to hope they keep the extended shopping hours on a sunday

[hawaiiWave]

I am a bit of a loser shopaholic and I love the current extended shopping hours on s Sunday, my local town centre shops are now open 10-6. I love drive,but it seems to help traffic congestion too, as shoppers are less concentrated.

Aibu to wonder why there is a restriction in the first place?

Having worked weekends and bank holidays - I think it makes a massive difference to shop workers' lives. Why shouldn't they get a day off when their partners/families are off? What's the use of a day off mid week when nobody else is off with them?

Shopping seven days a week is not a necessity.

'Having worked weekends and bank holidays - I think it makes a massive difference to shop workers' lives. Why shouldn't they get a day off when their partners/families are off? What's the use of a day off mid week when nobody else is off with them?'

Why assume a) all shop workers have partners and therefore must have a weekend day off b) the partner has weekends off c) everyone they know has only weekends off? So therefore, Sunday must be kept sacred.

It's just another day of the week in many places, including here in Scotland, and no one seems to be up in arms over it.

Boggler if you also include the fact that the poor wages they pay are also being subsidized by tax credits in a lot of cases and the fact they also use free labour in the form of workfare, a HELL of a lot of money is subsidizing these companies.

As long as employees are protected by law in terms of not losing 2 'off' days a week then what is the harm?

I have made use of the extended opening hours as I am a morning person. It was great to be home with the shopping in the fridge by 10am on Sunday, after a manic busy Saturday.

"Why assume a) all shop workers have partners and therefore must have a weekend day off b) the partner has weekends off c) everyone they know has only weekends off? So therefore, Sunday must be kept sacred".

Just as wrong to assume that all retail staff are single with no families.

One of the major causes of stress/anxiety/depression I see in my work (the company I work for is Scottish) is problems with work/life balance. People apply for a set pattern of shifts - it's changed overnight to one that doesn't fit in with their family/childcare commitments. One of the problems we're seeing lately is who people have partners who work and stay away Monday to Friday and come home at weekends. The staff member working weekends has no time with their family which makes them miserable. For what, so people can get a few extra hours shopping time?

I just don't see why these people can't be protected more. It's not the same having days off in the week. The random days off you may get off in the week may not be together - so you don't get a chance to wind down. Also, the majority of social events are at the weekend. You can't take your dc for a day out on a weekday whilst they're in school.
I'll give up now.

ok here are my objections......

we were given 3 days notice of the extended hours, so organising cover for the shifts and any associated childcare etc was a nightmare

the store (large non-food retailer) is given x amount of hours to contract and an overall payroll budget to pay for overtime, this is affected by sales as it's calculated as a percent to sales. Just because we are open for longer does not mean we have more money to spend on staff so taking someone on for the sunday shifts means someone else will lose hours

if staff are only working sundays they are incredibly difficult to train as they have 6 days inbetween shifts so give poor service

it doesn't matter what time you shut someone will always come in seconds before you close making you even later out (and for information, if a shop shuts at 6 is means the staff stop getting paid at 6 despite the fact they are expected to stay until all the customers are out, and the tills have been taken off and firedoors locked

sundays run with only 1 manager in a lot of stores. If they are open 9-6 it means the manager working 8-6.15 with no breaks as they can't leave the store when they are the only keyholder

you can opt out of sundays but this means you will lose those hours as they will still have to staff them -with someone else!

when we recruit the biggest number of applicants we get want mon-fri 10-2, or they will work saturdays but not sundays due to sports teams etc
when I worked in a shopping center we were inundated with weekend applicants so this is very much location specific

in theroy I work alternate weekends

in reality I have worked every weekend since April juggling the DCs between their dad (alternate weekends) and my parents who live an hour away

if I finish work at 4 on sundays it means I can pick the DCs up, eat with them, baths and ready for school at a reasonable time -if I finish after 6 I can't

I could pack my job in but it pays my bills and I would struggle to find another to cover my mortgage as employers don't see retail skills as transferable (despite the fact that I do stock accounts, invoicing, payroll, HR, auditing etc etc etc)

"
Just as wrong to assume that all retail staff are single with no families."

the assumption is you get a variety of peopl ewho want a variety of shifts.

some people want midweek.
some don't.

what is so hard to understand about that?

Welcome to reality! I don't know many, and haven't for a long time, who works and gets two days off in a row, gets to clock out on time and/or gets paid for it, doesn't have to work when they don't want/have short-notice change of hours or told you have a new contract or there's the door, doesn't struggle to balance work and life, have bills to pay, etc.

Why are call centres that sell things on the phone open so late and at weekends then? People don't need to ring them about mobile phone contracts on Sunday surely? What's the difference between that and retail/a shop? You have to stay if a customer rings in right before you're due off shift in those, too. Warehouses that stock online orders - it's 24/7 in those. Why aren't they allowed two weekend days off/Sundays? It's still consumerism/shopping.

But somehow a shop worker is different? It's another day of the week.

"It's the 21st century, weekends are a thing of the past."
And you think that's a good thing?

Love to know what a family weekend is DH has been self-employed taxi driver for over 30 years had very few weekends together in our 23 years and a handful of christmas's thats life you deal with your circumstances as you have them.

I work in retail. Most of us work every Saturday and every other Sunday. There's no opt outs. We don't have to do the extended hours yet, but if we do it'll mean longer hours for existing staff - there's no money for extra staff. It's made quite clear to us if we don't like it we can leave, but there aren't any other jobs. My DH works Monday to Friday, and when my DS starts school it'll be Monday to Friday, so if I'm working all weekend when do I see them? Many of my friends work Monday to Friday still, this doesn't seem to be as rare as some people are making out! I'm not saying we should close Sundays, but if we finish at 4 we still get a reasonable amount of quality time with our families, as opposed to a snatched few minutes before bed time.

I think many people are missing the point.

If it's in the business interest to open extended hours on Sunday then they should be able to. Business decisions can't be made on the back of the fact the staff may or may not like it, it would stifle any economy.

Businesses by law have a duty to shareholders first and foremost and that means profits. Lets not forget that our private pensions are all linked to the profits of these companies.

workshy
"this is affected by sales as it's calculated as a percent to sales. Just because we are open for longer does not mean we have more money to spend on staff "

But if you take extra sales as an effect of being open extended hours you would surely then have more budget then?

"it doesn't matter what time you shut someone will always come in seconds before you close making you even later out"

a bit like most jobs then?

"If they are open 9-6 it means the manager working 8-6.15 with no breaks as they can't leave the store when they are the only keyholder"

They can have a break they just can't go out to get lunch

Nitty - Having happy staff is often good for business. I'm not understanding why people should be screwed over for the supposed good of my pension. The logical extent of your argument would be no minimum wage, no breaks, no sick pay, because they all cut into profits too. .

management often don't take breaks. part of the job and nothing to do with sunday trading per se.

Which is one of the reasons that management are paid more. People further down the chain are expected to put in loads more effort and hard work for just a little extra money so why shouldnt managers do so too.

I thought most shops in the UK were open on Sundays as they are in Scotland. Had no idea this wasn't so.

Nitty

we haven't seen an uplift in sales, we have taken the same amount spread over a longer day

if you are the only manager in for 10 hours you get no breaks because you will still be dealing with phone calls, staff querries and if a customer asks to speak to the manager you can't say 'no sorry, I'm on my break, can you come back in 15 minutes'

yes getting next to no breaks is common in retail management but it doesn't mean it isn't a breach of my employment rights

workshy it is a cultural thing though, not to do with the actual length the shop is open.

retail is v. tough on management.

workshy

Firstly if you haven't seen an uplift in sales then you shouldn't open longer hours and you should put a profitability case forward to your HQ.

Secondly, if you are the only manager in for a 10 hour shift there will be lull's in complaints etc., and if you take a break where you can. Just like many other office jobs.

Getting no breaks is not exclusive to retail.

yes but usually there are managers in so you at least get 20minutes in the day somewhere

when there is only 1 manager in you don't

I work bloody hard and accept the needs of the business etc otherwise I wouldn't have been doing it for 15 years, but it doesn't take away from the fact that a 7 hours exhausting day is preferable to a 10 hour exhausting day

I don't get how there will be an increase in turnover/benefit to the economy. I have the same amount of money to spend each month; that amount doesn't change whether the stores are open 5, 6 or 7 days.

If there's an increase in turnover at the larger stores then that will be at the expense of small local business surely? And is that a good thing?

But if you have a good case to prove that your not taking any more money for extended hours then you shouldn't open.

If they make you open and you are not busy your argument that it's full on for a manager falls down.

Saggar If there's an increase in turnover at the larger stores then that will be at the expense of small local business surely?

The purpose of extending opening hours isn't specifically to try and increase turnover of retail businesses it's to help consumers do their shopping more conveniently.

That includes people who work different hours.

large companies do not make locally based decisions on opening hours, all sites will open the same hours so me arguing about it putting forward a business case will not make one jot of difference

yes we have quiet times, these are the times I catch up on processes that I need to complete (admin, security checks, H&S checks, cashing up etc etc)

because the staff are sperad out over the day, during core trading hours I'm pretty much exclusively serving customers as my staff that usually start at 10am have been pushed back to a 2pm start and the ones that usually finish at 1pm are finishing at 12pm so I have a massive shortage of staff over our peak hours