Hours of *work* - what's your view (slightly lighthearted debate)

caledonian_princess

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

The thing is, many shops don't want to pay staff for the NECESSARY time required for opening and closing checks: they want the store opened at 9 am, so they pay from 9 am, which means staff need to be in by 8.45 am in order to get the floats out etc, and then they aren't supposed to start cashing up etc before the shop shuts at 6 pm, and that can take half an hour or more, but the staff are only being paid for the hours the shop is open.

I think that staff should be ready to work at the start of their working day, BUT I think employers should be sensible about what time staff need to start work in order to be ready to greet the Great British Public at a particular time.

Eugh, I think that if the extra time is regular it should be included in your regular hours - if it takes 30 minutes every day to do the cashing up then you should be paid for it. If it's a one-off that's different.

I tend to just fit in with what's normal for the office. I've worked flexi time, we keyed in as we walked in and out of the building so, effectively, we were being paid for the whole settling down routine at the start and end of the day. I've also worked somewhere which was absolutely unbending on being good to go at 9am and, as a consequence, I was absolutely unbending on being good to go at 5pm (it wasn't customer facing btw). In my current job I pretty much choose my own hours; as long as I put the hours in they don't mind when I come and go. This means I sometimes start at 7am and sometimes I finish at 7pm, I also do the occasional Sunday balancing those hours off elsewhere in the week. I love the flexibility of my current job and will find it difficult to go back to a standard office routine.

Bufger

My hours of work are 7.15 - 3.45 but i'm usually in and working 6.30 until around 4.30

Depends if you're there to work or you're there to progress your career i suppose. I know people that do bare minimum but arent interested in climbing the ladder, they usually do at least an hour less a day if the boss is on holiday etc!

lauzt1987

I work 9-5. I'm usually at my desk for about 8:45. I leave at 5pm most days but only because there's not usually anything that can't wait until the next day. The nature of my job means there are certain months when we are really busy and in those months, it's not uncommon for me to work a couple of extra hours every evening and the odd weekend shift just to get eveything finished. I really don't see the point in staying past 5 unless necessary though. The reason I don't have to stay late is because i'm very efficient and work hard all day. Quite often the people who have to stay late to get things done are the ones that can't manage their time.

popadom

diggle wrote: »

one of the retail company's i worked for you were contracted in to be available to begin work 15mins before start time and remain 15mins after finish time to complete any work..i.e facing up products,sweeping floor ,till checking etc..

Is this legal? Can they sack you if you dont do it? I suppose if they argued it part of your pay then you could argue it would take you below min wage, if you were on min wage. Ive always been curious about this.

Kajimba

GothicStirling wrote: »

That's quite sad.

Having been a manager, I can tell you someone with that attitude is that last person on my list for extra hours and promotion opprtunities [last year I took a waitress on £6.10 an hour and promoted her to assistant manager on a salary of £18,000]

If she had had the same attitude, minimum effort equals £7,000 a year difference in wage.

Yes it is sad. But as I said, I did n't start with this attitude, it's just that I found out there is no opportunity for progression in my current job. The company is very happy with my work & attitude, frequently giving me extra hours, but they have no openings. As I stated in my post, I'm clearly better off if I use my spare time to look for a company that is genuinely willing to promote staff from the bottom upwards rather than working for a comapny that will never promote me to the point where I'm too tired to make a decent application. Just to add context, that's what was happenong until January: I made a NYEb resolution - & kept it.:D

Kajimba

freeoffers wrote: »

We are paid what we are worth IMHO, and if that's what you're paid it's what your service is worth. No matter what I'm paid I have personal pride in doing my best because I believe it pervades other areas of my life. I started out being paid minimum wage too but having the right attitude is priceless.

Well I have over ten years retail experience, four years supervisory experience, 2:1 degree, Masters, & I created & ran my own volunteer group. I've also worked in call centres, fitted spectacles & fitted childrens shoes. Yes that last job did include being kicked in the face a few times.;)

How much would you say I'm worth?

Currently, I'm in a minimum wage job for the first time in ten years, due to be made redundant at very short notice. I've worked for this employer previously, but they've dropped the wages since the last time I worked for them. I.E they are paying NMW for what used to be a non-minimum wage job.
I should add that while I'm contracted as a part-time sales assistant in theory, in practice I hold the keys & cash up whenever both the manager & assistant manager are away. So even with a minimum level of effort, I'm doing more than someone with my contract would normally do.

How much do you think I'm worth now?

Kajimba

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

The thing is, many shops don't want to pay staff for the NECESSARY time required for opening and closing checks: they want the store opened at 9 am, so they pay from 9 am, which means staff need to be in by 8.45 am in order to get the floats out etc, and then they aren't supposed to start cashing up etc before the shop shuts at 6 pm, and that can take half an hour or more, but the staff are only being paid for the hours the shop is open.

I think that staff should be ready to work at the start of their working day, BUT I think employers should be sensible about what time staff need to start work in order to be ready to greet the Great British Public at a particular time.

Yes, this is exactly what my employer does. We don't shut early though, we just cash up all the tills bar one while there are still customers in the shop.
My train to work gets my in 15 mins early so it's more of an issue for the other members of staff.

Gargatron

If anybody walked into my office at 4:59 they would see me sat wearing my coat and a hat with my car keys in my hand, staring excitedly at the second hand of the clock.

I'm such a good worker, I wouldn't dream of going even a second early!

elisebutt65

Well, as a teacher, I can't exactly walk in late, poodle around making coffee etc:p

I am contracted to work in blocks of 1.5 hours with 15 mins in between and an hour for lunch from 9.15 until 4.15 for teaching, but I have also just got another role of Learning advisor(tutor) which means I will be doing a lot of sitting around doing 1-1's with students, phoning parents - obviously that will mean staying later occasionally so I can catch them at home, doing parent's evenings and student interviews etc.

But you know what? For the first time in a job, I actually don't mind:o I've only been doing this teaching malarkey for about 3 years now and I absolutely love it!!! Probably explains why I managed to get the PLA role out of hundreds that applied!!

When I worked for the council I was a real clockwatcher and as soon as the time clock ticked over, I was out of there!!!!:rotfl::rotfl:Job was major dullsville; as opposed to now when it's different every single day(hour, minute).

I'm still only earning in the teens of thousands - way less than in previous jobs as I do term-time only, but work life balance is better as I'm doing something that really love as opposed to having to do to keep a roof over my head.

ska_lover

t0rt0ise wrote: »

I think it depends entirely on the particular job. When starting a new job I arrive early on the first day and see what the informal rule is and follow that. As someone else said it also depends on how I'm treated. Treat me like an idiot and push on certain things and I won't be so accommodating on other things.

I once asked for a day's holiday and there was no reason for me not to be given it but the boss wanted to flex her muscles and said no. Fair enough, I came in but took two days off sick the following week. Be nice to me, I'm a person too.

I totally agree with you here. Some managers DO just do these things to flex their muscles. They have very few skills at managing people though - as they are way too stupid to realise their muscle flexing has this kind of effect! I don't blame you for skiving!

My start time is 8am and I make sure I am at work around 15 mins before to get logged onto the system, unlock etc. 9 times out of 10 I am out the door dead on my finish time. Sometimes I have to stay late to deal with problems etc, but not very often. I used to come in much earlier and stay much later, but I realised my bully boss was still going to be the same patronising little £*&@!! whether I put extra effort in or not.