folks work for crap wages just for benefits.

Health care benefits are not legally required. (well, under the new health care law they will be, but prior to that corporations had no obligation to offer them) Hell, breaks and meal time are not even required under federal law. (amazingly, breaks and meals in most states target actually does out of the goodness of their heart. Not legally required at all in most states) The only real "benefits" employers are required to pay for are workers comp, social security, and unemployment insurance. That's it.
 
I never said anything about health benefits being 'leagally required'.
I'm talking about what would help most people: universal health care.
Many folks would probably tolerate working part-time if there was a universal health plan they could access regardless of where or how many hours they worked instead of having to beg their employers for more shifts in an effort to either qualify for health benefits or eke together enough $$ to pay for dr visits.
We all KNOW that corporations aren't legally required to do anything decent for their employees.
Employers have gradually eroded their responsibility to their employees, slowly foisting it onto the government.
And everyone pays.
 
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"I never said anything about health benefits being 'leagally required'. "

Then what were you talking about when you said "fines and penalties". What exactly would they be getting fined for?
 
Honestly, I think this doesn't apply to Target. (the part about the cause of this being the economy/market) Target was working on cutting pay, benefits, and hours long before most people even knew what the word "recession" meant. This is nothing new. They were doing it 10 years ago.

I also think that the articles insinuation - that most retail workers would work full time if given the option - is totally bogus.

When I was a GSTL, I used to have certain TMs complain to me that their hours were too few and that they wanted to be full time. Obviously, they couldn't be full time.... but in response to that, I made sure when I was doing the schedule I gave them more hours.

What happened you ask? Nearly all of them started calling out, and some of the same ones who told me they wanted more hours actually went to the ETL-HR and complained about me! What did they tell her? I was "making them work too much". I even had one complain that her welfare benefits got cut because of me, because she was making too much money. I was freaking floored. Keep in mind, these were all people who complained to me they weren't getting enough hours - so I thought I was doing them a favor.

One of those NY Times writers should get a TL/ETL job and see what happens when TMs who *say* they want more hours actually get them....

Not saying this applies to all TMs, but it applies to a good number of them.

Most tm's are part time now, since you left spot. Less benefits & hours now.
 
I've been considered fulltime for about 4-5 yrs now. (Got a letter from Tgt saying, "Congratulations! Your status has been changed to full time." Or something like that:excited:) But if my average hrs keep dropping I won't be much longer.
 
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