To ask if this is how retail is?

[Fairyliz]

My DD is at uni and 18 months ago got a 12 hour a week contract at a high street store. Obviously she can work more hours during the holidays but 12 is probably the maximum she can manage during term time.
Straight away her boss started putting her in for more shifts and what was even stranger was that the shifts changed from week to week. So one week she would work Mon/Weds/Sat the next would be Tues/Fri/Sun. As you only knew your shifts two weeks in advance it was very difficult to plan anything.

The final straw was when all staff received a letter from head office saying although her contract is for 12 hours she has to be available for 24 if required which is impossible with exams coming up.
So she resigned from that job and got another one for eight hours a week. She started last week and yes you've guessed it her boss has put her in for 20 hours the first week. Even worse you only learn the shifts you are doing on Friday night for the week starting Sunday. She told her boss today she can only work 8 hours per week til early June and was told she has to work whatever shifts she is told.
Is this bizarre why not get staff to work set shifts each week and then ask them to do extra to cover for illness/holiday cover? Seems overly complicated to me. Is this the norm in retail that you have to work whatever hours the boss says irrespective of your contract?

I'm a retail manager/deputy but my little team all have quite a lot of base hours. The most part time person does 15 hours. I do Rota's 4 weeks ahead and if things change the management team cover or we ASK our staff to swap.
One girl only does weekends with lots of notice. I could be an arse and say that she's contracted to work 5 days over 7 and needs to do it but the reality is, she's a really good worker so I ask her politely and she always says yes.

I always ASK them if I want them to do anything out of the ordinary or that will mean them changing their plans. They, like me have lives and are human beings and it wouldn't sit right with me to treat them otherwise!

Why is this the best business model? Can any retail managers explain?

I'm a retail manager, and I can tell you it is absolutely not the best business model and only shit managers would run their business like this. Those of us though that are part of big chains work to very tight margins and have a lot of pressure from above to keep wage costs down. But good managers know that the best chance we have to hit our targets, is to have the best teams working for us. Because of the nature of different businesses it is not always possible to have everyone on set shifts. I look after a small team, 3 are on set shifts, one of whom is a student, but the others have to be more flexible. Saying that though, I've heard some comments from exit interviews and I know that some managers treat their staff appallingly. But it's not just the retail industry that has shit managers running teams.

Retail is rubbish for staff, and I am speaking from my experience of working as a student over twenty years ago.

Things have only got worse with zero hours contracts.

My advice would be to go for big chains - when I was a student, I had a good time at Boots and Debenhams. I hope the current economic climate hasn't changed their staff policy too much... But at least they have a reputation to protect!

I worked for a large high street store for a year in 2009/10 on an 8 hour a week contract but I was constantly messed around with the rota. The rota started on a Monday but we never, ever got it earlier than the Thursday (as in three days before!) and I could be on anything from 8 to 40 hours with no warning. My wages were pot luck, I had no stability and the management treated us so terribly that the second I got a phonecall offering me a new job I walked into the manager's office, told her and didn't work my notice.

I work in retail, regular shifts, same each week on my basic contract. I also do overtime, on random shifts that I sign up for by my own choice.

That sounds insane and so counter productive! I work in retail for a well known 'cheap' department store and I would set hours Monday-Friday. I had to fill in an availability sheet to say what overtime if any I could do and would be put down for extra hours according to that but never without my permission! Surely if you contract says so many hours they can't make you do more without permission?

Ive worked in retail a few times in the past also did care work and worked for a sex chatline company.

Guess which one treated me the best

I work in retail. I have never, ever worked my contracted hours. I am under pressure every day to either do extra hours myself, or phone staff to ask them to do extra hours.

Phrases they use are "fully flexible" and "the needs of the business are...". Staff are under horrible pressure and no, you cannot plan ahead at all. Meanwhile pay is terrible, thank you is a word heard far too infrequently.

My management team have told me to pressure staff to come in on non-contracted days "because they always need the money".

I absolutely hate it and cannot wait to leave.

true TSS, i have had many MANY retail jobs and never once worked my contracted hours in the last 23 years or so (not that i always had a contract). and yes , adaptable and flexible were the key words , In Scope we were told from the start we had to go beyond the call of duty and treat it as more than a job

there were not many days 'off' that i didn't end up not working on. unless i was actually out of the country! and even then they tried!

I work in retail (charity sector) and managers expect full flexibility from part time staff so they can be contracted for two days but expected to work any day of the week (although can opt out of sundays).
People join thinking charity will be different but it's really not.
We don't enforce regular over time though, this is only enforced to cover holidays.
We also employ some staff on zero hours but only if there is not a permanent need for them - this is regularly checked and if their hours become regular they are offered a contract.

Yes I thought that Maggie, re charity! But it required staff to be way more flexible than any other job I've had. I ended up 7 days a week when I was originally taken on as part time! I got severe burn out