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Old 09-20-2009, 11:04 PM
 
Location: 53179
14,418 posts, read 22,367,401 times
Reputation: 14461

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The retail company I work for are dealing with cut-backs and they have now decided that for the Christmas season they will not hire any - Christmas help. So instead they are offering us to work up to 60 hours per week the last 2 weeks - before Christmas. Under normal circumstances they would frown upon us working any more then 39 hours just because it is too close to 40.
Now they are willing to pay us 20 hours overtime!

This is amazing to me.
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Old 09-20-2009, 11:17 PM
 
Location: CasaMo
15,972 posts, read 9,334,110 times
Reputation: 18547
That's interesting. I don't work in retail, but the company I'm working for has cut back on staff and now the remaining people are allowed to work overtime to keep up with the backlog.
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Old 09-20-2009, 11:22 PM
 
Location: A Yankee in northeast TN
15,951 posts, read 20,911,244 times
Reputation: 43142
Training new help is expensive but dang...
They aren't even willing to bring back the usual seasonal help from college students? That's where we usually pull most of our seasonal help from, so there's not usually much of a training issue for us. Can't imagine our company giving that kind of overtime.
There have been a lot of restructuring changes this year though, so who knows? Everything is topsy turvy now.
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Old 09-20-2009, 11:29 PM
 
3,646 posts, read 5,398,287 times
Reputation: 5828
Good heavens! I am always in the wrong industry at the wrong time! (LOL).Take the money and run! They may let you work 10 hours a week in January. Seriously, I have often worked two jobs over the years and the second was frequently retail. From the early 90s forward, getting a decent amount of hours has been a problem. Sure, your'e in for a long work week, but you can rest in January.
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Old 09-21-2009, 12:04 AM
 
Location: New Jersey
3,814 posts, read 11,949,627 times
Reputation: 944
Quote:
Originally Posted by glass_of_merlot View Post
So instead they are offering us to work up to 60 hours per week the last 2 weeks - before Christmas.
What a nightmare! They must be expecting an exceedingly slow season -- retailers normally start hiring their seasonal help in October. So no extra staff in October, November, and one week into December.

Just blitzing the last two weeks before the holiday? Depending upon the traffic flow -- and how deep their discounting is -- you may not even get the 60 hours then.

It's a bit like a few years ago when the same retailer went to a 24-hour day just before the holidays. The traffic was so slow in the stores, they wound up bringing in just a skeleton staff -- most of whom stood around yawning and chatting with each other because no one was shopping in the wee hours!

Ah, the great business experiment that is retail!
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Old 09-21-2009, 03:25 PM
 
Location: 53179
14,418 posts, read 22,367,401 times
Reputation: 14461
Quote:
Originally Posted by DubbleT View Post
Training new help is expensive but dang...
They aren't even willing to bring back the usual seasonal help from college students? That's where we usually pull most of our seasonal help from, so there's not usually much of a training issue for us. Can't imagine our company giving that kind of overtime.
There have been a lot of restructuring changes this year though, so who knows? Everything is topsy turvy now.
It is crazy. I just signed up for 60 hours for 2 weeks, with 2 days off per week. That is 12 hour shifts! I need the money so I will suffer though it.
They have always hired seasonal help but this year they are hurting big time. This is a major department store change. One of the biggest in the country.
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Old 09-21-2009, 03:37 PM
 
Location: Long Beach, CA
2,071 posts, read 11,989,304 times
Reputation: 1811
Quote:
Originally Posted by glass_of_merlot View Post
It is crazy. I just signed up for 60 hours for 2 weeks, with 2 days off per week. That is 12 hour shifts! I need the money so I will suffer though it.
They have always hired seasonal help but this year they are hurting big time. This is a major department store change. One of the biggest in the country.
Hope it's not Wal*Mart.
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Old 09-21-2009, 03:43 PM
 
Location: Houston
302 posts, read 882,510 times
Reputation: 368
Sounds like a dream come true for me! I am scheduled 37.5 hours every week (still considered full time), but as long as I stay under 40 I am fine. I would love to work some OT, then I could actually get everything done I need to!
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Old 09-21-2009, 04:39 PM
 
Location: Chicago, IL
8,998 posts, read 14,736,791 times
Reputation: 3545
Quote:
Originally Posted by glass_of_merlot View Post
The retail company I work for are dealing with cut-backs and they have now decided that for the Christmas season they will not hire any - Christmas help. So instead they are offering us to work up to 60 hours per week the last 2 weeks - before Christmas. Under normal circumstances they would frown upon us working any more then 39 hours just because it is too close to 40.
Now they are willing to pay us 20 hours overtime!

This is amazing to me.

I have never heard of anything but if it's a big box retailer, it wouldn't surprise me.
I know when I worked at the movies, during the Holiday season we got LOTS of hours.

I would love it as long as I didn't have to study for semester exams during X-mas time but I haven't had to do that since high school.
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Old 09-21-2009, 05:01 PM
 
Location: Up in the air
19,112 posts, read 30,534,256 times
Reputation: 16394
When I was at Home Depot, we NEVER hired seasonal help though we needed it badly. Basically, all the department heads were required to do a few overnights to set up the holiday merchandise and decorations, then we had to continue doing our normal jobs (understaffed, of course) PLUS we were all cross trained as cashiers so when it got busy, we were forced to start a register while simultaneously running our department...most of the time we were the only ones in our department as it is. BUT we weren't allowed any overtime if possible.

I always thought it was odd that they would have me running millworks by myself for hours at a time, force me to cashier and abandon my department AND THEN yell at me because I lost a sale.... well, if you hadn't forced me to cashier, that sale wouldn't have gone to the competitors!

Bah retail.
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