Boss constantly changing rota etc.

rose28454

My daughter works for a high st chain and is having a problem with her new boss. The problem is she is contracted to work a minimum of 4 hours per week but usually works between 8 and 16 ( she is a student also) The thing is her boss does the rota about 3 weeks ahead and then suddenly changes it at short notice. For instance my daughter was supposed to work Wednesday and Friday this week for 4 hours each day but when she went in yesterday she was told that the boss had changed it so that she is only working nesxt Sunday for 5 hours. She is quite short of money and has already agreed to work at an event next Sunday for her aunt who has a catering business. Now can she refuse to work or is her boss allowed to do this. I have look at her contract and it just says she is normally required to work a minimum of 4 hours per week and must work 4 weekend days per month. Also her contract says she has to give on months notice to leave but they have to only give 1 weeks notice.
There is no mention of pay on Bank Holidays and over Easter the manager said they would get double pay for Easter Monday but after they had worked it she changed her mind and said she had made a mistake and it was only normal pay. This may sound like a winge but I am just trying to advice her as this manager has forced quite a few of the staff to leave over the last few months and my daughter really likes her job and wants to keep it.

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mrshaigh2b1987

Hi there,
Im a supervisor at a shop and i do the rota's and i would not be allowed to do this at such short notice without asking the staff member first. xxx

Any

If it is hight street chain then this manager will not be the highest manager... There should be rules set accross the chain and each manager should obey them...
Might be worth talking to someone higher?

amersall

thats right, you must be given notice.

Barneysmom

Sounds a bit like some sort of discrimination to me, messing her about like that?

sensibly_insane

I have worked part time in two different stores as a student and have literally dealt with difficult line managers. At occassions, when I was in similar situation, I preferred to talk to my boss in confidence, shared my problem and expressed my confidence in him that he would do everything possible to help me out, though I genuinely thought that was not the case . But, it really worked almost always. Even if it didn't it improved our working relationship.

IMHO, unless the situation gets too grave, it doesn't pay much to be head on with the boss at work specially when we can't be right at work all the times. Let her try a chat in confidence with her boss, you have got the option of talking to some high up always open any way, in case it doesn't work !

rose28454

Just an update. She is still having trouble with the manager and yesterday when she went in the manager told her she was supposed to be in an hour earlier and had missed a training session a week earlier. SHe had not been contacted about either. She said this and the manager just said he would have to stay 2 hours later. She said she could not as she was going away immediatly after work. So the new assistant manager ( a young man who has just started - who my daughter says is trying to introduce new systems to get the shop working better) called her into the office and told her she would get a mark for missing the training session and a mark for being late once last month and when it gets to 3 marks she would get a disciplinary. Now this system was only introduced about a week ago. She poured out all her problems to him and told him that she did not think she could work there anymore as it was obvious the manager could not do her job and she hase dreaded coming to work for some months now. He asked her to stay until the end of the shift but she said she could not work there anymore and came home early. He told her that that was probably what the manager wanted anyway. I.E for her to walk out. He also told her to write a letter of resignation and send it in. Since she has been there ( November last year) about 12 staff have left in similar circumstances. In June she was signed off for 2 weeks as she suffers from Anxiety and Depression and the manager told everyone in the shop that she had mental health problems. My husband encouraged our daughter to join the union which she has done.
Now it is only a part time job but she really loved it and it is sad for this to happen. What does anyone think she should do now?

cazziebo

Has your daughter resigned, walked out, or just gone home early due to feeling unwell (despite being requested to finish her shift by the manager)?

If it's the first, there's not much she can do now. If it's the second, then she has breached her contract and again, not much she can do.

If it's the third, she could try speaking to the new asst Manager, apologise and try to seek a solution.

It's a sad fact that students do tend to come bottom of the pecking order when it comes to shift allocations, and they are used to fill in at last minute. Retail is a difficult industry, and it's one where managers are under a lot of pressure at the moment. Students aren't usually there for the long term so unless they are good and reliable then managers will find a way to get them out. Two weeks absence for a condition that might recur flashes a red light - no matter how unfair that might be. And not many managers will look positively on a student commenting on how well a retail manager does their job.

It's a hard world out there. Remember you're her parent, you are getting one side of the story here. If she's old enough to work then she is old enough to fight her own battles.

vixarooni

i also work in a high street store and our rota system is much the same. Unfortunatly with a rota system full of full timers, part timers and people on 0 contracts who come in willy nilly its awful to try and get a rota set in stone because someone will always say they cant do this and cant do that, so things have to be changed last minute.

For me, i check the rota every saturday and i only work a week in advance because i know the other weeks will change. Once ive looked for that week that is all i will do, its my mangers problem if she forgets to tell me.

I do think the store has acted unfairly but surely there must be more to it than that? I know my manger is always going on about how it is our responsibilty to check the rota and normally if my boss changes something last minute she realises that the person might not see it in time so it is weird that they would treat her in this way. Perhaps she needs to go back in and talk to the store manager about this.

floss2

Maybe a phone call to HR at Head Office wouldn't go amiss?

rose28454

floss2 wrote: »

Maybe a phone call to HR at Head Office wouldn't go amiss?

She is away today so I may suggest she does that. I am not sure whether she has resigned or not. I know I am a mother who cant cut the apron strings but I am trying. I will let you know what happens