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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think this is a pisstake

85 replies

intelligenceitself · 14/07/2011 17:37

Have started work in a residential home for people with MH issues and LD's. All staff are required to do "sleep ins" where you do a long day, say 10 till 10, then stay over till 10 the next morning. That's bad enough but for the second half you get paid £25 quid. I'm a single parent with 3 dogs and I can't do 24 hour shifts. Is this normal in care homes?! I can't move in to my workplace! I've got my own home to deal with Sad and Angry

OP posts:
MsTeak · 14/07/2011 18:30

Oh and if you don't turn up for work, yes you probably will get the sack, I would imagine.

Original poster
intelligenceitself · 14/07/2011 18:31

A night shift is 12 hours or whatever, not 24. Bottom line, I have too much on my plate to move out of my house, and that's that.

OP posts:
DogsBestFriend · 14/07/2011 18:33

"I find it impossible to believe there was no mention of these shifts..."

So you're calling intelligence a liar?

Or are you admitting that the fault lies with you insofar as you are unable to process the information which she's given you?

Original poster
intelligenceitself · 14/07/2011 18:34

Yes MsTeak, you know better than I do, of course they were honest about the hours Hmm

OP posts:
MsTeak · 14/07/2011 18:34

No, I saying possibly she didn't process the information SHE was given. If you are so sure, tell me why a company would do that when it obviously goes against their interests? Hmm

misty75 · 14/07/2011 18:34

I am pretty sure that if your original contract states that you do not do sleepovers, then they cannot then change the contract without your agreement at a later date; you have already opted out of the nights. They took you on, on that basis, and I don't think they are allowed to then move the goalposts. If they did try and force you to, and sacked you if you refused, then the Jobcentre should class this as good cause for leaving work. Please do phone ACAS and they can advise you properly on this as they know employment law. Hope it works out. Take no notice of Andrew, you are not expecting anyone you work with to give up their time, it would have been down to your colleagues when they applied for the job to opt out if they wished, with the employer's agreement, and if the employer has chosen to take on too many employees who have opted out, it is the employer's responsibility to arrange additional night cover.

usualsuspect · 14/07/2011 18:36

Care work is renowned for having crap pay and expecting people to work all hours

Original poster
intelligenceitself · 14/07/2011 18:38

Thank you Misty, for your intelligent and helpful reply. I'll have a word with the manager first and see what they have to say, if they are awkward I'll take further advice

OP posts:
Original poster
intelligenceitself · 14/07/2011 18:39

Hi US! See how good I'm being Wink

OP posts:
DogsBestFriend · 14/07/2011 18:41

I don't know MsTeak but I do know that a London borough council did the same to my mother, illegally, so it's not beyond the boundaries of my imagination that another organisation might do the same.

I presume that the employer might consider it easier to omit to mention the sleepovers in the hope that once employed the individual might feel railroaded into carrying out duties that they otherwise would not have applied for - ie that it is easier to keep staff having lied to them than employ them having told the truth....

reelingintheyears · 14/07/2011 18:43

intelligenceitself Thu 14-Jul-11 18:15:14
One sort of private life does trump another

No it doesn't...you make your choices.

Other people make theirs.

That doesn't mean your choices are more worthy than anyone elses.

DogsBestFriend · 14/07/2011 18:43

Why there's an ellipsis after my last sentence, I do not know!

DogsBestFriend · 14/07/2011 18:45

As I understand it the OP was/is under pressure to take this job by dint of threat to her benefit allowance if she doesn't/didn't. If I'm correct that kind of takes the whole element of "choice" away from her.

Original poster
intelligenceitself · 14/07/2011 18:49

So working single parents have to think of their colleagues, single parents on benefits should think of taxpayers, who thinks of single parents?

OP posts:
Original poster
intelligenceitself · 14/07/2011 18:49

And single dog owners come to that

OP posts:
DogsBestFriend · 14/07/2011 18:53

We're fucked matey! :o

Which is why I would never work for anyone but myself.

lachesis · 14/07/2011 18:56

What a crock of shit. Talk to ACAS. WTF are you supposed to do with your children overnight if you have no family to look after them?

reelingintheyears · 14/07/2011 18:57

Yes of course they do.

When you are part of a team you have to consider each person.

When i worked in the NHS and later in a private care home doing nights i had to work at Christmas/New year/weekends sometimes..

I didn't particularly want to as i had DC.

But that was part of the job.

I wouldn't take a job that i couldn't do due to other responsibilities.

reelingintheyears · 14/07/2011 18:59

Of course if they have changed your hours without your consent then you have every right to not do the nights.

Andrewofgg · 14/07/2011 19:16

Intelligence, I know you and I are not going to agree - not until your children are older and other people are trying to dump on you - but are you seriously, seriously suggesting that if you had the dogs but not the children it would be acceptable for you to prefer benefits to a job which would make it necessary to give up the dogs?

And to get back to the real world in which you have both: if you are shown your signature on papers which you do not now remember signing, what then? Will you still expect your colleagues to pick take more nights so that you don't have to?

DogsBestFriend · 14/07/2011 19:22

My post of 18.28, Andrew, in particular the last sentence, might give you the answer you seek from the OP.

misty75 · 14/07/2011 20:11

Andrew, please note that the contract that Intelligence and her employer mutually agreed to, included opt-out of sleep-ins. They would not have taken her on without agreeing to this; it is an employment contract. Your comments seem to suggest that you either erroneously think that employees have no rights, or actually believe that employees should have no rights... which is it, are you under the unfortunate impression that any employer can fundamentally and unilaterally change their workers' contracts and sack them if they will not agree? Or do you just believe that they should be allowed to do so?

MrMan · 14/07/2011 20:28

intelligence , first let me say I am sorry you are in this situation. It sounds tough ad I doubt there is an easy way out.

Second, I suggest you get a consultation with an employment lawyer and show them the contract you signed. They will be able to offer you a professional opinion, definitely better than the advice you are getting here (which is more barking than your three dogs combined).

Best of luck and hope it works out.

lachesis · 14/07/2011 20:30

Dog issue aside, you can't leave your children overnight on their own if they are not old enough. That's the bottom line.

Andrewofgg · 14/07/2011 21:00

Misty, I am raising the possibility that OP is simply mistaken about what she signed - and that she has in fact committed herself to what the employers are asking. As an earlier poster said, she may not have processed the information she was given. It does not make sense for the employer to take somebody on who is not going to be able to do the job, which is why I think she may be in error.

In which case she must either make childcare arrangements - and I know what an ask that is especially on the crap money which that sector pays - or quit the job.

She too is bound by her contract, employers have rights too, and so do her colleagues. she cannot say "Yes, that's what I signed, but I can't do it, won't do it, others must do it for me" - which judging by her posts between 18.00 and 18.30 is what she wants to do. She regards the private lives of people without small children with contempt - "TV or their weekly club night" and believes that hers trumps theirs.

Which is simply wrong.