Please help! Asda employee

liney

Shipshape: If the OP was working a Twlight Shift, ie in the evening and not overnight, there would be no reason for her not to be able to attend Uni on Friday Morning.

BobQ

The OP seems to have a very peculiar attitude to the world of work. In days of full employment (probably before she was born) it might be acceptable to think that an employer is so keen to employ you that they will re-arrange shifts to suit your circumstamces. These days its a matter of how valued the OP is to Asda which I suggest is not likely to be very much.

I agree that she should write to Asda and explain her position formally and ask them politely to accommodate her request. Can I suggest to her that she asks someone who has a better command of the English language to help her write a more cogent, grammatically correct and reasoned case than her posting.

It may just be my age, but I am amazed that the original posting was written by a university undergraduate who presumably has A levels.

mountainofdebt

BobQ wrote: »

It may just be my age, but I am amazed that the origional posting was written by a university undergraduate who presumably has A levels.

I get the feeling that whilst the OP may be educated, common sense and a reality check is sadly lacking.

Like a number of young people today the OP's post merely reinforces the idea that they believe that they are the centre of the universe and everyone should act accordingly.

avaface

The most flexible department in Asda for working shifts and has a high number of students already on the department are checkouts.
Have a word with your current manager whether he would have a problem with you changing departments and then approach the checkout manager,explain your university situation and why you would be a good colleague to have on checkouts. Do not go to to the checkout manager before speaking to your own manager,that would not go down well. In the mean time if you can't make it in for your shift try shift swapping it with another colleague or getting another colleague to cover it for you if you can't do there shift back. You shouldn't have too much of a problem finding someone who wants some more overtime. Why this is so much of a problem i can't understand though? If your manager took you on knowing you were at university normally they give you a low hours contract say 8 and then you pick up more hours as and when you can. Asda has the backbone of colleagues who have been there for donkeys years and then they have the students who fill in the gaps around them and pick up the slack on overtime etc... All i can say is all you can do is ask,be friendly,don't put peoples noses out of joint but consider the idea that you might have to leave and look for another job.

Googlewhacker

avaface wrote: »

The most flexible department in Asda for working shifts and has a high number of students already on the department are checkouts.
Have a word with your current manager whether he would have a problem with you changing departments and then approach the checkout manager,explain your university situation and why you would be a good colleague to have on checkouts. Do not go to to the checkout manager before speaking to your own manager,that would not go down well. In the mean time if you can't make it in for your shift try shift swapping it with another colleague or getting another colleague to cover it for you if you can't do there shift back. You shouldn't have too much of a problem finding someone who wants some more overtime. Why this is so much of a problem i can't understand though? If your manager took you on knowing you were at university normally they give you a low hours contract say 8 and then you pick up more hours as and when you can. Asda has the backbone of colleagues who have been there for donkeys years and then they have the students who fill in the gaps around them and pick up the slack on overtime etc... All i can say is all you can do is ask,be friendly,don't put peoples noses out of joint but consider the idea that you might have to leave and look for another job.

A bit late there....

Denryu

avaface wrote: »

The most flexible department in Asda for working shifts and has a high number of students already on the department are checkouts.
Have a word with your current manager whether he would have a problem with you changing departments and then approach the checkout manager,explain your university situation and why you would be a good colleague to have on checkouts. Do not go to to the checkout manager before speaking to your own manager,that would not go down well. In the mean time if you can't make it in for your shift try shift swapping it with another colleague or getting another colleague to cover it for you if you can't do there shift back. You shouldn't have too much of a problem finding someone who wants some more overtime. Why this is so much of a problem i can't understand though? If your manager took you on knowing you were at university normally they give you a low hours contract say 8 and then you pick up more hours as and when you can. Asda has the backbone of colleagues who have been there for donkeys years and then they have the students who fill in the gaps around them and pick up the slack on overtime etc... All i can say is all you can do is ask,be friendly,don't put peoples noses out of joint but consider the idea that you might have to leave and look for another job.

I realise this thread's quite old, but flexible? On checkouts? I work on the service team at an Asda and MAN it's not flexible. Less so than ambient and fresh because there is a more rigid minimum of people who can be on the front line at a time. In ours, it's 2, but ideally we like 3. Anyway yeah, my hours range from 7am (when we open) to 9pm (when we close), and are random in their structure (some days I do 10 hours, others I only do 5). I'm not a student, but there's a student who works with me and she finds the shifts a nightmare to work around university. She can only really do late shifts because she's at university during the day, but that leaves her little time to get uni work done and, you know, be young.

Additionally on service (I don't know if this is company policy or because we're a smaller Supermarket) there can only be one person on holiday at a time, which again doesn't leave great flexibility on that. I realise there's a good reason for not allowing too many people on holiday at once, but still. To the individual, it's not flexible.

As people have said, it sucks that they're not being helpful with it, but really all that's to be done in a situation like this is to make a formal request to change your contracted hours, and hope it goes your way. If it doesn't, then tough, you'll have to find a job that's more suited to your hour needs. Which is difficult in itself, especially in retail, because if a company thinks that you're not going to be 100% flexible with them, unless they REALLY like you, they'll not hire you. I made the mistake of making myself sound 100% flexible to Asda, and now I do the most horrible shifts and no one will swap them with me. Just something you've got to take on the chin and deal with if you want to stay in a retail job.

/pointlesspost.