Long story short, I was hired at Kroger on 9/7/2014. When I was hired I stressed that my availability was extremely limited but I wanted a part time job for some additional household income. The Administrative Manager said that wouldn't be a problem because the closing shift was hard to schedule and if I was always open for the closing shift that would be great. My availability has always been the following: available from 8p-12a M-F and 6a-2:30p Sat & Sun.
The first week, I received 10 hours all given to me by the Administrative Manager for training - 6 hours one day for computer training and 4 hours on another day on the cash register.
Second week, no hours. I called to make sure the Scheduling Manager had my information. She said she did but my availability didn't fit her needs. I asked to speak to the Admin Manager because I was confused why they hired me but now the Scheduling Manager said she couldn't use me. I was told I would get hours.
Third week, I received 12 hours no problem.
Fourth week, no hours.
Five week, no hours. Again called and spoke to Scheduling Manager. Was told she had no idea why the Admin Manager hired me because my availability didn't work for her and that she would have to manual enter me into the schedule and she didn't have time for that. She also went on to say that I hadn't been there long enough to not have open availability. This time I complained to the Store Manager - again stating my availability has always been fully disclosed since before I was hired. I was told I would get at least 10-12 hours a week.
After complaining, I received 12 hours no problem the sixth week.
Last week (7th week) no hours.
This week (8th week) no hours again.
Is this normal? I don't feel like I should have to continue to complain to the higher managers to get hours on the front end schedule. They knew my availability when they hired me but now I am told that it doesn't work for the scheduling manager. Is this something that I should take to the Union? I am just at a loss.
If you could open up your availability more on the weeknights that would help alot. They need people who can work the whole evening. During the holidays things will pick up a bit, but you'll still have the same problem afterwards. The only time I reallly see people being scheduled 8pm-12am is during the middle of the summer when people come in to shop after the sun goes down. Also you're not going to be able to get those opening shifts on the weekends. Changing your availability to nights then would help.
It really comes down to the person writing the schedule. If the person writing the schedule is good at it and wants to work with both new and old employees when it comes to availabilities/requests, then that person can usually make a schedule that a majority of people will be happy with. Not all schedule writers though want to sit in front of the computer for hours on end and tweak the schedule e-Sked produced for him or her after running the auto scheduler. Some have the attitude, "well, what you're asking for is just going to take too much of my time (sometimes, it's pure laziness on his/her part, other times, the person writing schedule actually doesn't have time to manually edit a lot of shifts, and sometimes it negatively impacts his/her e-Sked rating as well) and so, I'm not going to even bother scheduling you that much, or at all."
Unfortunately, regardless of what you were told when you were first hired about it not being a problem, it obviously is being made into a problem by the schedule writer, and unless you either continue to fight for hours (going to management) or open up your availability (making it more likely the software will just automatically schedule you when its run), I get the feeling you're going to continue to get no hours, or maybe a few, if the schedule writer is being generous, and it doesn't sound like she's going to make the effort to put you down on the schedule. Sorry, but Kroger only offers "flexible hours" when the person writing the schedule is competent and cares.
Edit: I should add too that other factors can enter the picture that may work against you, such as other employees' availabilities, seniority (which likely prevents you from getting early shifts on Saturday/Sunday), the number of employees available to be scheduled depending on job classification, the budget on a given week and so on. With all that in mind, the more restrictive and limited your availability, the fewer hours you're likely to get, if any. There's a lot that goes into writing a schedule, and sometimes, you have to be in a position where you actually sit down in front of the computer and run the software before you realize how tricky it can be.
-- Edited by GenesisOne on Monday 27th of October 2014 03:59:54 PM