Retail Hours (job, wage, money, business)

[Nameless]

Let me start off by saying, I hate retail hours! There, now that I got that out of my system, let me explain my situation.

I'm 18 years old and just graduated from high school. I've been working in a grocery store for 2 years now and have moved from a minimum wage bagger (talk about an experienceand when minimum wage was $5.15) to an assistant manager of our frozen/dairy department.

When I first started out working I had a late shift (1-9 and occasionally 2-10). I didn't like it all that much, but at that point money was money. After a month of that the school year started so I was working a few nights from 5-10 and on Saturday like usual. I told them I went to church on Sunday and they said that was no problem. Several months later I expressed displeasure with working so late and they let me switch my shift on Saturdays to 8-4:30.

See when I was just sacking people's groceries that wasn't a problem. By the start of the next Summer (2007) I started working some in the backroom while still working up front. My manager still let me come in at 8, two days out of the week. The others I had to come in at 10 and subsequently got off two hours later at 6:30 (This was all based on our truck schedule).

I ended up working that whole summer on those shifts and mostly liked it. I didn't really like working until 6:30, but it was still better than staying till 9 or 10.

So the next school year came and I went back to the schedule I had before (5-10 weeknights and 10-6:30 on Saturday). I continued with that schedule until March came and good old daylight saving time arrived. (By this point I was working all the time in frozen/dairy). Then my boss informed me that the time change meant later business and my Saturday shift got pushed back to 12-8:30. (That was after some bargaining too, he originally suggested an hour later).

Not only that but he gave me this speech about how he needs his "key players" on busy days and that Sunday was a busy day and that I would have to start working Sunday. Now he knew I go to church in the morning so he was so kind to schedule me from 3-9. I don't like that at all though, I really enjoyed having a weekend day off to just relax, go out to eat, do whatever.

Our deparment is just having a bit of trouble right now, my boss has promised me I'd get Sunday off again for the better part of 3 months, he's hired a couple people that have run off within a week cause of who knows what. I'm the only daytime worker in our department and I've even tried to move to nights just so I can have my evenings free but my boss always states how he needs me when it's busy. I'm beginning to think it may be time to switch departments but I'm sure he wouldn't be too happy about that. Also I'm an assistant manager/supervisor/whatever you want to call me. Yet, in these 3 months I've supervised people maybe a total of a week.

I really do like my job and it pays me well. I'm just getting fed up with these hours. I will have to work late every school year for the next 4 years, so I'd prefer to work early in the Summer. I just finished high school so many of my friends are still in high school, therefore many aren't 18 yet and their parents aren't very keen on them being out so late. And as far as a girlfriend, forget about it

Another thing is, where I'm at today with getting my car paid off and having a good amount saved up for college, I don't needto work 40 hours. I would love to say to my boss that I want to cut back to 30 hours/4 days but I know that wouldn't fly (seeing how he'd love me to be there 50 hours/6 days) It's not so much the amount of hours that bug me, it's when they are. If it was all mornings/afternoons I'd be perfectly happy. In fact, after working all those shifts, 10-6:30 is my favorite because you don't wake up at the crack of dawn so you can stay out late the night before, plus you get off early enough to make it to anything happening that evening. When I get off at 8:30 everything is half over. Plus seeing more sunshine isn't bad

I'm not sure exactly where I'm going with this post, whether I'm just looking for comments on my situation, advice on my hours or what, but whatever you have to contribute I'd love to hear it.

So this leaves me with my schedule today.

Monday: 1:30-10:00
Tuesday: 10-6:30
Wednesday: off
Thursday: off
Friday: 12-8:30
Saturday: 12-8:30
Sunday: 3-9

So far this work experience thus far has taught me two things; It seems that the more you move up, get perks and more pay the cruddier your shifts get and I'm glad I'm going to college and will be looking to escape from the retail world and land a normal 9-5, I hope

[micrguy]

I lasted about a month working for a grocery store when I was in college. I raced bicycles at the time and was very clear what days I needed off weeks ahead of time. On my days off they would call my house at 7:00AM on Saturday or Sunday morning and get mad at my parents because I was not there to take the call. Because other people in my department were too hung over to come to work to open my department, they expected me to sit around on my days off waiting for the phone to ring. I finally had to ask them if a day off really meant having a day off, especially for a part time job.

[gardener34]

Yeah, I agree with you, those hours pretty much s**k. When I was in between college and a real job, I worked my previously part time gig as full time. (retail big box dept. store). I got scheduled the 12-9:00 shift every single day. This would blow the whole day down the toilet. Cause stores don't open til 10 (at least then) so if I had to run errands I had barely enough time to do that and get to work by noon. and then at 9:00 the stores would all be closed....

It s*cked, I enquired about getting a change to a regular 8am-5:00 day once in a while... yeah right. The only reason given was that all the old biddies I worked with 'had to get home to fix dinner for their husbands" HELLO - it's called burgerking! if he can't cook for himself (lame) he can pick it up on the way home.

Anyway - it was like talking into the wind... I ended up quitting once I got a real job where I could use my major after about 9 months or so. I knew it would never change, until I BECAME an old biddy myself.

I would wait 3 months, and then ask again. Then, if the situation is still intolerable, go to a different store if you can. You may get more $$ with your experience.