TMs across the SW region are being laid off for not having 24/7 availability. Two mothers and three friends that take night classes have been canned.
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I've worked at two stores under different leadership styles. It does depend on the Team Leader (manager) on how flexible they are. Some are 0%. Although in the last 2 months they have put out a policy, soon to be in place, where full time employees can have a semi-set schedule. EX: Same two days off every week or two days in a row per weekly schedule. Find a new job as I did.
Yes Kronos can be adjusted I know that. A specific gs TL from a Dallas store refuses to adjust it. I have kids he pulled me in the office with an astl telling me there would be no exceptions.
Open availability has always been a requirement for FT in the NE region.
24/7 doesn't mean on call.
And the Kronos schedule can definitely be modified. I know, I've done it.
They want all part timers... It's Cheaper.. Just ask Walmart.
for about the first 10 years i worked for this WFM i had a set schedule as did the rest of my team..it worked pretty smooth..the part timers were hired to fill in small gaps here and there..since they have basically reversed the ratio of ft to pt employees(they dont want to pay health insurance) the schedule problems have gotten much worse and team members complain a lot more..as someone said earlier in this thread-there are only so many hours the stores need employees so why is this so hard to maintain a schedule that satisfies and makes your employee most productive..chronic fatigue makes for bad customer service..do they even care about that any more with all the expendable part timers??
To 180459: Who are they paying to run this company into the ground? His name is Robert Nardelli. Google him. Look into his history with Home Depot or Chrysler and see if things start looking all too familiar.
180515-
A friend of mine works at a retailer that uses a computer based scheduling program. The schedule was always different and didn't take into account human functions such as sleep or physical laws such as the inability to be on opposite sides of a large store at the same time. When approached the managers would just throw up their hands and claim they couldn't change it. The computer system is not meant to improve or streamline scheduling, it's merely another way for management to shift the blame off themselves when things go wrong.
Write to Gawker. Spread it on Reddit. Focus on New York media outlets.
Flfallguy - tls aren't exactly going to be doing the schedules the way we're all used to. People names are going to entered in Kronos ( like the clock in machine) and that computer bases system will spew out the schedules. At one particular Dallas area gs it began in mid summer. Those changes are coming company wide. Technology is here to do it all lol
Whether it's retail or wholesale or manufacturing people work better with consistency. Making a different schedule every week is like rearranging a mechanic's toolbox every week. We had a tl long, long ago who asked what we liked to work and built a base schedule off of that. During holidays, time off requests or other special situations the schedule was changed only slightly for a few folks who were notified or had volunteered, then the following week it went back to the base schedule. It was always posted on time, took about ten minutes tops to make and everyone was fairly happy. So retail or not, jerking around the schedule all the time is less than the opposite of necessary. I know because I have seen and experienced the difference.
This shit only reaches the media if you make it so. Don't wait for someone else, reach out and be heard.
remember the shitstorm that happened to starbucks with their scheduling??? that article about the single mom on the front page of the new york times??? global released a little letter(researched by our global analytics and media team????) to stl's and astls to watch how they schedule but ultimately they only played lip service to this problem..and as someone else said-they dont valued the work/life balance-this is why the stl's and astl's tend to be loners and alcoholics..while the rest of us come to work as zombies who close at 10pm only to be back at work at 9am(not technically a clo-pen in their eyes...)once the team member morale hits rock bottom and news of this hits more media trust me they might,repeat might change....
I'm pissed because I was hired FT working days (anytime from 6am-8pm). I don't have 24 hour availability because I can't work overnight (11pm-5am). My schedule for the upcoming weeks are all less than 30 hours now. I was made PT from FT because I refuse to work overnight shifts. F*** that!
That's the way to cover their butts...
Clo-pens? They won't get in trouble.
Sad turn WFM has taken. Why go so corporate? Who are they paying to run the company into the ground!? Never expected to become unionized an option a good thing, until now. Im surprised union reps haven't hit locations, yet?
I've worked for WFM for 15 years and have never had a set schedule on my team. We all signed an availability agreement when we were hired, and while it's not unreasonable to expect out leaders to work with us in our personal scheduling needs outside of work, in any retail environment sales and scheduling needs are a moving target.
Ding ding ding!! Give the girl a silver penny! Of course they do!! No benefits, lower pay... Whole foods wants to be Walmart when it grows up...
Does whole foods want mostly part timers or what?
It is a way to force people into part time...
24/7 is new ... No set schedules. It goes with the new computer generated schedules... Just wait. May not have happened for you yet but it will.
24/7 is not a company wide policy, I'm sorry if that's truly the case in the SW region. We do have rigid expectations around expected availability, but 24/7 is just pandering to the union sympathizers. So region here and I don't get scheduled for clopens and the majority of my schedule requests get honored...because I don't ask for 10 special requests a week. We typically have our schedules posted 7-10 days in advance.
No .. They cannot be altered. Ask your team leader. if there is a pattern of the schedules being changed the team leader will be held accountable for not adhering to the 24/7 rule.
Take it to the media. There have been big, sympathetic stories about "on call" scheduling at other retailers. The media shitstorm helped to put an end to it. Get talking!
The computer generated schedules can be altered, they create a schedule based on expected sales algorithms and then up to the TL or scheduling leader to make changes that make sense to the actual team.
I don't see how they can do this. what if you specified hours you could work when you were hired? I work in grocery and am sure as hell to going to say i am available to work a shift overnight. Hell naw
Yeah. I have an a-hole TL and he hasn't given me my birthday off the last two years. I've requested off a month ahead and had to call in sick because i didn't get my request
A request is just that ... A request. If you have an asshole team leader(and most of us do) you aren't getting it off.
You can always request the time off
Listen "miss it's retail" ...obviously since you are hiring you get to make your schedule how you want it ... Like most "team leaders"... let's see you bounced to a "team member" and have your whole life at the mercy of a computer! Where you get to pick between feeding your kids and going to their school conferences or dance recital... you should really try to be human for a few minutes... You might like it!
I have a friend who is a manager at a different retail company. She has had employees that have been there 15+ years and they use the same system Kronos and she did not change their availability. Whole Foods front end team leaders are liars they can input your availability into Kronos. They just want slaves which is why I no,longer work there I quit before being laid off. Worked there 8+years and out of no where my schedule availability supposed to change. F*** them. We also had people who quit because they are expected to go from part time to full time. What kind of shit is that.. They threw the core value team member happiness down the drain ages ago. Our old boss would of never done this to any of us. Just shows what kind of dirt bag we have as front end team leader. All he cares about is himself and moving up.
THIS is how you kill morale. It's called a little work life balance. Isn't that supposed to match up with the yoga magazines we sell, holistic healing in whole body, the whole foods to "nourish" our body. I guess you need to drive a BMW for that.
TMs should've had 6 month notice about the scheduling tool so they could make changes to adapt to it...not: you have 1 week to switch your life around to better suit us.
dont give me that "it's retail"crap..there are only so many shifts to fill the hours that the store is open 8am til whenever y'all close...if you are staffed properly this never should have been an issue..its a problem because of the reliance on the part time work force and the problems that causes with scheduling
they would change this shit in a heartbeat if the regional people had to work our jacked up schedules...trust me..ask your coordinators to do a ten day stretch at your store to "better merchandise and make adjustments" with an open availability schedule..lol
It's retail!!! I only hire people with open availability but if they were hired and filled out the availability sheet then they should be able to fight it.
At my store tms without 24-7 availability haven't been laid off but dropped from FT to PT.
Put this on the news .Tv reporters love this dirt.
Absolutely true... Unless you are pt 20 you have to have 24/7 availability... That is because of the new computer scheduling... No more set schedules and managers cannot go in and change schedule once it is made.
i wonder if this is even legal?
Is this ethical?
you're right. WTF! Happens at my store too