Who's at the door, what's on the register, I don't know is ... somewhere

[Pixelated]

I was advised a while ago not to depend on the online schedule for ... reasons. Read the posted schedule instead. So that's what I've been doing.

This week's schedule had me in yesterday (Tuesday) from 4-8 on "price checker." This is a sort of euphemism for "You're gonna sit at the front of the store, wipe down the buggies as they are brought back in by the loading guys, AND count the incomers and out-goers so we can stick to our cap of about 100 people in the store."

Okay, so I come in half an hour early, punch in on time, and go park my butt on the chair between the two doors. I move around some of the display so I can actually SEE the people going out, and since I don't have a counting app on my phone, I start keeping track the old-fashioned way ... you know, those lines, with four vertical and the fifth one at an angle through the first four? Hey, it works.

Half an hour later, CW comes rushing up, apologizing. "Oh, I'm so sorry, etc. etc." I don't remember if she was late or what, but I was puzzled.

Me: "Why are you apologizing?"

CW: "I'm supposed to be here!"

Me: "No, the schedule says I'm supposed to be here!"

CW: "No, it's me. They've been paging you!" One of the loader guys had told me the same thing a few minutes earlier: "They're calling you!" Me: "Well, I'm where I'm supposed to be, so ..."

So by the time CW approached me, they'd been playing 'Hunt the Pixelated' for a good half an hour ... one of the shift supervisors had seen me come in so she knew I wasn't AWOL ... so they really couldn't figure out WTF had happened.

I should add that you can't hear announcements when you're between the two sets of doors.

Off CW goes to find out who's supposed to be where. She comes back. Yes, she's supposed to be the 'door' person and I'm supposed to be ... on a register, as usual. So back in I went.

I asked the aforementioned shift supervisor what was going on, since I was clearly listed as 'price checker' on the schedule. Cue a garbled, largely incoherent "explanation" about why this was done.

Then the CW who'd replaced me was in turn replaced by another CW, who had been scheduled on self-checkout. But CW1 (the one who approached me) hates door duty and CW2 hates self-checkout, so ... they switched.

Somewhere in that chaos there was also something about CW3, but I never did understand how she fitted into the puzzle.

I'm scheduled as "price checker" again on Thursday. Anybody want to bet on where I'll actually be on Thursday?

[Ceir]

I'm scheduled as "price checker" again on Thursday. Anybody want to bet on where I'll actually be on Thursday?

I dunno. (Third base!)

[telecom_goddess]

OH FFS what the hell is wrong with these people? Just get the damn schedule right.

[Kristev]

That would reveal the piss-poor scheduling and the need for a plethora of new employees. That won't ever do.

[Pixelated]

I dunno. (Third base!)

THAT person is EVERYWHERE.

OH FFS what the hell is wrong with these people? Just get the damn schedule right.

You're expecting an awful lot from these people ...

When I signed on, I asked for a maximum of 20 hours per week. Next week I've got 24 hours. That includes four consecutive five-hour shifts, which pretty much everybody (myself included) hates, loathes and despises, because you still only get one break.

That would reveal the piss-poor scheduling and the need for a plethora of new employees. That won't ever do.

Tell me about it! I was on from 4:30-8:30 today, and I swear, before I'd even left for work, I got THREE phone calls from the scheduler asking if I was interested in THREE DIFFERENT SHIFTS that suddenly need to be covered. Two are next week, and as I pointed out above, I am already over the maximum number of hours that I want next week, so am absolutely not going to take on any more. Hire some more employees dammit!

I've been told by coworkers that the store manager is trimming schedules -- telling the scheduler that we don't need X number of cashiers on duty. I don't know why they seem to be so allergic to simply sending people home early. It's a damn sight easier to do that than to try to get people to come in, in a hurry, when you're slammed (which, as far as I know, they never do anyway. We're just expected to cope.)

I was at my register today when I got an internal phone call ... "Would you like a second shift today, from 4:30 to 8:30?"

OH HELL NO.

I was on a five-hour shift (more on that elsewhere on this site) and had I taken this second shift, that would've been NINE HOURS at work (although there would've been a 2.5-hour break in between).

I also learned that the woman who does the scheduling is having a really tough go of it ... she told somebody else (who told me) that the company has to keep hiring because they can never get people to come in to cover sick calls.

Gee, I can't imagine why not ...

[Food Lady]

What a mess. I love the thread title and I love that I work the same hours every day.

[workerbee222]

Where I live, I think the employer has to pay for four hours even if you don't work that long. That could be why they don't want to send people home.

A four hour shift and a five, with two and a half in between? Oh Hell no. Why bother going home?

[Pixelated]

What a mess. I love the thread title and I love that I work the same hours every day.

Thanks for the compliment about the thread title. I felt like I was living that bloody sketch that day!

I don't mind the shifting hours so much as the fact they're doing the same thing my last employers did -- raising my hours without so much as a "Do you mind?" Coworker today told me she's lowering her availability to 12 hours; I'll have to ask her in the next week or two how that went, since that's the level I want to go down to ...

Where I live, I think the employer has to pay for four hours even if you don't work that long. That could be why they don't want to send people home.

A four hour shift and a five, with two and a half in between? Oh Hell no. Why bother going home?

It would be totally pointless for me to go home since I live at least half an hour away -- more, if the traffic/construction slowdowns are against me.

AFAIK, the law here says you have to pay for three hours UNLESS the employee is willing to leave earlier. Which I always am.

[SpyOne]

Decades ago, I had the opposite problem: I had said when I was hired that I needed to get at least 20 hours per week.
One week I got scheduled for 16 hours, so I wrote a brief note/letter reminding them that I needed 20 hours and why.

The response I got was "don't threaten me".
Look, it's not a threat, it's an explanation: 20 hours a week is what I need to make my car insurance payment. If I lose my insurance, I lose my license. I live 17 miles away and there is no public transportation, so if I can't drive I can't come to work.
I explained all that in my letter, and that's why I said "If I can't get 20 hours per week I will have to quit."

(Ah, for the days when my parents paid all my living expenses except gas and insurance, even if that was balanced out by abusively high car insurance premiums.)