Hi all. I used to work at a nursing home as a housekeeper. It paid pretty well for my standards but college is coming up so I asked about changing hours. My original job was full time 40 hours a week, 5 days a week. The job they offered me was substantially easier and was 30 hours a week (which is more or less what I was aiming for with plans on attending school).
A couple key notes I should clarify is that our department has a really high turnover. We just dont get many applicants and the ones we get are usually pretty terrible. I asked about changing hours in September last year, and it took until April this year for them to finally get me a replacement so I can get to my new job.
Actually, we had multiple people hired, but none of them lasted til the end of training. Heck, one time I finished training someone and was about to start my new job the next day, and then he quit, and I returned to my old jov for another few months.
All this time I couldnt even think about applying for college and starting again because I didnt even know when I could start my new job. It took several months. Lo and behold I finally got it one day, and on my first day they REVEALED to me that I would be a flex person, entrusted to fill in for people.
Considering at this point college is still at the very least months away I told them I can do it but only until I start college.
Here is what they asked of me:
I work 5 days a week, Mon – Fri 1:30 PM to 8 PM
BUT I am the ONLY person trained in a few other jobs in the building, and these jobs are the ones they want me to cover at ANY DAY of the 7 day week
AM Laundry 3:30 AM to 11:30 AM
Laundry 6:30 AM to 2:30 PM
Housekeeper 7:00 AM to 3:00 PM
Custodian 7:00 to 3:00 PM
and to reiterate: they ask that I be available to cover any of these positions everyday of every week… in a place with frequent call-ins.
A couple weeks ago I work until 8 PM to go home to finally start enjoying my weekend, and thank god I went to bed at the reasonable hour of 12, because they called me at 2:50 AM for me to come in.
A few days ago, I made the grave mistake of going to bed late, and even been drinking a bit, 3 hours later I wake up to have missed 3 calls and voicemail guilt tripping me into coming in, claiming that I agreed to being available whenever. Honestly I did agree to that, thats why I work this position, so I want to see if I can change that.
All to round off I should say that I am a 22 year old, and I do occasionally like to stay up late.
I definitely understand that this is a grave I dug myself. Its my fault for accepting this position (even if this flex stuff was sprung on me the day of starting said job). But the actual question I have is:
Do you guys think this flex (on call) schedule is too much? Am I reasonable for thinking it is?
Thanks all for reading this long-ass post!