to think that shift rotas should be out months in advance?

[RillaBlythe]

okay maybe not months in advance - but a month or two would be nice. Still no idea when DP will be working any date after 31st July. Will we get a summer holiday? When should I book DD1 into activity camps for? Can we go to a festival? Is it worth buying train tickets to get to the Olympic game we have tickets for? Who knows!

Now I feel better. It's not his fault & I keep ranting at him about it

YANBU

Can he not request holidays/specific days off?

My boss is terrible at the rota, no further than the following week. I work set nights, so it makes no difference to me, but if I want specific time off, I either arrange to swap with another member of staff or requset holiday.

But isn't it best booking holidays etc before the rota comes out, so that the company can work around the holiday request? No good waiting until you have the rota and his shifts in front of you and then saying 'Oh you need to go in and tell them you can't work that week...'

Or are you wanting to book holidays that fall on his days off? If that's the case, then YANBU.

It's so annoying isn't it! DH's work (big international brand) used to do his rota on the Sunday night ready for the Monday! And the staff just used to put up with it! Madness! Fortunately they granted his flexible working request to have fixed days off because they refused to change their system by giving him more notice.

YANBU, I'm a nurse and fortunately our shifts are worked out usually at least a month in advance.
It feels so rude to say to people, 'yes I'd love to come to your party but I have to wait to find out my shifts' not to mention the joys of finding flexible childcare...

Yabu.

I write shift rotas. I dont know what industry your dh is in but I write mine depending on business needs and so issue them on a friday for the week beginning the following friday (dunno why but our weeks start on a friday).

I do run a year long request form where my staff could write in any shift on any day that they cant do. I allow two names per box (early shift box and late shift box per day) and have yet to refuse a single request.

If staff want a particular week off thats what holiday forms are for.

One or two staff have asked for fixed rotas but when I asked who would like to work, say every saturday late, none of them wanted to commit to that, so we stick to the flexibility (for them and me) that a weekly rota offers.

Police have a fixed shift pattern....he could go into that if set shifts is that importnant to him

OH is a police officer and they were told they will be doing 4 weekends out of 5 from June till late Sept. Shifts varied between 8-4, 10-6 and 2-10. No holidays allowed.

So they did it and they found, lo and behold, that the office (CID) was busy during the weekends, and quiet during the week. So they changed it so that they were on 3 out of 5, apart from the Olympic and Paralympic period (then they will revert to the above). And the shifts were now 8-4 and 2-10.

NOW they have said that they will go back to the normal 1 in 4 weekends on, and regular 8-4 shifts.

Two changes in 4 weeks. We can't plan anything because we are told we can't. We can't book any days off, though on the first shift plan, when OH worked a weekend he would get 4 days off in a row. But now he won't be getting that. It's rubbish.

And it isn't a one off. Some bright spark would decide to change shifts (a box ticking exercise), and then suddenly do it. And OH would have to. So, for example, say it was his weekend off, and we had a wedding to go to. If he was told that his shift was changing and he had to work that weekend, he couldn't go. The only way around it was to a) book the Fri or Mon off to 'protect' it, and b) get someone to cover him. Booking a Fri and Mon off on your weekend on is highly impossible, and so to getting someone to work a weekend....

I rant at OH too, but there is sod all he can do about it

Have to say also that as I have good systems in place for.requesting leave /days off, once the rota is issued it is up to the staff to arrange any shift swaps.

Police have a fixed shift pattern....

Cross posts, but they don't. They can be changed at any time.

YANBU - DH is a nurse and we're lucky if we know what he's doing in a fortnight.

I won't know what DH is doing tomorrow, until tonight. Count yourself lucky.

It may change from force to force but two officers with my local force have set shifts. they can pick up overtime or for massive events have a holiday embargo bit if I ask them if they are free on the 24th Feb 2014 they can tell me now if that day falls on a day off.

sorry to hear that other people are suffering this!

We can't book the time off until we know what he is working, as he can only book it off if he is working standard days. If he is on-call/nights he has to find someone to swap with him - not easy. We have expressed a preference for one week off & the day of our Olympic tickets off, but who knows if we will get them or when we will find out. He didn't get his last requested time off (for a wedding) & was unable to find anyone to swap his shift with him.

i.e. the preference expressed is that he is rota'd on for standard days on certain dates, because he can then book them off as leave.

I have to phone my work on Friday to find out my Monday-Weds shift. They won't email me, or work out the shifts any earlier, and DH finds it very frustrating as he works the opposite end of the day to me so one of us can do the school run.
It's not rocket science, there's no business reason to leave the rota so late, and it p*sses off the employees. So why do it?

What happened to work:life balance. Surely companies cannot be so incompetent they cannot give a months notice of shift patterns to employees.

YANBU.

I don't know how you all manage childcare
The school has just sent out holiday club letters, you get a discount for booking early but I don't know what days I'm working in august yet

DH can work from home if necessary, I work part time, we use all our A/L covering school holidays, we look after other people's DCs some days, they have ours others. It's not ideal, but needs must.

YANBU. Some months I don't get my rota until 10 days before the month starts, making it very hard to plan childcare and a social life.

yanbu we have this same issue, dp works shifts, sometimes he gets a few weeks in advance, but sometimes we dont even have the next week in advance! he does days, evenings, nights, wkends (get one wkend in every 4 off) he can ask for holiday in advance but its not always guaranteed and then he is on rota support as well so can get called in at short notice has to pick up extra shifts etc.

it is a pita trying to arrange things that the children are doing, organise holidays,visits with family etc.

i dont work, and tbh i have no idea how i could work with his shift pattern being so irregular and not knowing if he may be called in etc.

i just asked dp and he has his rota for up to the 22nd july! thats actually pretty good for him tbh, as i said we oftne dont know what he is doing from one week to the next and even once he has his rota its subject to change anyway!

I manage shiftwork because DH works mon-fri 9-5. DD goes to (will be going to in Sept) a CM and she goes there the times both DH and I are at work and if im off in the week I keep her with me.

DH works in a school so has all holidays off, which will work out great when shes school age as ill only need term time childcare BUT it has the drawback of his wages being poor.

I think in my mind I remember reading somewhere that it should be three weeks in advance, but I was always getting my shifts less than a week in advance when I worked.