Archived Unfair scheduling + asking for more mornings

[queencat]

So I just tallied up how many times over the past three months I've gotten off before 6pm vs after 6pm. 14 times before, 32 after (most of them being until 10 or 11pm), one exactly at 6pm and one overnight. I have mostly open availability (all hours and days except tuesday and thursday). I don't feel like this is fair. I can't have a social life because I'm always working until close. How do I approach HR and tell them I'm tired of closing all the time?

 

[redeye58]

You can ask if you can be rotated a bit more but they will likely tell you that everyone else has a narrower avail & it's according to the needs of the store, you'll likely lose hours if you don't pay this way, there may be favoritism involved (but they'll never admit it), bla bla bla.

 

[queencat]

You can ask if you can be rotated a bit more but they will likely tell you that everyone else has a narrower avail & it's according to the needs of the store, you'll likely lose hours if you don't pay this way, there may be favoritism involved (but they'll never admit it), bla bla bla.

Probably. It doesn't help that there are cashiers who get the same amount of hours who have extremely limited availability. Personally, if someone only can work 8-5 5 days a week, and someone else can work 8-11pm 7 days a week, the latter person should get more hours. It's getting to the point I'm considering changing my availability.

If it matters, I'm one of the more senior cashiers and one of the most dependable guest service people.

 

[PassinTime]

I'd just change my availability a bit at a time.
Just be careful or they will start scheduling you to clopen.

 

[SoftlinesSleuth]

I'd just make it so a couple days a week you are only available during the day so you have a couple nights free. Put like family obligations or something as the reason if you feel like you need a reason. I doubt they'll give you a hard time if you're available all day most days.

 

[tellmeaboutatime]

If you have 6 people who are available 8-5 and 6 people who are open availability, the latter will always wind up closing. Not fair at all IMO. However when the schedule populates it fills in. There just isn't enough time in the day to go through every person and make sure they have a good mix of open and close. Also the TLS will get all of the daytime shifts (minus the closer). During the school year a lot of stores are all TLS during the day due to very low payroll. And also they consider plano and price change guest facing team members and you shouldn't need as many people on the floor during that time of day. Of course that is complete and utter bullshit.

 

[Spitfire]

If you have 6 people who are available 8-5 and 6 people who are open availability, the latter will always wind up closing. Not fair at all IMO. However when the schedule populates it fills in. There just isn't enough time in the day to go through every person and make sure they have a good mix of open and close. Also the TLS will get all of the daytime shifts (minus the closer). During the school year a lot of stores are all TLS during the day due to very low payroll. And also they consider plano and price change guest facing team members and you shouldn't need as many people on the floor during that time of day. Of course that is complete and utter bullshit.

All very valid points, but I write a schedule for a team of ~25 and it's not that hard to ensure that each team member, even if they mostly close, gets at least one day shift a week. Also you can not give the TMs with crazy limited availabilities that many hours as to not feed into their entitlement.

 

[daemon]

Alot of people complain about this but a lot of people also don't realize #1 most sales floor shifts are in the evening and #2 the team members who work in the mornings are expected to do things. Range from sales planners, flexing out aisles of clearance, and fixing really bad zones.

%90 of the people who complain about just getting closing shifts lack the extra effort of DOING morning shifts properly. Heck, when I left sales floor the area I was in fell into a rut because only the team lead was capable of doing any sales planners. Neither one of the 2 team members wanted any part of learning and doing them, and yet they complain about just getting closing shifts.

Oh and as for social life, welcome to the working world. This isn't summer break.

 

[tellmeaboutatime]

Our HR team member writes the schedule for the entire store. Thats more than 200 people. She lets it populate and then does minor edits. She does not spend a lot of time catering the whims of team members. She works totally off availability and requested days off. That sounds really harsh but as it was explained to me (and it made total sense) If someone closed 3 days and you throw 1 open in and then another close they complain about how hard it is on their body. So she just goes by the book, no favoritism. She starts the schedule on Wednesdays at 8am and is completely done by 4. She posts it at 9 every Thursday and has it on the board no later than 10am.

 

[HRZone]

Our HR team member writes the schedule for the entire store. Thats more than 200 people. She lets it populate and then does minor edits. She does not spend a lot of time catering the whims of team members. She works totally off availability and requested days off. That sounds really harsh but as it was explained to me (and it made total sense) If someone closed 3 days and you throw 1 open in and then another close they complain about how hard it is on their body. So she just goes by the book, no favoritism. She starts the schedule on Wednesdays at 8am and is completely done by 4. She posts it at 9 every Thursday and has it on the board no later than 10am.

Your HRTM may do all of the schedule but I guarantee you she has a lot of helpeople from Mytime. We typically actually start scheduling on Monday and TUESDAY doing prekeys, stuff like time off, set schedules and then mytime makes a schedule.

Because the program is flawed Wednesday is a heavy editing day but I doubt she is doing the whole thing from scratch. It would take a lot longer than 8 hours because aside from taking into account availability the system also forecast store traffic as well..

 

[SFSFun]

Your HRTM may do all of the schedule but I guarantee you she has a lot of helpeople from Mytime. We typically actually start scheduling on Monday and TUESDAY doing prekeys, stuff like time off, set schedules and then mytime makes a schedule.

Because the program is flawed Wednesday is a heavy editing day but I doubt she is doing the whole thing from scratch. It would take a lot longer than 8 hours because aside from taking into account availability the system also forecast store traffic as well..

She lets it populate and then does minor edits.

 

[Bosch]

Completely flawed. Cause it leaves out cashiers on the regular. Or service desk starts at 10am.. Closing cashiers? Or Sbux coverage.

Some of the issues that happen when MyTime does the scheduling.

 

[ForeverInMMB]

If you're going to limit your availability, I highly recommend cross-training if you want to maintain your hours. When hours are tight, I work flow, salesfloor, POG, grocery, I've asked to get trained in instocks, I've worked electronics shifts, plus a few other small areas at certain times of the year. The only things I refuse to do are cashiering and softlines. I'll go up for back up and help tidy up softlines during huddles, but I've specifically asked to not have shifts in those areas. It sounds entitled but I always get my hours.

 

[smashandthrash]

I work 3 days a week and have no social life. It's okay.

 

[BeelzeBecky]

I'm cross trained and still have to beg for hours. Our schedule is computer generated and the apes who edit it are reluctant to do so. This ensures that people who are available for only 2 nights a week get scheduled 35 hours, and people who have full 40 hour availability get scheduled two or three short shifts.

I have no answer for you. I kind of think there's a secret HRTL handbook that has a section on how to fuck with TM's.

 

[tellmeaboutatime]

On Mondays she pre schedules any specialty things, TINV, equipment updates. 80% of flow is set, all TLs are set. She is a fiend with people having correct availability in the system and the maximum hours available. She does a 1/2 day on Monday and off on Tuesdays. Weds she comes in at 7 and leaves at 5p. For the first hour she is getting daily paperwork ready, chasing down missing punch people and clearing out JAS, the last hour is more paperwork, transfers,communication boards and getting FF&F events ready for the weekend. So around 8 on Wed. she checks the dashboard which has been really REALLY screwy lately (100 hours for backroom total and 900 for cashiers). But she does let the schedule put the people in, no favoritism. None of the "this team member is 10x the person that person is crap.Her philosophy is if they aren't good, train them or performance them out. I guess she is really really good at her job to get it all done in that amount of time

 

[Doglover89]

How do I approach HR and tell them I'm tired of closing all the time?

This was the case for me for months. HR basically told me if I don't like it, I can leave. Their excuse was that some tms have young children, school, etc. But the truth remained that there were enough tms to share closing shifts so that each of us could open/work a mid shift AT LEAST once or twice a week. HR absolutely refused to do something about this. Tried to change my availability and was told my hours would be cut. After threatening to quit and being advised by the wonderful folks here at the Breakroom (thanks guys), I went and spoke to my ETL about the situation. That was about a month or two ago I think. I've since learned two new work areas and rarely close at all anymore (about once every other week).

Advice: talk to your ETL, HR again, and TL (if he/she is involved in scheduling at all, mine is not). Work hard and be open to learning other work areas or tasks. Give it a bit more time and things may hopefully get better.