I work customer service full time at a Bloomingdales. Our department is pretty unique in the store compared to the typical sales area and requires a well planned schedule with things like certain people needing to come in a few hours before opening to do certain tasks and etc. Up until now our managers have worked with us to make the schedule. As long as we gave proper notice we could get certain days off for things like appointments, long weekends, weddings, etc. As a result we have a strong team and our department runs smoothly.
Today I was called into my manager’s office so he could explain the new schedule system that corporate is forcing on my team (he’s against it too). Now we will have to enter in our availability on a shitty unintuitive website and there’s new restrictions. No employee is allowed to have Friday through Sunday off unless you use sick time or PTO (which part timers get hardly any). This is gonna fuck over many of the part timers in my department who need one of those days off for school, other jobs, etc. As a result many of them are likely to quit which will gut the department after a few other employees also recently left.
Additionally for full timers like myself we can no longer have two full days off and instead have to choose between selecting one full day off or getting 4 evening or morning shifts days off across different days. (can’t combine them for a full day off). So basically I’m required to be here 6 days out of the week despite having the same hours which equates to 5 days of full shifts. This is inconvenient for the freelance work I do outside of work and the idea of having one less day away from our entitled Karen customers sounds awful. Our pay is just a little over minimum wage so it’s not lucrative at all to have so much of our week dedicated to Bloomingdales. Apparently this automated system is what the sales departments already use so it’s no wonder the floor coverage is a disaster and the turnover/staffing is so bad.
This whole thing is just unnecessary corporate BS that will just make our department less functional because we are having a computer decide our schedule rather than the department itself make a schedule that makes more sense for us to run smoothly and have better work-life balance. Two of my coworkers have already told me they are searching for a new jobs and will put in their two weeks in the next few days. I’m gonna be job searching again myself! Without the operational work we are currently doing the store will run much less smoothly. Another great decision by Macy’s Inc!