DKos Post: You're hired! But you don't get any hours

[RandySF]

My young adult daughter applied for a couple of part-time jobs recently--one with a national bookstore chain, the other with a department store photo studio. In both cases she was told, if hired, she would be guaranteed 0-15 hours per week, depending on how busy things were and how well she worked out. Zero hours? Who guarantees zero hours? Who hires for zero hours? What sort of hire is that?

She told me this past spring she overheard a woman in one of her community college classes talking about getting only one hour of work that week from one job, and two from another. This woman has two kids and is making the effort to get an education. A couple of her friends who don't have families have complained of the same situation--one or two hours a week from a job.

My daughter has done the math of what it looks like to support yourself on minimum wage and concluded it's doable if you work full-time and are happy just barely getting by and don't have any emergency expenditures and don't own a car. So, she asks me, how in the hell do you support yourself and a family--especially if you don't have even one full-time job, but two that add up to less? How do you get yourself to work? And what happens if both jobs suddenly offer you more work and there's a scheduling conflict, but no guarantee of continuing work from either employer?

I don't think I'm romanticizing the past when I recall my first part-time job at a fast-food restaurant that required I work at least 15 hours a week and take more hours if needed. I was called in frequently to help cover rush times. Other minimum wage jobs I held when I was in high school and college required a certain number of shifts. Most of my shifts, managers aside, were staffed by kids in my age range--16-20 years-old, and few or none of my fellow workers had families (afternoon and evening hours). I never had a week of one or two hours of work and frequently negotiated with co-workers to cover hours for each other when we couldn't work.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/09/01/1326289/-You-re-hired-But-you-don-t-get-any-hours

[Skink]

1. No benefits either

[madinmaryland]

2. Our daughter started a job about a month ago, and she only seems to be guaranteed 1 shift a week.

That shift is for five hours. She is then "on-call" for 2-3 days during the work week. When she is "on-call" she has to call in hour before the shift she is on-call for to see if they need her to come in. In the first month, she has not gotten called in. We were all hoping she would get 10-15 hours a week, as she is now 17.

I remember with my job, they were happy to give me as many hours as I wanted. Normally 15-20 a week during the school year, and 40 a week during summer break and holidays!!

[kcr]

3. I read an article recently about software these places use

That allows them to "optimize" their scheduling so that employees are screwed in this manner. They'll only get crumbs while they're expected to show up for those crumbs at a moments notice, which means they basically can't have a scheduled life outside of those meager hours they're given. We need unions back desperately.

[MineralMan]

4. I once took a job with no guaranteed hours.

It was at a gas station. I took it because it came with a free apartment behind the station. It was a crappy apartment, but I was out of work in a place I had never lived before. Six months later, I was the station's manager. From the first day there, I was working full time, since one or another employee always seemed not to show up for work. I was there, so I took all of those shifts, occasionally working all three shifts.

Eventually, I left that job to join the USAF. This was in 1965. I was 19 years old.

No hours turned into a more than full-time job and promotion to be manager. A guy never knows what's going to happen.

[Skink]

6. I want a job with a free apt

[daredtowork]

5. Contingent Labor is becoming more contingent

I've been saying for years that there are too many "work arounds" for labor law, and Congress has been doing nothing because corporate lobbyists tell them protecting workers will stifle "growth" and "innovation".

Somewhere along the line the people that form economic policy in this country started viewing labor as how much you can suck out out individuals for the benefit of business owners rather than a fair contractual exchange between people as equals.

[enlightenment]

7. Borrowing from the UK for this bit of nastiness.

In Europe, these are called "zero-hour contracts". Employers love them there and they will adore them here. Employees? Not so much.

http://www.euractiv.com/sections/social-europe-jobs/uk-reprimanded-over-zero-hour-contracts-301994