Heyyy guys sO. I work at a Michaels, in a fairly small town so it's a kinda small store. I'm currently in the group chat with 5 of my coworkers, we are all 16-18 and everyone but me is in school on top of working here. And it's just –
So we all mostly get scheduled for the closing shift which is 4:30 or 5 to 9:30. Or, 9:30 is what it says on the schedule, depending on what manager is there (and how busy it is) it's anywhere from 9:30 to 10:30, and sometimes as bad as 10:50. It's not rare that we miss a lunch break we should've gotten. And when you clock out, the computer system automatically has you put in an unpaid 30min lunch break after 5+ hours. There is apparently a way to bypass it, but being young, most of us didn't know about how to cancel out of it and just assumed we had to put that break in there even if we didn't get it. No one ever told us. Even beyond all that, the time we get to leave is utterly left up to the whims of the managers and how perfectionistic they are. Besides the fact that we all have to leave the store together for safety reasons, so any time the managers have extra stuff to do or the drawer count is off, we are trapped waiting at the front, almost always off the clock, until they finish.
And now, apparently, we are not allowed to trade shifts. At all. We are to have our availability updated in the website and there cannot be ANY switching or taking of others' shifts. Am… Am I wrong in thinking that's like a BASIC and essential part of how shift work FUNCTIONS? The managers said it's “too complicated,” like, how complicated is it to switch names in the computer?? Or just have a different person show up, if y'all aren't communicating properly? Because we have ALL been very careful about telling a manager when we switch. They have always been informed. This just feels. Not good.
Other different issues are going on, too… We are regularly not provided with the tools we need to do our jobs properly. We've got all KINDS of different sized products, and are currently out of large size bags. None left, and it's been that way for over a week, maybe up to two weeks. There are also no large trash bags for the bigger trash cans and that's been going on for LONGER.
So, I don't know what to do or how to feel, really. It seems super not ok that shift trading is not allowed at all. Uh. And I'm kinda pretty heckin pissed.