To expect staff to keep this day free, even if not contracted to work?

[Newyeargrinch]

Senior manager in a small business that has just paid out a considerable amount of money to sponsor a local event towards the end of the year (think Xmas fair). This could potentially bring in a lot of good publicity and business for us. The success of the event depends on having plenty of staff present to represent us. The event is on a Saturday. Some staff work Saturday anyway, some alternate Saturdays. Others are weekday only, some full time, others part time. I know full well that if we asked for volunteers or left until nearer the time, certain staff would come up with reasons why they couldn't help. Therefore an email has gone out to all staff, informing them of the date and saying we expect them to keep it free to attend this event (they will get an extra day off in lieu). Several staff replied to say they didn't know their plans that far ahead as yet but, if free, would be happy to help. We've replied that, if they have nothing planned, they can keep the day free and will be expected to help.

It has been fed back that many staff are unhappy and say that we cannot dictate what they do with their spare time.

I think it's a small ask, they've had 10 months notice and it could bring a lot of extra business our way, ultimately benefiting them!

AIBU?

Don’t worry OP, you’ll have a lot of new staff by then, as anyone with any sense will have left by then. So you can just make interview candidates aware 😏

A Saturday close to Christmas is going to be a hard sell. What you should have done is pop something up in the break room saying you are thinking of doing x event, this would be on Saturday x of November/ December. Payment will be time and half/ double time or X extra days leave, sign up to volunteer.

Then you can see how many people would be willing to work it. Extra days leave or more pay would encourage some to do it without having to use the stick.

It would be a no from me the way you have gone about it. However I may consider it for an extra couple of days leave or double time close to Xmas.

I wouldn't normally mind that. But December is too hard for people to 'keep a day free', there are so many things on but that are organised around October / November time that I'd struggle to miss. A close family members birthday party, school fairs, school performances, performances for various hobby groups the kids are involved with. I wouldn't want to miss something they'd been training for, for a couple of months, to support someone else's school fair or similar

This would be much fairer

But also it's so close to Christmas that people will probably have plans - I think it should have been discussed with the small team before you paid all the money for it

Reverse??
surely???

Oh come on, this is a reverse. Your boss is a prick. Don’t do reverses.

That sounds like a toxic workplace to me. Comply or be punished.

I'll never get snide comments like this. Some people are great at volunteering (often the same people!). They have all sorts of reasons - I'm a manager but I will always get stuck in at events that aren't my role or within my hours e.g. supporting a student orientation event, because I think they are worthwhile and I'm happy to help. It doesn't make me (or anyone else who does this) a 'brown-nose' (horrible expression), I don't gain directly from it, I just want to do it for the people we are helping.

Tricky, but we have similar, Open day at school, one Saturday morning, we get a day off in lieu, a year’s warning. Everyone is contracted to be there. Stick it in future contracts, you’d have a job putting it in retrospectively, I should think.

It has been fed back that many staff are unhappy and say that we cannot dictate what they do with their spare time.

Read that back. Yabu

How does it work in the wider rota?

If I work an extra Saturday then it means I'll work 3 in a row, which I wouldn't be volunteering to do if I missed every sat in December!

Also it breaks up my days off so it can mean I end up working too much in a row, eg if I volunteered on an extra certain day then as its a day where there's a break on my rota I'd end up working 7 days in a row.

I rarely sign up to overtime because of that unless it's clear the time in leu would be immediately available rather than generically added to my annual leave

If its close to December then I'm assuming you won't be giving them the next sat off instead

Roster people to work surely?

Exactly what I was going to say! 😂

My time off and what I do with it is none of my employers business. Cheeky sod!

what's in it for the employee?
warm fuzzy feeling - hell no
time off in lieu - possibly
double plau & expenses - possibly

You cannot be serious

If I worked weekdays and was asked to work a Saturday I would do it if you pay me. None of this day off in lieu rubbish

Surely you need to pay them if they are working not give toil. Some people will be happy to work for extra money just before Christmas.

Unless their contract states that they may have to work occasional weekends and this was fully explained when they joined, Yanbu.

you need to back track, apologise and offer a clear financial incentive for volunteers to come and help on that day.

So we can conclude from the OP bitchplop and run style of posting that this is either
a. Goady bollocks
b. A reverse
how fucking tedious

I’d have also told you to fuck off.

As PPs have said, a weekend isn’t the ssme value as a weekday. People may be seeing their families or also have small kids. Xmas is always busy for people.

Plus employees are generally figuring out that they can be model employees and it’s never worth it. I didn’t take a sick day for 6 years at my last company, trained a lot of new starters, did a lot of extra hours and stuff above my pay grade for fuck all money, and still got made redundant. So now I give zero fucks and don’t do work any favours.

The bare minimum you should have offered on too of toil was overtime pay. You’d get more volunteers then.

To be honest, if this is so beneficial to the business then why are you not organising a team now and providing sufficient incentive for enough people to volunteer? E.g double pay, lunch and nice dinner out that evening?

Very much so.

Your attitude stinks.

People are perfectly right to keep their free time for themselves, not to make the business more money/get more awareness. You don't 'own' your staff.

People also have responsibilities outside work at weekends (kids and so on) that are not always easy to shift.

Frankly what you should have done is ask for volunteers and offer something as an incentive and plan to use the staff that is already contracted to work weekends.

I would have refused on principle to attend anything like this.

Surprised by responses here. Many of us travel for work and from time to time have to travel Saturday or Sunday. Have never had a day off in lieu and no one has ever worried about my childcare. 10 months is tons of notice.
They will all indirectly benefit from the event. They obviously don’t feel any loyalty to the business which is a shame.

Your business decisions are yours, not your staff's.

If you pay them they'll work. If you don't pay them, you really can't expect them to even think about work on that day, let alone turn up to an unpaid event near Christmas. That fact that it might bring in extra work for the business is irrelevant - that's what you're paid to care about, they just want to get the job done and go home.