The hardest part of being a hardware guy is being an hourly employee. I haven't been an hourly person in thirty years. It turns out that they take this schedule business kind of seriously. When I last worked at Tedious Systems, I made my own hours. As I got my work done, no one cared about my comings and goings, so this is a big culture shock to me.
At the hardware store my comings and goings are strictly according to the schedule. If the schedule says be there at nine, they expect you to be clocked in at nine. That would all be fine and dandy, if my schedule didn't change all the time.
Monday, I thought that I was supposed to work from 2pm to 6pm. However, when I checked my calendar, I had written down 9:30am to 6pm on it. I called the store to clarify my start time and was told that 9:30am was correct. So, I hustled off to work.
It turned out that I was really supposed to work 2pm to 6pm, but one guy had a family emergency and they only told me to come in at 9:30am so I could cover for him. I guess they figured that if they asked me to come in early, I might say no.
To make matters worse, my schedule for Tuesday showed 12pm to 6pm on my calendar. I have never worked 12pm to 6pm before, so I assumed that I had written 12pm to 6pm, when I was really supposed to work 2pm to 6pm, which I work a lot. You know what they say about assumptions. I showed up two hours late for work yesterday. I simply cannot keep a shifting schedule straight, mostly because I don't want to.
I was hired to work 20 hours per week. A half day on Thursday and all day Friday and Saturday. Lately, the boss has been adding two other full or half days during the week because of vacations and one person who is off sick.
I know that the store needs me all day Friday and Saturday, so I asked the boss to schedule me three half days, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, with full days Friday and Saturday. That would be 28 hours a week and would give me a set schedule. She said she would think about what to do.
I hope she does because I cannot guarantee that I will keep things straight.
Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgmental and cranky
6 comments:
I took an hourly job a couple of years ago, and I found the increasing scheduling and anal management quite deflating. It's hard to find people with enough intelligence and character to be able to work successfully with someone like me. It's a no-win situation. I had to quit to save myself.
You have to try to be more incompetent. Mess up a few more keys. These longer hours have got to stop.
Sounds like you might be the most dependable person there? ! ; (
LOL Kurt's comment.
I remember the days of the shifting schedule...what a nightmare! I hope your boss can work with you to make it more regular.
The joys of retail--or the wacky laws of retail ---when the store opens and you are short staffed, that's when customers are lined up and grumbling about the lack of service. Fully staffed or over staffed and the place gets ridiculously quiet. (until 5 minutes before closing time of course)
Interesting to know.
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