Shift workers, Q about your boss's work scheduling

That would drive me bonkers! I'm part time, and we get our schedules for a month at a time. Maybe you could check with your govt. workers board to see if there are any regulations about scheduling.

That's beyond wrong. When I worked for Disney Store, the schedule for the following week was posted the Monday before (does that make sense? The schedule that would have been posted this past Monday would be for next Mon-Sat. This current week would have been posted two Mondays ago). They were really good though.

I make schedules 3 weeks in advance. (Required by the company)

That's definitely not o.k.

The only reason I can see that being acceptable is if it's an industry where there are factors which require the schedule to be more fluid. For example when I was in college I had a summer job that was in a commercial bakery-type operation.  The number of people they needed to come in totally depended on the orders, and if orders were light, the need for employees was light.  I often didn't know until that morning whether I needed to show up.  

My DIL works like this and they post her schedule for the next week on Sunday. Meaning you find out on Sunday if you work the next day which is Monday. I think that is just ridiculous. When my DS worked like this his schedule was posted 3 weeks in advance. There is not a good reason I can think of that businesses should be so inconsiderate as to not post at least a week in advance.

My DH's current job -Assistant Manager of a Retail Produce Dept (which he is quitting - mostly due to the scheduling done by his department manager. )

They schedule one week at a time. It's a Monday thru Sunday schedule. She has it done sometimes the Saturday before, but usually not until Sunday . So if he's not scheduled to work on one of those days, he has to go in and pick it up to make sure he doesn't have to work the next morning. Very annoying.

And don't even get me started on the hours he works. It's a very labor intensive job, yet she ALWAYS schedules him twice a week to work until 9:45 pm (tearing down the "wall" of produce and deep cleaning), then the next day he has to go in at 5:30 am and unload a produce truck (which is anywhere from 110 -140 boxes). That's not even 8 hrs of sleep between shifts! No law against doing that, but my DH is over 60 and he's tired of it, so he's quitting the full time position and going part-time seasonal to keep his discount.

That is ridiculous.

I am working retail right now. Initially, our schedules were posted on Friday for the next week, but corporate came down on the supervisor and they are now posted on Tuesday or Wednesday at least 3 weeks out.  (My guess is that someone complained to corporate.)

Could you volunteer to take on the hassle of scheduling as part of your duties?

It isn't right to not post and give people notice so that they know how to schedule their lives. My dh's company has a policy of no less than 2 weeks out. My daughter's boyfriend always has his schedule 2 - 3 weeks ahead but my daughter who works for a big box retailer does not know her schedule until Saturday, for the schedule starting the next day. So if she is off (rarely) she has to make a trip in to check the schedules, there are several and you need to check every department. her store has so many call outs and I am sure this is directly related to the scheduling. My kids all worked for the movie theater and they posted on Tuesday which was 3 days out. For those working multiple part time jobs, this is a nightmare for sharing your available hours with each company.

Our company is suppose to have our schedules out 3 weeks in advance, but doesn't always happen that way. Sometimes when it's posted they realize they are over hours and decide to change the schedule at the last minute.

I worked where our schedule was posted for 3 weeks out but it was subject to change - hourly. We were responsible to check it daily, and sometimes it would be changed for the next day, during the day. If we checked it in the AM we might be scheduled to be off the following day. By the time we clocked out we might have been put on the work schedule for the next day.

I do monthly schedules for my employees. I didn't like trying to make appt. when I was scheduled, as it an be hard to make an MD appt. on short notice. Also, if they schedule something during their shift, they need to find coverage. Not only that, but it is a couple hours a week and I am done.