View Full Version : I HATE MY WORK SCHEDULE...
I know I have ranted and raved about this numerous times, but I need to vent so I am going to do it again. Working where I work (Wholefoods) has cost me so much in some ways and gained me so much on others; I am really conflicted, so I end up not doing anything about it. At least they have quit scheduling me to work until 8pm and then get up at 5am the next day for the 6am to 2pm shift. That has helped a lot, but it still isn't ideal and what with the jewelry business and my music and trying to have some sort of a social life, I am finding *something* has to give. But what?
Here is an example of my schedule for the next three weeks:
Mon: 12 to 8pm
Tues: OFF
Wed: 6am to 2pm
Thurs: OFF
Fri: 6am to 2pm
Sat: 9 to 5pm
Sun: 6am to 2pm
Mon: 12 to 7:30
Tues: OFF
Wed: 6am to 2pm
Thurs: 6am to 8am (work meeting, then off the rest of the day)
Fri: 12 to 7pm
Sat: 12 to 7:30
Sun: 6am to 2pm
Mon: 12 to 7:30pm
Tues: OFF
Wed: 6am to 2pm
Thurs: 6am to 2pm
Fri: 6am to 2pm
Sat: OFF
Sun: 6am to 2pm
So you can see, it is all over the place, and there is no getting around it, that's just the way it is. I rarely, if ever, get two days off in a row. I have to treat everyday as if I have to get up at 5am because the minute I start staying up too late to do something fun, it throws me off horribly and I pay the price for days. In the winter it was easy to be a hermit and never go out and do anything other than my jewelry and other artwork. My music and open mics are suffering; I don't think I've even been to an open mic in months, or picked up my guitar much. I am in such a rut these days, though I have noticed that I am feeling a little better since it has warmed up and the sun is out more. But even today, it was super busy at work and I ran around expending all sorts of energy; when I got home, I immediately had to lay down for a nap at 3pm (lying in a sunbeam on the bed with the cat). I napped for a bit, and it was SO hard to make myself get up, but I did. I made myself walk for exercise, but I am still really tired and burned out feeling. I don't have to be at work until 9am, so conceivably I "could" go out for a little while but the thought of getting dressed and getting in the car and going someplace to be there for one hour - it feels like too much trouble so I don't. That has been the story of my life for a long time...
I hate to be whiny about this still because all of this is in my control - I choose to stay at Wholefoods, I choose to give into the fatigue, I choose to have too many extracurricular activities. How do I make the choice to delegate my precious time? As soon as I fulfill a couple of tasks on the jewelry business I think I am going to stop my *mass* production of lower end items and concentrate on taking a few classes in soldering and other things and only work on stuff for my own pleasure. Just allowing myself to step back a take a breather will probably make a big difference this summer. I would like to play music more, I would like to connect with my musician friends more, but the hours that that happens are difficult to make work when I have to go to bed so early, but as summer comes along, I am banking on it being a little easier, I hope. I just wish my energy level would increase; I had such a hard winter with S.A.D.
In summary, I think the main thing for me is to allow myself to step back from some stuff and stop putting pressure on myself to be able to do everything I want to do. It's obvious I can't, so something is going to have to give, and I need to learn that I can be okay with that. I can't just go and quit my job because there are some definite perks to working for a large company - steady pay, the benefits, the accrual of paid time off. I can't make a living as an artist at this point because I would trade one set of problems with another. I have to remember there is a certain beauty in being a small cog in the giant wheel of things...
Okay, rant over. The moral of my sob story, IS TO GIVE MYSELF A BREAK!
Would you consider negotiating:
I really love working here at Whole Foods. i believe in our philsophy and the way we serve our community. i am hoping we can discuss some options to provide me some work/life balance to meet a need of mine.
I don't mind working different shifts. I would like you to consider giving me all later shifts one week and all earlier shifts another week? Right now I get one later shift a week so maybe 1 week of lates per month and early shifts the other weeks? It sure would help me rest better. Also, could I get 3 or 4d off in a row once a month so I can take a short trip without having to put in a vacation request? I would really appreciate your consideration of my request.
I
If you choose to work retail, you'll probably have to live with crappy hours, but I understand both Trader Joe's and Costco are considered good employers as retail establishments go.
freshstart
3-25-16, 8:21pm
I like Gardner's idea. Maybe you could find someone to pair with who does the early days when you are on later and then you switch places the following week.
my ex was in a touring band (usually a short tour every year or every other), 2 wedding bands and a "fun" band a state away. And worked full time at the hospital and had custody of the kids some of those days. He tried all shifts, he would run out of paid leave and have to pay people to work for him or not go to the gig. Eventually, after 2 yrs of watching him enjoy life less and less, he quit all but the touring band, went to work on nights so we didn't need day care. He realized his hobby, although he made decent money at it, was costing him his health and his kids. he was a bear no one wanted to be around. He couldn't hear it from me, he had to come to terms with the fact he is not Superman all by himself.
Hobbies, especially money making ones, are crucial but there has to be balance.
Could you work 4 ten hour days? I liked that schedule.
It may be too late in the game, and it would require a lot of work, but you could consider a job in a (fairly) secure field like medical technology and pursue certification. That way, you could earn a decent living and probably work consistent hours. I don't get why anyone would willingly work retail, but maybe that's just me. !thumbsup!
All great suggestions, but the thing about Wholefoods is, they schedule you according to what they need as a corporation. There is little to no room for special requests. All full-timers must have open availability. In order to not favor any one person, we all get these crazy shifting schedules (I used to mainly do the early shift, but that has changed ever since I was off work from the broken toe last summer.) I heard from our HR person that some regions have gone to using one of those automatic scheduling programs, and that we will probably have that some day too. It is impossible to request a specific regular schedule when on a team of 55 or so people with all the various time off requests and scheduled vacations. They need bodies to fill the positions, period. And we are perpetually short-staffed as well.
The way I got out of those "clo-pen" type shifts was to show the HR person a letter from my doctor stating that with me being Bi-Polar II, I could not physically handle a schedule that messed up my body clock so much. The letter didn't go to my team leaders (per my request) as I had already talked to the guy who does the scheduling (without going into too much personal detail). He did stop that crazy scheduling but if I needed to at some point it could be brought up as an ADA type requirement for me. I don't really want to be treated "special" though, because then all the other team members would wonder why I get special treatment and I don't want to go there. As far as getting two days off in a row - sometimes (rarely though) it just happens without asking but to request it you often end up working six or seven days in a row prior to it. I've found ever since my foot injury, working four days in a row really, really fatigues me still...
So, there it is. I feel like I have to find a way to make it work for me; at my age I really don't want to search for yet another job (I don't want to have to cut off my dread locks!), I don't really want to go back to school to do anything else (I don't want to incur a student loan debt). All I've ever wanted to be is an artist and a dreamer (but somewhat financially stable) so I probably need to just sit tight and put up with it until I can find a way to go down to part-time somehow. I guess I have to adjust my expectations of myself and my capabilities whilst in the midst of menopause. I just wish I could magically get some pep back into my step (saying this as I am experiencing a sugar crash from eating a rare DQ Blizzard). I need to go to bed and get up and do it all over again for another three days.
It sounds like your desire for a change in schedule is more about your scheduling getting in the way of your other interests, so it makes sense to me that you would *not* use ADA as a means to get the change you want to see.
Exactly. It is not the correct reason for me to use that, though I was getting pretty close to some sort of breakdown in February due to the sleep deprivation from the insomnia that such a crazy schedule causes me. It is SO hard to find a balance that works for me, but I know I am not unique in any way. It is hard for everyone I work with.
Williamsmith
3-26-16, 9:07am
I am going to admit while I understand your situation, my sympathy meter didn't move all that much. Maybe it just shows that after life's experiences I am hard to move emotionally, I don't know. But I worked some absolutely satanic shifts for 25 years. Consider if you will, many jobs where an eight hour break between shifts is not common. Or that split days off is common. Or that the reason everyone around you seems to be ticked off at the world is that their job has got their internal time clock so screwed up that when taking a vacation, the first three days of it are spent being sick as a result of the stress.
Unions took a lot of bashing recently, but they were effective at addressing work schedule abuses. My first five years on the job I worked triple headers and then finished a ten day stretch of midnights. That's...3-11, 7-3, 11-7 for 8 nights. And when not on that shift....3-11, 7-3..... Back to backs. No such thing as a steady schedule. At the end of your shift, any shift, if you were sent out on something you finished it up and so often you were not getting anywhere near an 8 hour break between shifts. I was a constant zombie for my wife and kids. They learned not to poke sticks at the bear.
Then there was this little rule about scheduling called, "needs of the department". What that meant is that for any reason relative to the needs of our general mission....serving people.....your schedule could be changed or extended without prior notice. Of course, it was important that your relationship with the Scheduling officer be solid because the schedule was often used to punish people. That meant if you didn't sign up for automatic deductions from your paycheck for a certain favorite charity, well then your schedule was going to suck. If you were over heard making discouraging comments about a friend of theirs, sucky schedule. If you didn't run errands or perhaps agree politically with him/her......you guessed it....midnight shift when you wanted to take a vacation.
I did the only thing I could. I chose a job that most didn't want to do but because of that I got a better schedule and I had more control. I got called out a lot at night and exposed to some personality changing reality but at least it was because I chose my fate. Now that it's over, I do enjoy my morning coffee and my strawberries on my cereal every morning at about the same damn time thank you very much.
Good luck. I don't mean to seem harsh. Keep your dreadlocks and just pick up the guitar from time to time......it misses you....got to keep the wood opened up.
Are you allowed to trade shifts? I can't imagine that being disallowed. Find a shift trade buddy. I understand that you feel this is bouncing around. I looked again. Your late shift ends 730. So it's a matter of rethinking what you do at what time of day. You're not bouncing to a 3-11 or midnight shift which wreaks havoc so you're lucky in that respect.
IE: if you get up at 0500 for the 0600 shift, and then do your arts from 2-8pm and hit the sheets at 9p. Then on days you work late, get up at 0500 and do your arts all morning then off to work.
Keep your waking/sleeping time stable. This way your bio clock is stable. Rearrange your day's actitivities within that sleep/wake cycle.
I am a natural night owl but have an 0600 job. I wake 0300 ish. I go to bed at 8p. 7d per week I do this. So on weekends, I am doing "my stuff" in the wee hours before the world is awake.
I can't believe employers can't do better. They could have employees choose from among shifts and days off by seniority and have a computer set up scheduling. Other industries that have 24-hour coverage do it all the time. The humane ones even get it right. Maybe you need a union. Considering that WF is a company that pretends to care about health, the irony is thick here.
At any rate, my sympathies. Work on an exit strategy.
I totally get it, I worked at Target for 5 years while subbing and taking care of my kids and even finishing my masters degree. The schedule was pretty much out of our hands if we were full time (I was over the summers) and if you went part time it was a struggle to get enough hours. I had the last summer my kids were young enough to do things with me that was a disaster, I cried several times. I was in the photo lab and got 9 hour days, but they never gave me 2 off together and I couldn't afford to make special requests and lose any hours. Since I got a raise to be in charge of the photo lab the deal was 'open availability'. Managers were on an every other weekend schedule but my job slipped through the cracks on that. The other photo lab person was able to change sometimes with me but basically we didn't get any family time like camping that summer, and that was it for our window of opportunity.
So yeah, it sucks and it messes with us and I feel you.
sweetana3
3-26-16, 12:08pm
I am with Gardnr. I try to keep my wake and sleep cycle the same and do my activities within the leftover times. Seems to be worth it for the stability of the employer, the health care and perks. And as Williamsmith says, it could be even worse.
I remember years where my husband managed an office of 40 and went to college full time. We had no life. But we had goals.
ApatheticNoMore
3-26-16, 12:17pm
Worth it, I don't know, I think Trader Joe's mostly hires under 30 hours a week and makes them go to the ACA. However if that works for one the TJ's folks seem happier for sure.
I think Gardnr is onto something with keeping your asleep/awake schedule the same, more or less, no matter what your work shift is. Partly what I like about that is that it de-emphasizes paid work -- paid work is just one more thing you do in the day, as is your music and art-making (jewelry, right?).
I wonder if it would help to sit down on the day when you get your shift and schedule in non-work things?
It must be frustrating to try to do the music things, for sure, since they're typically late evenings. I struggle with a regularly-scheduled music-making thing with friends getting crunched by work too (I do contract work) but it's an early music group and we practice in the daytime... participating never costs me any sleep!
Edited to add: I've got dreadlocks too, and am An Old, and currently I'm working at a technical institute. So don't give 'em up too soon if you decide to leave WF.
In this era of full-sleeve tats, I'm surprised anyone bats an eye at dreadlocks.
ToomuchStuff
3-26-16, 2:13pm
Could you work 4 ten hour days? I liked that schedule.
Becareful there in what you wish for. You would want them in a row, rather then off every other one in between, so you don't have energy to recover and get done what you need to do otherwise. DAMHIKT
Gardenarian
3-26-16, 3:14pm
OMG, I could never work that schedule. I'd have a nervous breakdown, seriously. No wonder you feel crappy.
It sounds to me like the person doing the scheduling is terrible at their job.
No advice, but lots of sympathy.
All good stuff and great dialogue folks, thanks for taking the time to chime in. I actually feel sorry for the guys who do the scheduling, it is a THANKLESS job trying to manage the needs of 60 different people in all the prepared food venues (back-of-house kitchen, freshpack, catering, hot bar deli and diner, and pizza) for a store that is open from 8am to 10pm everyday single day without fail except Christmas. That's A LOT of shifts to have to cover. I am sure it is just as hard at ANY store that is open all those hours, every single day, every single week out of the year.
I am grateful to have this job (most of the time), and despite what it seems when I vent, I don't *hate* it. I don't love it either; I have to work to pay my bills and this is what I do for now. The things I don't like about it is that it sucks my energy out so badly, physically mainly, and can be hard mentally doing customer service eight hours a day. Which leaves me very little energy to do the stuff I like to do when I get home. It all looks good on paper; just do your artwork and music and jewelry fabrication after work from 3-9pm....when I get home from work I collapse pretty exhausted into my bed for a cat nap at three in the afternoon if it is an early shirt. I try to not sleep too much because that will screw up going to bed early in the evening (I try to be asleep by 10:30pm but actually get into bed no later the 9:30. I either watch a little Netflix and/or read). So after the cat nap is when I try to exercise (go for a walk), make dinner and lunch for the next day, try to work on art or music...then all of the sudden it is time to get ready for bed already!
I do try to stick to the same schedule everyday, regardless of when I go into work. I always wake up way too early on the days I go in at noon, and I can't use those hours to make jewelry because the pounding will wake up my housemate and the neighbors I share a wall with. I often end up having 18 hour days, especially when I have a band practice the evening of a day I got up at 5am and then have to go in the next day at 6am....I get tired just thinking about it. I don't know what the answer is except to just continue to try to deal with it until I can think of a way to make a decent living so I can get out of there someday.
It really is a first world problem...but I still need to make it work better for me somehow. Baby steps in the right direction, I guess.
Wow, SiouzQ, it does sound really challenging. The shift thing doesn't really make a lot of sense to me -- I know they have to have people scheduled for all the hours the store is open, but since those hours don't change it seems like the shifts could be stable too. Perhaps there is a reason I'm not in scheduling!
ApatheticNoMore
3-27-16, 3:01am
I think most people who work full time suffer from exhaustion in doing much else (especially beyond what is necessary for survival like try to prepare food etc.). A constant battle, no matter how great one's will to win (ie claim any part of one's life that isn't ruined by the employer :)). So it may actually be a pretty universal condition no matter how sweet the lives of those with non-crazy schedules might seem (of course the crazy schedule does not help - and having two days off in a row is a very good thing).
Most people, even with regular schedules, wouldn't try that hard, they wouldn't push so hard for multiple streams of income etc., unless they were going to do something else full time, they'd just be wage slaves. I'm not saying don't do it, but you are measuring yourself by a standard very few people could measure up to, just saying. I suppose other things might help with exhaustion like meditation etc. though I tend not to stick with them. And don't get on a caffeine roller coaster (more tired -> more caffeine -> poorer quality sleep -> more tired -> more caffeine), best to moderate consumption (personally, I don't even drink coffee, that stuff is too strong for me, only tea).
You probably have a lot of product knowledge by now. Maybe you could get on with one of the big WF suppliers like Kehe or UNFI as a sales rep (merchandiser). That would certainly be a more regular schedule.
Teacher Terry
3-27-16, 12:06pm
When I worked f.t. I pretty much came home from work and made dinner, read, knitted or watch TV -go to bed-rinse and repeat. On weekends I rested or caught up on some home tasks and rarely we felt like going out. WE hired some things out like house cleaning, etc. I was tired in my 50's and I sat at a desk or worked with clients but nothing physical.
I think Pinkytoe has a good idea. Twenty more years of that schedule is horrifying to think about.
Ugh, I actually overslept for the first time ever for the 6am shift this morning! It's because when I went to bed last night I turned on the alarm but I forgot to reset it for wake-up at 5am because the day before I had a day shift and had set it for 7am. I fell asleep while watching Netflix last night around 10:30, slept hard for two hours and woke up at 12:30 when my house mate had a coughing fit. I remember being awake until at least 2:30 when I gave in and took half a Benadryl (I had been really very good about not resorting to sleep aids for the last six weeks but I realize this week it was the third time I ended up using one). So I then put my head at the foot of the bed and turned the clock to the wall and at some point I woke up and drowsed for awhile then decided I'd better check the time, and was greatly confused when the clock said 6:38. It took me several moments realize I was almost 45 minutes late for work - then I saw I had a message from work on the cell but I always have the ringer off. Man, I shot out of bed like a cannon went off and was ready and out the door in 15 minutes. By the time I got to work I still wasn't really awake, my eyes all bleary and watery. I managed to punch in at 6:56am, thereby only incurring a half point demerit instead of a full point for being over an hour late.
These last three days I had an 6am - 2pm, then a 9am to 5, and then today, which was a 6am to 2pm. It was kind of a rough day, I just couldn't get into the swing of things at all but I managed to persevere. It was really nice here after work so I decided to say "eff-it" to all chores and artwork, and I took a 1/2 finished bottle of red wine, put it in my backpack and headed out into the woods where I sat on the leaves under some still bare trees and drank and looked at the marsh and listened to the birds and frogs. It was lovely, but I'm sure I'll pay for this tomorrow. Don't have to be there until 12 noon though...
I had to quit all caffeine and sleep aids back in February because I was on a vicious cycle of self-medicating to get through things. I am a wee bit concerned because I seem to be backsliding a little bit; I ended up having a little regular coffee mixed in with my de-caf this morning so I could function at work. I can be a bit self-indulgent even when it is harmful to me in the long run. I just hope and pray I get a decent night's sleep tonight but my guess is the wine earlier will mess up my sleep groove, like it usually does, which is why I hardly ever drink alcohol anymore. I am thinking of switching to weed (in the form of consumables because I don't want to get smoke in my lungs). It would sure help take the rough edges off this life I am living!
freshstart
3-27-16, 8:36pm
I am really sorry that life is throwing you lemons these days. I hope it was relaxing in the woods. I hate that Whole Foods gives adult employees "demerits" like you are 11.
The shift thing doesn't really make a lot of sense to me -- I know they have to have people scheduled for all the hours the store is open, but since those hours don't change it seems like the shifts could be stable too. Perhaps there is a reason I'm not in scheduling!
I'm not in scheduling either but know plenty of people who are scheduled. There kind of is a method to the madness.
There are many competing demands for the business. Workers who are on the job for more than a certain number of hours in a day must be given breaks, including meal breaks (you're not there, but customers are). Workers who are on the job for more than a certain number of hours in a week may incur benefits which cost the company money. Or the employee him/herself may have stated that they don't want to work full-time or have other time restrictions (they have the kids every other week as part of the custody agreement, so some weeks they can't work as many hours as other weeks). Sometimes there are external rules -- government regulations on how many hours an airplane pilot, for example, may fly. Seniority often plays a part in scheduling. Employee preferences play a part. Most people don't want their nights and weekends to be sucked into the staffing void, so how to staff that fairly? Sickness and vacation time and employees quitting play a part. Just because someone isn't there doesn't mean business does not proceed.
Then there is the business itself. Some businesses are much busier at the beginning of the week; others at the end of the week; others on weekends. Good businesses staff up for the times they know they'll be busy. Some businesses see a lunchtime rush. I can't speak to SQ's WF but I would guess they're busier in the mornings and lunchtimes than they are in the evenings. So staffing has to change.
I'm not defending any of these policies. Just pointing out that there are dozens of competing interests and that, as SQ said herself, scheduling is a thankless task.
iris lilies
3-27-16, 9:26pm
I was the scheduler in my first professional job. Ugh, hated it. Its like pattern making, lots of pieces fit together to make the whole, or to het the work covered.
That was 30 some years ago and even today I am relieved to be far away from that task.
I would not enjoy scheduling, definitely. I've lately had some really interesting conversations with a manager (call centre, where scheduling is a major challenge) who has decided that for a lot of aspects of scheduling, employee preference can be considered. When he started really asking about preferences, he found that just as you said, SteveinMN, different people had quite different ideas of what a good schedule was. Certainly things like seniority and breaks and required service levels and all the rest of it come into it.
freshstart
3-27-16, 10:37pm
we got so sick of random shift changes on my first nursing unit that finally we gathered and requested we do it ourselves. And they let us but warned us, they were hands off, if someone was sick or didn't get their preferred time off it was our problem. We had probably 65 employees on 3 shifts. Some wanted to be schedulers (we rotated) and some wanted nothing to do with it but trusted their peers to do a better job of it. We had to deal with weird schedules, like 3 12 hr days and make sure not to give part-timers more than their hours, all that stuff. I loved doing it, it made me happy to figure out a schedule that made as many people happy as possible and still have managed all the variables. It worked well and I have been told they are still doing it 20 yrs later.
Maybe Whole Foods would consider a trial run of certain staffers doing the schedule as long as they are educated in all the variables? But maybe they can't since they are a chain and probably have to do things certain ways.
ApatheticNoMore
3-28-16, 12:00am
earplugs and white noise (like a fan in the other room or something similar if need be) if the neighbor is regularly noisy.
I can be a bit self-indulgent even when it is harmful to me in the long run
it occurred to me Not following a consistent sleep schedule might be kind of something that goes with creativity itself, that if one actually has a creative idea they want to follow it into the night (it could be even be fueled by caffeine), not pause to go to bed before art or idea is fully developed. But yea even with a normal schedule consistent sleep would be best as far as getting through the day job part of life. As a Meyers Briggs P, I'd sometimes be better if I was more J, eating at consistent times as well (I get really off sometimes).
Yup, I knew it, I had a sucky time of it trying to go to sleep last night, which was all my fault really for drinking wine in the afternoon. Sometimes I just have to break loose, and do something fun. But then I pay for it, and was still awake by 2am...had my housemate not been here, I would have tried going down to the studio and getting something done but night time noises-making is limited when you live in a townhouse and share a wall with neighbors.
The thing about where I work, scheduling ideas come from the top down. In the effort to be more *fair* to everyone (this is what happened in the last year), instead of some people getting their preferred shifts and others always having to do the closing shift, they started scheduling everyone to be able to do all shifts. There are some on the team that still end up doing all three shifts in the space of one week. When that happened to me the first few years I had to put an end to it, or I never would have lasted this long. For about two years I mainly did the opening shift, but when I was off for so long last summer they realized they were screwed by not having enough people with the skills to do the opening shift. So a lot more people know how to do my shift, and that is how the scheduling goes now. We all get a mix of shifts. Thank god my schedule is generally weighted more towards opening, with a few day times thrown in. Aghhhhhhh...I am so sick of it, so sick of this issue, so sick of trying to fit my life into their needs!!!
That being said, I am committed to trying to keep dealing with it up until my vacation in June, and then I am going to have to do some soul-searching and planning to figure out how to proceed forward. In the meantime, I have to recommit to NO alcohol, NO caffeine, better night time practices to promote sleep without using sleep aids, no eating after 7pm, no seeing friends , no letting loose, no having fun....it hardly sounds like I have a life, right?
There are a lot of places that refuse to set a set schedule because that way the employees depend on them only and can't get a 2nd job. What a rut. I just couldn't do a rotating schedule, apparently I need more routine than I think I do when it comes to outside commitments. Sorry you were late for work.
In the meantime, I have to recommit to NO alcohol, NO caffeine, better night time practices to promote sleep without using sleep aids, no eating after 7pm, no seeing friends , no letting loose, no having fun....it hardly sounds like I have a life, right?
Well, it does sound like that. But you do what you have to do to get through a rough patch in life. Right now you're doing what you have to do to get vital rest. And it's only for a couple of months until you get some time off and can control what you do going forward.
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