Getting hardly any work hours...should I worry??

[bitesize]

I've been working in a petrol station shop for about 2 months, part-time. For the first couple of weeks I was getting 2 or 3 shifts during the week - 8 hours on weekend days and 4 hours on weekday evenings. However over the last few weeks it's been getting less - sometimes they'd have me in just at the weekend. I took last week off because I was doing a play so I expected to have quite a few hours this week, especially as one of the other workers has an injury...but I'm only doing 4 hours this Sunday, whereas my friend is working 25 hours this week.

I know if I want more hours I should say it to them, but the truth is I'm starting to feel really worried. I got in trouble several weeks ago for making a mistake that I couldn't even remember doing, which makes me worried all the time now that I've done something wrong and haven't even noticed...and maybe they're giving me as few hours as possible because I'm such a crappy worker??

[Always *]

Well, I know that when I was in grade 12 I worked as a server in a restaurant. First of all, I wasn't the best of all servers, I didn't like having to deal with people who were going to be pricks to me when I'd done nothing to deserve it, and I am very much the "I'll be nice to you if you be nice to me" kind of person. I'm not going to smile and be all happy and bubbly towards you if you're bring a jerk to me, and partially because I was never trained properly there that was never something I was given a chance to hide. But I was VERY good at delivering the pizzas (like to peoples houses), but they wouldn't let me switch from serving to delivering because "I needed to get good at serving first" which I personally thought was stupid because they'd already seem that I struggled there and excelled more with driving. But any ways... Then I went back to school in the fall and I was on a school team, which meant 3 practices a week (all after school on weekdays) so I couldn't work those nights. But I still could have worked Saturday and Sunday as well as the other 2 week days if they needed me too. But they just stopped scheduling me, I still had to go to the staff meetings and I still had to keep telling them when I wasn't going to be able to work. Then I "quit" in January, I was going to have to go to a lot of competitions and was trying to get into university and their inconsistency wasn't helping me.... Then they claimed I "quit" instead of having taken a "leave of absence" like the week before I wanted to go back.

SO my point is in my experience this probably isn't a good sign. They're probably hoping you'll quit. But that's my personal experience, which is why I told you what happened in my circumstance because I don't want to mislead you and let you think they're forcing you out if they actually aren't. You really should talk to your boss and just let him/her know you'd like more shifts. You can always ask why you haven't been getting as many etc etc too. But you don't HAVE to ask why if you don't want to, just letting him/her know you want more because you haven't been getting many would do at the minimum

[PSY]

I used to work at a PetSmart PetsHotel, and if someone only received the minimum number of hours (4) week after week, it was for two reasons:

1) Like Bumble Bee said, they wanted to "force" the employee to quit. No one would admit that, of course, but since it happened several times during the course of my 3+ years there, I think it's safe to say they actually DID do that on purpose.

2) The manager/supervisor who creates the schedule could be incredibly lazy, and just "roll over" the previous week's schedule. This happened at my work place, where someone would request a bunch of time off one week (and only work 4 hours as a result), and then only be scheduled for 4 hours the following week. The person who requested time off would have to go to the manager/supervisor and make a point of saying, "Hey, I don't need time off, so you can schedule me for the full amount of hours again." It's stupid, and people shouldn't have to tell their managers/supervisors things they should already know, but that COULD be happening in your case.

Honestly, I would just talk to your manager/supervisor, saying that you need more hours. If they continue to schedule you for 4 hours every week, start looking for another part-time job. Once you've been offered another job, give your two weeks' notice for you current job.

[Always *]

Yeah, exactly, because some places will care more when you try to take time off than others, I used to work at a fast food place and they didn't give a flying shit when/if I took time off, especially cause I was willing to work night shifts so they weren't about to complain if I needed time off. In fact, they were rather disappointed when I DID quit because I couldn't handle switching from night shifts to having to go back to "days" for school, I was exhausted all the time. So... Not all places will care about your schedule, but the advantage of THAT job was that they were pretty clear about wanting me on the weekends, so I think that helped, because some places just hire you for random shifts (I'm not sure if that really makes a difference though)... I'm just using taking a time off as an example, it's just that some places are more particular than others about X and Y and what ever else

[bitesize]

Originally Posted by PSY

If they continue to schedule you for 4 hours every week, start looking for another part-time job. Once you've been offered another job, give your two weeks' notice for you current job.

Hm...to be honest that's much easier said than done in my country's current climate right now... most of my friends are in jobs that they hate but no one will risk leaving them... work is very sparse on the ground at the moment.

They did just hire three new guys in the shop, making 11 workers in all, so part of me is wondering if it's to do with that...but then again, like I said, my frien who's been there since June got 25 hours this week. I jsut don't know. :/

Thanks for the input guys.x

[CorrieUSMC]

Hey,
I understand where you are coming from; I had the same type of situation with my first part-time job with a chit manager. At one point they where calling me in so much I was taking 40-50 hours a week (I really liked those weeks, too.) Then they kept calling me in, but taking my actual days for themselves so I went back to 26 hours a week which only gave me $140 a week.

-Don't worry about the mistakes, everyone makes mistakes, as long as you're not blowing up the gas station its all good!

-As for the hours, try talking to the Manager / boss about the possibility of working more hours. Even 20 is good for a part time job; and if they keep giving you the 4 hours (I don't know what your mim. wage is, but unless you make $100 / hour, you can't even attempt to survive at 4 hours a week.) Start looking, yeah its hard, but everywhere in the world its hard to find a job.

-Best of Luck!

[LuckyNo.Infinity]

Talk to them.

I know that sounds obvious, and you already expressed why you didn't want to, but they aren't going to take the fact that you need more hours into consideration if you don't bring it to their attention.

Tell them that you need more hours, and that you're worried yours have been cut back because of that mistake you made those weeks ago, or because maybe you've done something else incorrectly. Tell them that you can't know what you're doing wrong unless they tell you. That way you can make corrections and whatever the problem is will no longer be an issue, but that you're committed to your job, want to succeed, and definitely need to be scheduled more anyway so that you can actually make money. Include a Sun-Sat printout of your availability. You may also want to look into whether or not there are a minimum number of hours you're supposed to work- I know at my job, as a full-time employee I'm owed a certain amount of hours, and to take on most job positions there, you have to be in-house for a certain number of hours a week.

Best,

Lux

[bitesize]

Ok I was supposed to get a text from them on Wednesday letting me know of my week's hours, and there still hasn't been one. I need to take today and tomorrow (Friday and Saturday) off for my friend's 21st, so I texted them asking them not to put me down for those days, and got a text back saying that was fine. However no more texts about when I actually will be working this week. I texted them last night just to remind them I hadn't got a text and there was no reply. I'm feeling really worried and I've been near tears over it for the last couple of days.

I'm scared to go in and talk to them in case it's bad news but I can't think of anything I've been doing wrong. I'm still learning my way around - which won't get any better if I'm hardly working - but I'm polite to customers, work hard and to my knowledge haven't made any big mistakes. What's going on??