Archived Who really makes the schedule/determines when & where you work?

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I have noticed that it's always the HR people who reply to my time-off requests, and when I voiced an opinion regarding changing work-centers I was told to go ask our HR head. How much power does HR have over where people work (obviously taking availability and openings into consideration), and more importantly do TLs and/or ETLs discuss who would fit where and thus determine where they wind up?

I'm just very curious, mostly because I have been trying to escape Department X for a very long time. Trouble is I do very well in Department X, they have much difficulty finding good people for Department X, and every time I'm told there's a chance to escape I'm re-routed right back there again. I feel like I'm in The Twilight Zone. Anyway, not griping about my own problems, just want to know who exactly gets a say in where and when a TM works.

Thanks =)
 
My store.

My TL or Salesfloor ETL approve time off request.

Changing work centers from what I have experienced requires you be doing well in the work center you are in and a TL or ETL willing to give you up and try to make it work with someone else. You leaving a work center you are doing well in (performance and attendance) will be a headache on the one doing the schedule and leading that area.
 
Changing work centers pretty much takes a quorum.
You're gonna need the TL for your current center to ( A ) say you're good enough to move and ( B ) not so good that that they will fight to keep you.
Then you're gonna need the TL from the dept you wanna go to and they ( A ) have to want you and ( B ) have enough hours and a competent TM to train you.
And of course you need the HR ETL to OK it because TL can't actually do anything.
It's also possible that the STL will be into micromanaging to they will want to be in on all this.
This meeting could be a sitdown that will take at least an hour or more.
Even worse, it could be a series of E-mails and conversations in the hallways that can take up to a month.
Good luck.
 
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I looked at the schedule for next week and they have this one guy scheduled Tuesday, 6am to 7am. That's it. For the day. One hour ... to build bikes. Really? There aren't any adjectives to properly convey how stupid that is. Oh, someone will defend it by saying it was a mistake or the computer did it. Whatever. No one checks it before they publish and post it? I am just a TM and I saw it with two minutes of looking at the schedule. Pathetic. I guess I sound rough, but there is just no excuse for it.
 
at our store, the ETL-HR approves all time off requests, availability changes, and you would be hard pressed to get to go to another dept without the ETL-HR approval.
HR is integral because the changes are keyed with us, the training is initiated with us, it's our metrics that we are keeping track of. A person who is working in dept X once in a while is no big deal. A person working in dept X most of the time if it isn't their main spot might be a problem if they haven't been trained properly, and/or maybe should have received a paycut/pay raise. There's also the issue of which team leader will write the review, and is in charge of the tm alignment, development,

I could go on and on.
 
I looked at the schedule for next week and they have this one guy scheduled Tuesday, 6am to 7am. That's it. For the day. One hour ... to build bikes. Really? There aren't any adjectives to properly convey how stupid that is. Oh, someone will defend it by saying it was a mistake or the computer did it. Whatever. No one checks it before they publish and post it? I am just a TM and I saw it with two minutes of looking at the schedule. Pathetic. I guess I sound rough, but there is just no excuse for it.

this happens at my store once in a while - it is human error because someone forgot to lengthen the shift, or deleted the rest of the shift without checking to make sure the entire day was deleted. No one ever has to work that shift - it's never intentional.
 
At My store the ETL-HR and ETL-GE both approve time off and changes in availability.
The ETL-GE likes to play with the schedule once its posted though, she changes shifts like its NBD and she gets mad when people are late or NCNS.
 
At My store the ETL-HR and ETL-GE both approve time off and changes in availability.
The ETL-GE likes to play with the schedule once its posted though, she changes shifts like its NBD and she gets mad when people are late or NCNS.

bad ETL-GE! what are team members supposed to do, use the force?
 
My bike builder was scheduled 1.5 hours the other day. I asked him why he wasted his time and came in, he said he was close by anyway. One bike got built that day, only because it was a new one and he wanted to see what it was like.
 
Our ETLs make their schedules, although the GSTLs/GSAs make the photo schedule, and I think that the FA and Starbucks TLs make theirs. I suspect that this is because our store merged our ETL salesfloor and ETL-GE, so it would be ridiculous to have her write schedules for the entire salesfloor AND the entire front end. Our time off requests are handled by our departments' ETLs, or by HR if our ETL doesn't get to it very quickly. I work at an ULV store, so most of our TMs are cross-trained to 3-4 workcenters, although generally they stay within the same workgroup (for example, moving between photo and cashier during the week, or between salesfloor and the fitting room). We recently had a FATM work on plano for a day, which I found pretty unusual. We also have a pharmacy tech that gets scheduled on flow at 6am, then works in the pharmacy once they open.

I'm cross-trained for almost the entire store below TL level (the only area I know absolutely nothing about is Starbucks), and almost all of it happened because I either took an open shift on the board in an area I was trained in (after having it okayed by an ETL), or because I was asked by an ETL to either fill in or cover a break. The only workcenters I specifically requested to be trained in were GS/photo, cash office, and receiving.
 
I'm just very curious, mostly because I have been trying to escape Department X for a very long time. Trouble is I do very well in Department X, they have much difficulty finding good people for Department X, and every time I'm told there's a chance to escape I'm re-routed right back there again. I feel like I'm in The Twilight Zone. Anyway, not griping about my own problems, just want to know who exactly gets a say in where and when a TM works.

Thanks =)

this happened to me, you just got to keep fighting for what you want...my flow TL did NOT want to give me up what so ever, my STL, ETL LOG and Backroom TL both wanted me to be in backroom because i was doing extraordinarily well in it, but my flow TL kept telling them no, no and no. but it happened eventually, after months of trying, hassling them, i finally got moved to backroom day
 
I looked at the schedule for next week and they have this one guy scheduled Tuesday, 6am to 7am. That's it. For the day. One hour ... to build bikes. Really? There aren't any adjectives to properly convey how stupid that is. Oh, someone will defend it by saying it was a mistake or the computer did it. Whatever. No one checks it before they publish and post it? I am just a TM and I saw it with two minutes of looking at the schedule. Pathetic. I guess I sound rough, but there is just no excuse for it.

There has to be an asterisk next to his name on the Scheduling grid which denotes the TM is working in multiple work centers. A TM can't be schedule under 3 hours total. Typically bike builder is extra hours for a god and motivated TM in the stores I have been in.

Another point on lambasting HR's scheduling - The schedule is posted two weeks out to allow for swap shifts and "stupid" mistakes. And scheduling is not something most TMs understand because most TMs see their store from their perspective. If a TM can't connect scheduling ideas like charging out and back, The flow of hours from district to store to stl to etls and then to HR to piece together a puzzle each week, and how hours are forecasted vs workload vs sales, then then the TM will be scorned by their leadership. When I have TMs complain about the unfairness of their weekly hours but don't understand that it takes a minimum of 300/week just to cover the SF and we received 20 hours/week, where are the extra hours going to come from? If a TM who doesn't give 100% whines about the lack of hours and doesn't understand that by not driving some extra sales on his/her shift does impact how many hours they get down the road, then I ignore them.

Most TL/SrTLs in our store are just as frustrated because we are still accountable for completing all task to green standards without the hours/TMs to do it. We have to run 200% everyday and just one call out or one Tm who is having an "off" day can put some serious heat on a Leader.

Maybe ask some questions and understand how tied everyone in the store is when it comes to payroll. I was surprised at how complicated that mess is each week.
 
Do swaps shifts. Cashier shifts can allow you to observe and learn how GSAs and GSTL's execute task. Flow TM will expose you to BR and instocks processes. SHOW INTEREST AND ASK QUESTIONS!
 
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