<p>Someone mentioned this in the “Could You Put Your Hands on $2,000?” thread and it reminded me that I want to ask the good souls on CC a question.</p>
<p>DH started working at a well-known retail chain before Christmas, as a seasonal part-time worker. He isn’t working for the money – the job only pays minimum wage – but he enjoys it. After the holiday season ended, he was one of very few seasonal workers who were asked to stay on. That made him feel good, of course.</p>
<p>Every two weeks he receives his schedule, which is always different. However, I’d say at least half the time, he gets called before he is supposed to go to work – sometimes a day before, sometimes as close as 20 minutes before – telling him that business is light and he shouldn’t come in. Again, he’s not doing this for the money, but it’s nevertheless very frustrating. He has had to schedule other activities around this work schedule, and he has sometimes had to cancel other activities because he thinks he’s going to be working. I can only imagine how people who are doing it for the money must feel.</p>
<p>He’s willing to put up with it right now because he will get busy with another part-time gig he has when the weather gets warm, and he’s going to see how it goes next January and February. If his schedule is different every week next year and if he continues to have his hours canceled as they are now, he’ll quit and find something else. But I’m wondering – does he – or do other “on-call” part-timers – have any recourse?</p>
<p>All the part time jobs I’ve had were like this, and my sister’s was like this, too. I had a job once where they would only give me hours on the weekend, and they wanted to call me friday night to tell me if and when to come in on Saturday. Then once I got there, I went home whenever they sent me home, I never had any idea when I would be getting off, and when he did tell me I could go home THEN he would tell me if and when to come in on Sunday. It was different every week. I quit that job mainly for that reason, and my next job the schedule changed every week and I was on call all the time. More often than not they wanted me to come in rather than canceling my shifts, but that meant I couldn’t plan anything even on my days off because I could be expected to come in at a moments notice, it wasn’t an option to say “no” and they expected me to be my normal 10 minutes away if I was “on call.” So I was effectively housebound and glued to my phone for no pay.</p>
<p>This is becoming more and more common as young people continue to take this kind of treatment. The cell phone makes being on-call possible these days, as we are expected to be available at all times. When I worked retail in my teens and early twenties, standard practice was to have a set schedule. Part-timers were treated with a certain amount of respect. I really don’t see how anyone but the most desperate, or those who really don’t need the job can put up with not knowing what your working hours will be from day to day, or even hour to hour. </p>
<p>Bloomingdale’s workers have unionized. They have set schedules, 20 hours minimum per week. I think that Nordstrom treats their part-timers better, too. There are stores that have not resorted to this, but one needs to look with that in mind.
My suggestion for young people is to be sure to ask when they hire you how the schedule works and if you are expected to be on-call. If the answer is yes, politely tell them that you can’t run your life that way and keep
looking. You will wind up trying to organize your life around a floating target, which is crazy-making.</p>
<p>DD works for as major retail chain boutique,has worked for one other too, and DS3 has too. They had variable schedules but could be called off if business was not good or sent home early. This seems to be norm in that industry. . And DD is doing it for the money. It is the kind of job that can fit around grad school schedule since she lets them know when she is available. It is harder for her when they ignore her availability, schedule her and then she has to find someone to work for her. . </p>
<p>Okay, being on-call happened in retail and restaurants 25 years ago. It may be worse now since almost no-one hires full-time employees due to benefit mandates and of course people are more easily reachable with cellphones, but it’s nothing new. Usually employees are expected to be on-call one day a week and may say no if it’s not an official on-call day. Getting sent home early stinks if you want the hours but that’s a business based decision. My son is a lifeguard in summer. Slow days mean people get sent home from the lake. Depends how badly you need the job, I suppose. Someone will be happy to do it if you quit. </p>
<p>The company I work for schedules all the employees at all their chains like this. It’s just part of the game. I dealt with it. </p>
<p>My job had a specific uniform. They controlled what you wore, how your hair was, how your makeup was, and what was on your nails. It was frustrating having to get ready, call, and then find out that you’re not needed. They required you to call an hour ahead, which is a pretty good time window.</p>
<p>The solution: Work harder. Become a valuable worker. Wen I became better at my job, I go less "call-in"s, more shifts, and if I did get a “call-in”, my manager was more likely to have me come in even if they didn’t really need me. </p>
<p>EDIT: Is this retail chain geared towards the west coast life? </p>
<p>Hospitals do this now too. Staffing is done in 4 hour blocks and staff is sent home if discharges happen. Holding patients in the ER and not moving them to rooms is part of saving the cost of nurses who can be sent home for the rest of the shift.</p>
<p>The job I had in high school never called me and told me not to show up, but there were a few times they called me to ask if I could come in because someone else was sick or just didn’t show up or something. There were plenty of “every once in a while” things to do when business was light, we’d just do those. And it was one of those places that can go from empty to slammed in a minute. </p>
<p>The thing that was more annoying was that they would sometimes change the schedule without telling anyone, and multiple schedules would be floating around. So sometimes I’d come in and would be the only one (of my role - there were usually 2-6 depending on the day of the week and time of the day), or there might be 7 of us on a day when there’s normally 2. Operational disaster. Or occasionally they’d say that everyone has to stay several hours late for one reason or another (probably 5 times a year something like that happened) without any warning. Usually the district manager would come in and give us an additional $20 (on top of normal pay) or something though to smooth it over. </p>
<p>My sister ended up quitting williams-sonoma because of this. She said she had to sit around waiting for the phone to ring to know if she should go in or not. It’s not like the part-timers will be the most dedicated, and for a mom with kids with activities she ended up not being able to handle the getting up and getting ready and waiting for the phone to ring. I can’t imagine “grown-ups” can handle that kind of schedule. </p>
<p>What I love is when my job schedules me for a call-in, tells me I don’t have to come in, calls in hour later asking if I can come in, I say I can’t, and then the next day when I’m working gives me slack for not coming in after they told me they didn’t need me. Love it!</p>
<p>A couple of times my job has had problems with scheduling. I remember my first missed shift EVER. The new manager edited the schedule after they sent it out. Luckily, I didn’t get any slack for it, as it wasn’t my fault, but it was not a good feeling at all. Mainly I’ve seen people come in, think that they’re on schedule, but find out they are in fact not on schedule. </p>
<p>For someone who is depended upon and has responsibilities, I can see the annoyance and frustration that can come out of being on call. </p>
<p>Based on what you wrote, your H is not in “on-call” status as the term is used in employment law. His scheduled shift is being canceled. It’s annoying but I don’t see any recourse other than finding a new job.</p>
<p>I don’t schedule my store like that – but I am aware that lots of others do. If it is bad weather, we will call the part timers and tell them not to come in. Otherwise, I can always find something for them to do! </p>
<p>But – now that I have the parents’ attention – please tell your teen with a part time job when the family vacation is and what other family commitments you are counting on for the kids this summer. Tell them now, not the Friday before!</p>
<p>We operate on a fixed weekly schedule – because so much of a teens life is structured with piano lessons on Tuesdays etc.</p>
<p>My D works at a restaurant and it’s the same…some double shifts…some early cuts - an hour or two after getting to work and some on call. I don’t know how anyone can survive like this if they are doing it for the money as you cannot rely on a full pay check at any given time. It also makes getting a second job to cover your expenses difficult since you don’t know your schedule. It is wonderful for an employer and lousy for the employee. It happens in the UK and Canada too. In the UK it is called zero contract work and is usually in retail, hospitality and hospitals.</p>
<p>Not sure what you mean here. Those of us on the west coast need to eat, too. </p>
<p>The two big problems with this kind of scheduling is that you can’t count on a given amount of money to cover your bills from month to month, or even week to week, and you can’t take any other work to supplement because your time is taken up with this job that won’t tell you if they need you until an hour before you’re supposed to come in. People who really want to work hard and get ahead are the least well suited to this type of arrangement.</p>
<p>From what I read about VeryHappy’s son’s job, it sounded like a company I knew that did this. Certain things that were included in the OP pointed straight to a certain company. I’m sure I’m wrong, though. I wasn’t aware of just how many stores used call-ins!</p>
<p>I know a lot of people my age with degrees who work like this.
I had a job like it for a few years in high school/college and our start time was usually ~6-7AM. I’d get a cancel call around 50% of the time. </p>