Full-Time or Part-Time: Scheduling Makes All the Difference (or Does It?)

Scheduling must be the hardest part of any manager’s job.  After all, they must pull out all their hair which explains why most of them are bald!  Seriously though, scheduling employees can be a pain especially when the company restricts how much can be spent on payroll which can greatly restrict staffing.  What a surprise that Staples had this more of a problem than anybody else.

But starting in the beginning, Woolworth had a pretty simple scheduling policy.  If you were a full-timer, you were basically guaranteed between 38 and 40 hours per week except department leads which received 44 hours per week (never figured out why they were entitled to 4 hours of overtime per week). There would be the occasional slow period when full-timers received only about 35 hours per week, but never lower.  There was rarely a complaint as long as employees got their requests for time off at least 2 weeks in advance.  Part-timers averaged approximately 20 hours a week and could get more time if they were available.  Since I was hired as a full-timer from day one, I always received at least 35 hours per week.  However, the week following my separation from the company, they were going to go with a new way of scheduling which basically randomly assigned time periods to associates, which meant that everybody would have to have full open availability.  I don’t know how long that lasted but I was glad that I never had to deal with that.

On the first day at HQ, all of us new hire employees were told that we all would be given full-time hours.  Unfortunately, that only lasted all of 2 days.  From day 3 onward, just about everyday I was sent home early sometimes as soon as one hour into my shift.  The reason for this as I found out later was that we were only hired to drop the existing full-timers to below 40 hours per week.  So a scheduled 40 hour week could drop to as low as 15 hours per week, below that of even being considered a part-timer.  Thankfully, I was still on unemployment benefits at that time and my hours lost was made by my unemployment benefits to get up to 40 hours per week.

Now onto the criminal company Staples.  When I was hired back in July 1996, I was hired as a part-timer as does (or did) at the time.  However, my scheduling was ALWAYS for at least 35 hours per week, which actually is full-time hours.  So here I was working a full-time schedule, part-time pay level, and receiving NO benefits (full-time, part-time or otherwise).  It wasn’t until December of 1996 (6 months later) that I finally received the news of becoming a full-time associate. 

However, here is the problem.  I never received a review after 30 days, 60 days or even 90 days, which would have given me a pay increase from my measly starting pay.  When I became a full-timer, I was given the minimum full-time amount of $7.00 per hour and nothing more.  The issue is that I was originally entitled to a pay raise after 90 days and didn’t get that.  So realistically, the company owed me a pay raise at the point of my newly acquired full-time status.  But it didn’t happen.  I brought it up every year in my annual review about this and every year I got the answer of “I will look into it” from the reviewing manager.  Of course, they never did and I figure that the company owes me hundreds of dollars of pay from back raises that never happened.

If you think this is the only problem with them, think again.  When I first started with the company, all the full-timers (and those who were pretend full-timers like me) received 40 hours per week.  This was company policy and this is what I agreed upon when I signed the appropriate paperwork to become a full-timer.  However, around my 7th year, a petition was circulated to all full-timers to sign which would have reduced full time hours from 40 down to 37½ hours per week.  Under this petition, if signed, the employee would immediately be scheduled at the lower hours with absolutely no chance of ever gaining 40 hours ever again!  Nobody who was smart enough signed this stupid petition because nobody wanted to reduce their hours.  However, I believe 1 person did sign it, which made all the rest of us look bad.

With this failure, Staples continued with the 40 hour week until my 11th year with the company.  At this point, each full-time employee was called into the manager’s office and told individually about the “new change”, which forced upon employees the new 37½ schedule.  Nobody had a choice in the matter, it was effective immediately.  Certainly, no way to handle long time employees.

Commentary:

The idea of forcing a full-time employee this new scheduling procedure was just downright stupid.  Instead of hour lunches, employees were forced into ½ lunches, barely enough time to get a lunch. 

The whole reduction of time may have saved the company money in one regard, but that money saved goes into the feeding of the many Vice Presidents and other high-end executives of the company including CEO Ronald Sargent, who seems to get a huge increase every year.  And guess where that money comes from?  By robbing the employees of their time through reducing hours and ripping the employees off in the previously mentioned break clock problem, 

Its sad to say that corporate greed robs the company of good employees, but this company is a wonderful poster child for the Occupy groups to knock for poorly handling their employees.

To make matters worse as far as I am concerned, when I became full-time I signed an agreement on a 40 hour work week.  When I was hired. it was company policy to have full-timers have a 40 hour work week.  Certainly this paperwork would have been kept in my personnel file with the company had my file not been severely altered by the management (I will be discussing this at length in future posts, which will be EXTREMELY IMPORTANT!!).  Of course when Staples made this schedule change reduction they had nobody sign anything, which probably allowed them to drop hours even further without having any evidence left behind.  I, being with the company for over 10 years at this point, should have been grandfathered and been exempt from this change.  However, being Staples they love to watch everybody bleed equally…and yes bleed will play into a future post….no bandage will stop this wound…

Next Up:  Calculating Your Weekly Hours – Not So Simple