Part-Time Workers Say Schedules Are Getting More Erratic

[Purveyor]

In the 1980s, a popular fast-food commercial touted chicken-breast sandwiches — and mocked chicken nuggets sold by competitors.

In the ad, a competitor's doofus clerk explains nuggets. "All the parts are crammed into one big part," he said. "And parts is parts."

Today, clerks may believe that catchphrase could apply to them as regular full-time schedules disappear. For many workers, hours are not only short, but increasingly erratic as managers scramble to cover shifts without the steadying influence of experienced full-time employees.

"It's ridiculous," says Amere Graham, an 18-year-old high school graduate who works at a McDonald's in Milwaukee. "My schedule is all over the place. It's completely unpredictable."

Government data support Graham's impressions of workplace conditions. The ranks of people working part time because they can't find full-time jobs have roughly doubled since the summer of 2007, from about 4.3 million to 8.2 million.

more...

http://www.npr.org/2013/07/18/202744981/part-time-workers-say-schedules-are-getting-more-erratic

[Laelth]

1. k&r for the truth, however depressing it may be. n/t

-Laelth

[Trillo]

2. "completely unpredictable" = chaos.

How can each of our inalienable rights to pursue happiness be conducted in such an environment?

[JVS]

3. This is the kind of thing you do when you don't want your employees getting other jobs.

[TheMastersNemesis]

4. It Will Only Get Worse Until Workers Rise Up And Revolt And

insist on unions and collective bargaining. As long as voters stay antilabor and antigovernment nothing will change.

[xchrom]

5. Du rec. Nt

[LiberalEsto]

6. This makes it impossible to hold a second job

Sorry, McDonalds. Telling your workers to balance their budgets with second jobs is impossible if both jobs have screwy hours.

[starroute]

7. It isn't just part-timers

A friend of my son's worked for one of the big-box stories for a while. He had a full-time, 39 hour a week job, but his schedule was all over the place. He was required to be available from something like 7 am to 10 pm any day fo the week, and the actual hours were only posted two weeks in advance.

As a full-timer, he was eligible for days off, but only the more senior employees actually got to take those on weekends or for several days in a row. So forget about actual vacations.

As I recall, he put up with it for about a year before deciding he wanted his life back.

[kestrel91316]

8. I may only have P/T employees, but I make sure that they all have the same work days and hours

in a week, week after week, so they can take classes or have another job in their off time.

Constantly changing work schedules is cruel to employees.

[truedelphi]

9. In places where immigration provides so many workers for so little -

This means that should someone be sick JUST ONCE, BAM! they are replaced.

Or late twice - BAM! they are replaced.

You can tell quite easily if any given area has such things happening. If your local fast food's place is paying only the required minimum wage, there is an over supply of workers. If the wage being paid is slightly higher, than it means that immigration is not affecting the work supply/demand situation.

You can also tell simply by observation - if you rarely see the same counter person again, even two weeks later, that indicates what is going on.

One other thing that over-immigration allows - you never see older people working in such establishments, except as janitorial staff. To be part of the main work force, you have to be young and fast as lightning. Older people, worn down by injuries, illness and life itself, can't keep up.

[jeff47]

10. Unpredictable is the point

If you give them a consistent schedule they can get a second job. And that job may grow to the point where they quit your job.

Utterly inconsistent schedules happen all the time in all low-wage jobs from large employers. Be they part-time or full-time.