Electrical Sales - My Rights At Work!

kiddy_guy

bristol_pilot wrote: »

Final year of uni - drop the job. Anything less than a 2.1 will blight your career for life. Debt can be paid off, those uni marks are irretrievable.

Utter rubbish. There are unemployed students out there with 1st class honours, and some with 3rd's earning millions.

Ultimately degrees nowadays are worthless - the fact there are so many students with degrees has rendered it such. Also what is better - a 3rd from Oxford, or a 1st class honours from Demontford? As a recruiter, I look for experience, skills and how they interview, not whether they managed to get a 2:ii or 2:1 from Luton in Pottery.

bristol_pilot

I'm a recruiter too. And they won't be interviewed with a third even if it comes from Oxford or Cambridge. (Not with a first from DeMontford either). New grads don't have 'experience and skills'. I'm currently looking for a technical specialist for a senior position (probably with 20+ years experience) - HR still insist on putting 2.2+ on the spec.

no-oneknowsme

Op- if your contracted hours is 15 per week then i cant see anything wrong with you requesting to only work 15 hours per week whilst you are trying to study.

I am not sure how to post links so i have copied the info below from direct.gov maybe it can be some help.



The right to request 'time to train'

If you are an employee and you work in an organisation with 250 or more employees you have the statutory (legal) right to request time for study or training. This right is known as 'time to train'.
From 6 April 2011 the right will apply to all employees working in organisations of all sizes, regardless of how many employees there are.
You do not have to use the right for every training request. If you already have a system with your employer for making training requests you can continue to use that.
To make a statutory request for 'time to train' you must:

• be an employee
• have worked for your employer continuously for at least 26 weeks before you apply

You will not be able to make a request for 'time to train' if you are:

• an agency worker
• a member of the armed forces
• compulsory school age ('school age' in Scotland)
• a young person who already has a statutory right to paid time off to undertake study or training
• 16-18 years old and already expected to take part in education or training

How many people work for your employer ?

Hammyman

snowqueen555 wrote: »

You're a cold hearted one aren't you?

I would think it an unreasonable request to make a third year student increase their work hours from 15 hours to full time, 6 days a week where its quite likely this store could probably find an alternative

Not cold hearted at all. I see no benefit to someone by fannying around the subject and telling them what they want to hear.

And the fact he is at Uni is of no consequence to the employer. And yes they could find an alternative but not one which could be trained up to do the job to cope with the level of Xmas sales in just a few days. They'd spend more time correcting the mistakes than doing their own jobs.

Hammyman

no-oneknowsme wrote: »

Op- if your contracted hours is 15 per week then i cant see anything wrong with you requesting to only work 15 hours per week whilst you are trying to study.

I am not sure how to post links so i have copied the info below from direct.gov maybe it can be some help.



The right to request 'time to train'

If you are an employee and you work in an organisation with 250 or more employees you have the statutory (legal) right to request time for study or training. This right is known as 'time to train'.

Note thats right to request. The employer has equally as much right to refuse on commercial grounds like, err...Xmas rush and Jan sales period.

Emmzi

the TIME TO TRAIN legislation does not apply to every kind of education so is not applicable in this case.

"The most important requirement is that the training you want will help improve business performance and your effectiveness in your employer's business."

bum steer for this case, may well help others tho no-neknowsme

emilyteach1

StudentOfBusiness, I'd go with the consensus here and advise that you place your studies above your job if you're really that concerned about the pressure, but there is just one problem with that...as most graduates nowadays don't walk into their dream job straight away [even 2:1+ graduates from 'top' universities], this job may well be your bread and butter in the immediate post-graduation period.

If you want to have the best of both worlds and keep the job and maintain your uni performance, I'd recommend the following:

1) Scrutinise your contract re what it does/doesn't say about compulsory overtime. If there's no mention of compulsory overtime [including during busy periods such as Xmas and Jan sales], then you may get away scot free with refusing the extra shifts. Emphasis on that you may be able to do it, no guarantees. If it does stipulate that you're required, or even expected, to do overtime, then you need to negotiate in person with your immediate supervisor in the first instance. And agreement whereby you work extra, but still have free time for uni work, may be achievable.

2) Focus on your time management - are there any weaknesses in your current schedule? Are you 'wasting' time on anything non-essential at the moment? I gained a good degree from a good university, and I can honestly say that I never felt as though my studies were suffering, even when holding down a full-ish time [25-30 hours per week minimum] job in similar environments in retail/sales. I'm no better than you, and I'm certainly no academic whizz, but the path of full-time 3rd year undergraduate studies and a demanding 'part'-time job has been trodden by many a student before you. It can be a 7-day/night per week affair for several months on the trot, and you may have to kiss goodbye to your social life, leisure activities and TV viewing in the short term, but it's worth it in the long run.

Hammyman

Exactly. I know what I'd be doing and it wouldn't be working with that amount of Uni work and exams on.

In regards to point 1) in the above post, if the contract includes the point that you're expected to comply with reasonable requests, asking you to up the hours during the busiest period of the year falls into that.

In regards to point 2), both my brothers held down fulltime jobs throughout their Uni courses. One was in business, the other in law and both passed with good grades.

lynzpower

bristol_pilot wrote: »

Final year of uni - drop the job. Anything less than a 2.1 will blight your career for life. Debt can be paid off, those uni marks are irretrievable.

Oh come on dont be ridiculous!

However, I would say drop the job in the final year, if its too demanding

Person_one

Anything less than a 2:1 will stop you getting onto post grad courses and into lots of graduate entry jobs, so while it might not 'blight your life' it will seriously restrict your options and is definitely not worth risking for the sake of a part time job.