Some important info to note before I start:
I work for a trucking company. I unload trailers, fix/restack freight, and deliver that freight to different trailers. We are one of the largest docks in our company, with over 200 total doors to receive and send out trailers.
There are hundreds of people that do my same job. At any given time, we may have anywhere between 30-40 dock workers moving freight from trailer to trailer.
I work the midnight shift. This is the shift where most new hires start out, before eventually moving to morning or afternoon shifts. The reason most new hires start here is because prior to posting a position online, they post a sign up sheet for it when one opens up. It comes as no surprise that many people do not want to work midnights, and the most experienced people sign these sheets, and usually move to afternoons or mornings.
Let's do a little bit of critical thinking here..
Most new hires, some who have never driven a forklift before, start on my shift.
All the most experienced people leave to other shifts.
What does this leave?
About 40% of my shift have been here about a year. About 30-40% of them have been here 2-3 years. The last 20-30% of my shift are either brand new, or people that have been here longer. Mostly, it's brand new people though.
Meanwhile, the other shifts are made up of mostly senior employees, because those are the ones that win the bids for the 'good' shifts. That means anywhere from 5-20 year employees.
Our shift is the worst performing statistically to all the other shifts. The management do NOT understand why. It is a complete mystery. How does this happen? How is it possible for us to SUCK this bad? Can it be.. perhaps, that every other shift have been here 10x longer than we have? Noooo.. that's crazy talk.
By worst performing, I mean we average maybe 20% worse to all the other shifts. Hmm.. this number reminds me of something.. could it be.. the 20% of my shift that are clocked in, but moving zero freight because they are training? Could it be.. the 40% of my shift that barely know what they are doing as they have been here a year or less? Couldn't be..
So, with all that said, here's the most fucked up part.
We work rotating 6 days. This week is our turn. The 6 day is up to management. About half the time, we are slow and do not need to come in. I got a message today that we will be mandated to come in.
But what's this? We worked really hard last night and got the trucks down to single digits. They were pairing people up because we were so low on freight… why would we be so busy that we have to come in?
Turns out, that they let the morning guys go home early to make sure there was enough stuff left over to justify calling all of us in. I heard it from a morning guy I am friends with. They went home after like 4 hours (They are full time.).
So to sum it up, management has decided that as punishment (They will never admit to this) that they will send home all the other shifts early, to 'teach us a lesson' about what happens when your performance is bad, by making us work a 6th day.
If, while reading this, you have possibly put together why a shift whose average employee has been here less than a year is slightly worse than a shift whose average employee has been here 7-8 years, you may be smarter than all of management, and they make 6 figures each.