working hours vs health/mental state

wuckfit

CFC wrote: »

I think Judas has a point Wuckfit; most of these kind of establishments fight against fixed shifts as they need flexibility and it is a sad fact that parents will generally manage to get them thus those without children feel it's unfair. If your real requirement is for fixed shifts rather than simply getting better working hours, you may find that requesting a weekend fixed shift rather than a 8-6 Mon-Fri gets an agreement. I myself used to do this, I worked 3-11pm on Saturdays and Sundays as part of my fixed shift request and the request was looked on favourably. Also an 8am start on Sat and Sunday might be considered as those are also unpopular shifts.
Sorry about your pneumonia, hope you feel better soon.

I disagree. I don't think his response is either relevant nor within the ethos of the site.
Regardless of opinions, the OP asked for advice, rather than a bitter, sad, no-life loser posting nasy aspersions about them. That's not what MSE is about, and the sooner [STRIKE]Linasphilibatisbatman[/STRIKE] [STRIKE]Anihilator[/STRIKE] Judas realises that, the better.

snowqueen555

Shouldn't employers make a reasonable effort to change a persons shift due to health reasons?

I worked in retail and it was the case that the regular long time members got the set hours and all the part timers and newbies got the random shifts that changed every week.

I believe I spent a few weeks doing this terrible shift

8am-12pm and then 5pm-9pm in the same day!

little_girl_lost

Thanks for the replies

I realise what some people are saying about just getting another job.
Im trying, but its not as easy as it sounds!
Besides whos going to employ a quivering wreck now lol

I guess trying to "get out of work" is a touchy subject, but when its for legimate reasons please dont feel angry at me

Obviously when I took on this job I knew the hours would be bad but I wasnt suffering with panic disorder when I started. And I didnt realise my boss would be so heartless!

I think my best course of action is to see the Doctor and discuss my working hours.

I'll let you know how it goes.

laurz121

little_girl_lost wrote: »

Thanks for the replies

I realise what some people are saying about just getting another job.
Im trying, but its not as easy as it sounds!
Besides whos going to employ a quivering wreck now lol

I guess trying to "get out of work" is a touchy subject, but when its for legimate reasons please dont feel angry at me

Obviously when I took on this job I knew the hours would be bad but I wasnt suffering with panic disorder when I started. And I didnt realise my boss would be so heartless!

I think my best course of action is to see the Doctor and discuss my working hours.

I'll let you know how it goes.

Just because your boss refuses to change the business strategy to suit you doesn't make him or her heartless so please stop acting like its them against you and you are being badly done to as you are not.

Those with families have probably applied for flexible working hours due to having young kids and your boss who is obviously NOT heartless has allowed them to do those hours as the business could handle it. That doesnt mean that the business can handle more people asking to change their hours as well. You work for a fast food place so it is pretty obvious that your hours will have to be flexible to meet the needs of the business, it is totally unreasonable to expect to be able to work regular hours in a business that is open long for such a long amount of time.

I'm sorry but it isn't like you are being expected to work all day and all night, the latest you are expected to finish is 12:30 which isn't unreasonable and the earliest start is 5:30 which is again not unreasonable for a fast food place. They NEED people to open up in the mornings and cant just rely on the same people as what happens with sickness or holidays? They'd have to shut the shop up just because you felt a bit run down.

I think you are being totally selfish in asking that you are treated differently to everyone else and I very much doubt that you caught pneumonia because of your working hours.

I've got a couple of suggestions for you, either deal with it and do the hours that you agreed to and are being payed to do or quit your job and give it to someone who would really appreciate the opportunity and wouldnt be moaning because they sometimes start at 5:30am and sometimes at lunch time. If that is the biggest worry you have at work then you are very lucky.

Alternatively could you not ask your boss if there are maybe other ways to go about getting a bit more regularity without actually ordering them to let you do exactly as you please? Perhaps you could ask if it would be possible to find out what shifts all the employees would prefer to do on a regular basis and work from there? If the right amount of people all wanted to work late at night, the right amount wanted to start early in the morning and the rest all wanted to work through the day then your boss may be willing to put you all on those shifts regularly but with the understanding that you all know while that is the shift they will try to put you on first it isn't necessarily the shift they will be able to put you on every day. So while at the moment you may be working morning, day, night, morning, day night and so on in future you could end up doing morning, morning, night, morning, morning, day or something.

One thing I find odd is that you started off complaining that your shifts change all the time and then said you had asked for a nice easy day time shift which isnt the same thing is it. One is complaining that the shifts change, the other is simply not wanting to do certain shifts. Why couldnt you ask to work the late shift every day or the morning shift? Your boss might be more willing to allow you to work early or late every day in order to balance out with one of the family people who work during the day.

wuckfit

Whilst I agree that a fast food establishment with working shifts spread over 19 hours in any 24 is probably not the best job for the OP, the fact remains that for whatever reason the OP has become so run down over six months as to turn a cough into pneumonia.
I don't know what shifts the OP has been doing but if the employer has been breaching the Working Time Directive by making people work shifts that are in contravention of the 11 hours rest between shifts regulation (of which it is NOT possible to opt out) and this has contributed to the OPs condition then this is quite serious.
I understand the frustration that some of you are venting about this, but as part of a phased return to work after illness I think regular set shifts is a perfectly reasonable request. (this doesn't mean that the employer has to agree to it, however) Fixed shifts may not be in the employer's interests long term and I would also suggest that the OP seeks employment somewhere that offers more regular hours.

dmg24

wuckfit wrote: »

I disagree. I don't think his response is either relevant nor within the ethos of the site.
Regardless of opinions, the OP asked for advice, rather than a bitter, sad, no-life loser posting nasy aspersions about them. That's not what MSE is about, and the sooner [STRIKE]Linasphilibatisbatman[/STRIKE] [STRIKE]Anihilator[/STRIKE] Judas realises that, the better.

Pot Kettle Black?

wuckfit

dmg24 wrote: »

Pot Kettle Black?

I don't think so, no. Do you have anything of use to add to the OP?

laurz121

wuckfit wrote: »

Whilst I agree that a fast food establishment with working shifts spread over 19 hours in any 24 is probably not the best job for the OP, the fact remains that for whatever reason the OP has become so run down over six months as to turn a cough into pneumonia.
I don't know what shifts the OP has been doing but if the employer has been breaching the Working Time Directive by making people work shifts that are in contravention of the 11 hours rest between shifts regulation (of which it is NOT possible to opt out) and this has contributed to the OPs condition then this is quite serious.
I understand the frustration that some of you are venting about this, but as part of a phased return to work after illness I think regular set shifts is a perfectly reasonable request. (this doesn't mean that the employer has to agree to it, however) Fixed shifts may not be in the employer's interests long term and I would also suggest that the OP seeks employment somewhere that offers more regular hours.

I may be wrong but I didn't think that the 11 hour rest rule applied to people who work shifts which would mean that it doesnt apply to the OP.

wuckfit

did you read the link I posted? The regulation is not possible to opt out from. it's specifically there to protect shift workers from being exploited by unscruplous employers who would have people finishing at midnight and in again at 5am if they could.

Daily rest - a break between working days


If you are an adult worker you have the right to a break of at least 11 hours between working days. This means as an adult worker, if you finish work at 8.00 pm on Monday you should not start work until 7.00 am on Tuesday.

little_girl_lost

*sigh*

I didnt mean for this to happen