RHUer Has A Question About Being "On Call"

Hey guys!

I know I haven't posted in a while, since I've been at school and not working retail, but I have a question for you all.

I have basically the longest winter break ever between semesters, so I've been working at the children's clothes store since mid-December that I worked at all through high school. My manager is a bit of a nut, but other than that, I truly enjoy most of my co-workers, so I don't mind going back.

However, while I try to be as flexible as possible and keep my schedule as open as possible for them, I do have a life and I try to do things with my family when I'm home, because I know that the time with them is limited once I go back to school.

This brings me to my question. On the schedule there are "on call" shifts. These are shifts only given to part time sales associates, and it is usually a four hour shift where you are supposed to call in one hour before the shift is about to begin to see if they need you. However, most of the time, you are not called in for your on call shift. Now, I have no problem with this if I don't have anything else going on, but I do fundamentally disagree with the thought process.

I don't think it's right to expect part time underpaid employees to clear their schedule for a shift that may or may not even happen. I don't think that's legal, actually. And usually it isn't an issue, but yesterday I got a call from my manager saying that they were going to call me in to my on call shift, so she'd see me at 2:30 today. Unfortunately for her, I made plans with my dad to travel to another state to see a sold out show, just two days earlier. The worst thing about this is that she had the gall to be angry with me for not being available for my on call shift.

I know this is not right, and I understand that she might be frustrated, but at the same point, I can't constantly be waiting by my phone for a shift that, in all likelihood, will not even happen. Does anyone have any advice on how I can communicate this with my manager, so that she does not try and say that I am in the wrong here? And is there any way that I can communicate this to my high school co-workers, so that they are not taken advantage of either?

I know there's a couple girls on staff who told my manager when she was hired that they could not work one day a week from 4-7 because they volunteer at the local hospital or something, but they are consistently being put on call those days, which frightens them that they could be fired for not being available during those times.

Can anyone please help me and my co-workers figure out a way to communicate our concerns with our manager?

Thank you so much, and may all the retail gods be in your favor.

--Captain No-Babies

Comments

[ElementarySchoolSlave]

I don't have any advice for you but this post reminded me how much I HATED on call shifts when I worked retail. I briefly worked for a clothing store that catered to the larger ladies (myself included) and they used to put us on call more days than we were scheduled. The worst part about it was the way they handled their on calls. We were always on call for 4 hours. They made us call an hour before the shift and then if they didn't need us they would tell us to call back in an hour- this typically repeated every hour of the on call shift. If you had a noon-4 on call you wasted your whole day waiting to see if you had to be at work!

[Jennifer]

I worked one holiday season as a temporary sales associate at a store that sells merchandise for the "most magical place on Earth". In 3 months, I maybe worked 12 hours, because every shift was a call-in, and almost every shift I wasn't needed. It's a total crock. I doubt it's illegal, though.

[Madness]

It's not illegal, but it is discourteous to you. I think you and your coworkers need to explain that to her. Explain that it takes away your personal time, as you can't schedule other activities, without any guarantee of pay.

I currently work in an industry where there is need for on call shifts. I understand why retail might want to use on-call, but it's abuse of a tool that other industries use for genuine emergencies. Are many stores using this?

[AmigaTech]

I'm not very sympathetic, actually. I'm sure it's perfectly lawful (guess who wrote the laws?) and although you may be unhappy about having to clear your schedule for a shift that may or may not happen, you signed up for that as part of the job.

--AT

PS - Of course, if they signed up lots of people and keep telling them when on call not to come in, the managers will get their just desserts when most of the 'on call' people just don't show up.

[trekkiebabe]

Oh yeah, the last place I worked did that! Usually I had to call in an hour or so before the shift would start, but I always called in early because it usually took me close to an hour to get to work. It wasn't bad but at the same time I get how annoying it can be, I just wanted to ask them why they didn't just make sure they had enough people working that shift.

[Riferous]

You have stated that you know that this store has this "on call" policy, you understand how the process works, and you know that the understanding is that you are available if you are needed to work, and you have agreed to this policy as a condition of employment. But you made plans for a day that you were on call and you don't understand why the manager would be upset? I agree that the policy sucks, but you have agreed to be subject to it.

[Minidoc]

I have to agree with Riferous. I understand that on-call shifts suck. But you knew you were on-call, so you can't blame your manager for being upset that you made out-of-town plans anyway.

[CommaQueen]

I HATED on call shifts back when I worked retail in high school. They didn't really seem to get the concept because you would get called in for your shifts 90% of the time. Most of the time I would be walking into a mostly empty store and be like... Why am I here?? It's just one of those many crappy aspects of working retail.

[CoG]

So, I've done two on-call based jobs at the same time. For years, actually. But they worked a little differently than this one. At one, I worked on-call at a friend's in-home daycare, and she knew when I was available to call in. If I couldn't do it, then she either didn't go out, or she called her in-home daycare network and borrowed someone else's teacher for a few hours. But when I started working on a more permanent basis for her, and she stopped giving me hours, I had to cut her off, and simply resign, rather than dropping back to on-call. I had set aside whole chunks of time for her, and I wasn't being utilized. My other job, the one I work now, I was at on-call for more than four years. In that case, they had a slew of people who were on-call, and when they had to fill a shift, they would go down the list and start calling people, rather than just calling in that one person. Maybe you could do that: have everybody report which days they absolutely CANNOT work, then put everybody into the pool for each day. I don't know know if your store is big enough for that kind of system, but it sure seems to work for mine.

[Larry Berry]

I had never heard of places that had on-call scheduling other than as stated Emergency services. I am guessing that they can legally do so, but they are really just abusing the rules that were set up for Doctors and such.

I know that (rules may be different in other states/areas) if you were scheduled for a shift it was a binding contract and the stores couldn't force you to go home if they were slow or didn't need you, and could only ask if you wanted to go home, so you were guaranteed the hours you were scheduled unless you chose to go home early.
I suppose this is what some stores do in order to avoid being obligated to give people their scheduled hours.

I worked at one restaurant a long time ago, and the owner would sometimes bring me in to also work at a separate catering business he also owned (not affiliated with the restaurant at all), with no scheduling. He would just tell me where to go, a few days ahead. Then after one catering job, he stopped me as I was backing out to drive home and told me he would need for me to work another catering job the next day (like 10 hours notice). I already had plans to help some friends move and told him so. He told me to call him the next day to see if they would need me. I didn't understand the point. I already had plans (and wasn't scheduled) so it didn't matter if he needed me or not, I wasn't available. So, I called him the next day and reexplained that I had already had plans, since I had no idea he wanted me to work until the night before (even then it was an afterthought to him). He said that they could get by without me, but if he had needed me he would have expected me to be there. I put in my 2 weeks notice a few days later.

[Egween]

I'm not sure what state you're in, but in California, on call shifts where you are not paid for at least 2 hours whether you are called in or not, are NOT LEGAL. my restaurant went through this last year. We used to have on call shifts but they did not pay us if we didn't come in. It was abandoned across all of the corporate stores after someone brought lawyers into the mix. In CA at least, if they're not paying you to be on call, it's not a real shift and its NOT LEGAL!!

[Mary]

I have to go against most of the tide here. How was your boss to know that you made plans for your on call day? You had known for 2 days that you would be unavailable, you should have called to let your work know this. Look at it from your boss's side, she had a list of on calls and she thought that they were available for that day. It would have been thoughtful on your part to inform them that you couldn't work that day.

[5 Star Slave]

I refuse to work for a company that does this on-call stuff, especially since I work in a state where it is required that employees be paid for their time waiting for that call. Too often it is used as a way in right-to-work states to get rid of particular employees.

One time, I was working in two restaurants, trying to save up some money for an unpaid summer internship I had coming up. I was an assistant manager in one, but that place had irregular schedules because it was an event center. At the other job, which was always meant to be a two or three month temp job, I would always mark as soon as I could (and well in advance of the schedules there being made) when I could work and when I had to be at my other job. Well, the managers there didn't like me very much, and scheduled me to be on-call during the times I said I was working my other job. One particularly busy night at the event center, they called me up and asked me to come in. I explained that I was at my other job, we were literally 15 minutes away from customers arriving, and how I was supposed to come in -- was I supposed to leave my managerial job for their on-call shift? When their answer was yes, I never went back. I dropped my uniform off outside the back door on my way home that night.

[PedanticTwit]

Yeah, sadly you were in the wrong this time, no matter how much you hate the policy..

[Chicajojobe]

I used to work where you do, so I know exactly what you mean. The one time you make plans is the one time they actually call you in.
However, I don't think there's anything you can do about it.

[Skittles]

As I understand on-cal laws you have to be paid if you have to show up when called. In other words if they don't pay you for your time on-call then you have the right to refuse the shift. Theoretically this makes it a fair policy. Realistically speaking it's ridiculous and unfair. It puts you in the position of having to make all the preperation and spending pretty much the same amount of time aside that you would for a shift when you might not have one. The laws vary by state and you should look them up. If I were in your position I would talk to your manager and see whether or not you can simply be removed from the list for this duty, even if it means cut hours all together. You might have to get a different job though. Frankly unless you are a doctor or in a field where this is a realistic concern it's just a ridiculous way for employers to fuck you out of time. Time that you could be working another job which for a lot of people is a necessity to pay the bills, and for a retail position of any kind is absolutely fucking absurd.

[Captain No-Babies]

First off, thank you all for your input. While I would love to just ignore the comments of those who think I am in the wrong, I know that you are only trying to help me out.

One thing that I did not mention is that when I was hired, I was told that my store did not utilize these on call shifts, and that I would not be held accountable for them. Since I was hired, a new manager was hired, and I am the only employee that is not management to have lasted more than 2 years under this new manager.

I will take the advice of looking into the laws in my area, because I had heard rumors of laws like exist in California, but I wasn't sure if they were on a state-by-state basis or merely a company-by-company policy.

I do appreciate all of your advice, and I will talk with my manager about not scheduling me for on call shifts, or make sure that she take me off the on-call schedule when I know I cannot work.

Thank you all for your advice! :)

[Robert]

Where I live, I don't believe there are any prohibitions on on-call shifts, and the company that I work for, it's waaaay more common to just be cut early, or called off entirely

So I would look at it this way: Which is the less-crappy option for a work place that must staff according to widely fluctuating traffic and customers?

1. On-call shifts where you find out before you leave the house, if you do or do not need to show up to work.
2. You are scheduled, make the hassle of getting to work, only to hear "Hey Captain, we don't need you so don't clock in."

Though without a doubt, your manager needs to get the on-call shifts better managed. If 90% of on-calls never clock in, he/she needs to get better at anticipating business volume.

As for the volunteers- while the manager needs to stop being a moron and scheduling people unavailable for on-calls 4-7, they need to sit down, together with her, and make it absolutely clear. Having written schedules for employees before, I know how some emps fail at filling out an availability properly- either it's incomplete, vague, or so ridiculously complicated that no one walks away happy with the schedule.

[Laurie]

The whole point of a call in is to generate more sales "if" the store has enough hours to spare that week. managers have to figure out the amount of hours available to use based on sales so far that week. Its just as annoying for them as it is for employees who have the call in shifts. For example if the store is doing well for the day and sales earned a few extra hours to use the mgr has to use them because having unused hours at the end of the week is just as bad as being over. If you are over hours that means corporate is over their projected payroll that pays everyone for the week. If that happened all the time there would be no store to work at, they would close down. Now the hard part for the mgrs is when you call an hour before your shift and there are hours to use they tell you to come in BUT what if the store traffic dies and you end up going over the hours for the day because you used the call in. The the mgr has to answer to the district mgr as to why they were over payroll for the week. There is no way to predict sales for the rest of the day any sooner then 1 hour prior to your shift. When you sign up for a retail job you have to be willing to be on call. And remember you are all working together as a team to make the store money and keep your job. Sometimes employees dont see or understand all the work mgrs do behind the scenes in order to keep the store generating income.