Having to wait for everyone's lifts after work

[Tired75643]

I'm a team leader in a pub, I regularly work the evening shifts and have to set the alarm and lock up once everyone has finished and left. Generally it'll be me and one other member of staff at the end of the night finishing, some drive home, some (like me) get taxis and wait at the back of the pub.
Recently we've had a couple of new staff start who rely on lifts from parents when they finish, the problem is they are waiting about 20-30 minutes for them once we're finished. Both are younger girls who don't feel safe waiting outside alone, which is understandable. I obviously can't lock the door until they're outside so I have to wait with them but this is adding half an hour onto my shift when I just want to get home and go to bed, my taxi only usually takes 5 minutes to get there.
I talked to the manager about it and his answer was just tell them to wait outside and go....but I really don't want to leave 19 year old girls on their own late at night when they don't feel safe. I also don't want to be waiting at work longer than I need to, unpaid, after a long shift.
I've tried telling them when it looks like they're half an hour away from finishing so they can call their lifts but there always seems to be a delay, and there's no guarantee what time we will finish so they can't set a specific time.
AIBU to ask my manager to either sort
something out with the staff members
or let me stay clocked in until I can actually lock up and find some extra tasks so I'm at least being paid to be there?

Are the two women waiting together. If so they are totally fine. If their parents are concerned about them hanging around in the dark they would be there good and early. They are all taking advantage of your kindness. As said, warn once and from then on go home.

Make it the parents issue not yours, if they don’t feel safe they need to moan that their parents were late, not that you wouldn’t wait. Not your problem!

Your life was on hold because of your decisions. I am amazed at your entitlement.

I think you tell the staff, and their parents next time, that you can't be hanging around at the end of a long shift and will be leaving as soon as your taxi arrives.

Do the "girls" finish at a set time? If so why are their lifts so late? If not, can you give them a set time or remind them they need.to. call parents at x stage in the clearing up process?

Just adding to the consensus, you aren't expected nor paid to babysit 19 year olds. Let them know you'll be locking up at finish time and then just go. When they start being left, they can work out for themselves if waiting around is OK or not.

I think once you've left them outside on their own once, their parents will make sure they pick up on time in future. Just give them advance warning that in future you will no longer be letting them wait inside as you will be locking up and leaving as soon as your taxi arrives.

They don’t like waiting outside? But it’s ok to make you wait? Fuck that shit. Tell them that from tomorrow you will be locking up and they will have to wait outside for their lift as you are no longer waiting for them . Say you’ve given them enough time to get into a routine and sorted and that doesn’t seem to have helped. So you are giving them notice that from their next shift, you won’t be doing that anymore as it impacts on you too much.

Should these adult-children even be working in a pub? A lot of people have left home aged 19 and would need to sort themselves out. If you are choosing to be a martyr for them, then there is no way you should ask your work to pay you extra. Do you normally get over-involved in other people's lives OP if this situation seems acceptable to you?

What's your manager going to do that's different to what you've already done? Tell them to phone for their lifts when it's looks like they're 20 minutes way from being done, but say it with more authority? They're 19, if they can't get their arses in gear then it's them who needs to deal with the consequences.

When you start the shift with them you tell them "you need to make sure you're ready to leave at the end of shift. I don't have time to wait with you for your lift tonight." 30 minutes before close "make sure your lift is on the way, I'm leaving at the end of my shift, I do not have time to wait with you."

And then at the end of shift you lock up as you're supposed to and everybody goes outside. I would leave them to wait alone. They're adults, it's pretty normal for young adults to find their own way home after work. I used to work in a nightclub in the town center at that age, I either got a taxi or waited till the first bus, and I'm still in my 20s, it wasn't that long ago.

If you don't want to leave them alone becuase you're scared something will happen to them. Then wait outside with them. And I'd even just say hello to parent and say "please could you guys work out a better arrangement for lifts. We're having to stay behind and wait with your kids after we've finished work and we really need to get home to our own families."

They're not your children to look after.

This is absolutely unacceptable. You need to say you will be leaving at x time and locking up. Their responsibility to arrange lifts not yours. So inconsiderate. But if there isn't a definite finishing time it does make things lot more difficult.

Just tell them you are shutting up and they need to wait outside. Once you reinforce that boundary I'm sure they'll either get a taxi, get their lift there earlier or decide that waiting outside isn't so scary after all. You sound very kind, but they are taking advantage of you.

At 19 they should be able to make their own way home, without any involvement from you or their parents, either drive patents car, get their own car, share a taxi or cycle

Right.

And frankly better for their own parents to be inconvenienced than the OP. It won't kill them to sit in their cars for 10-15 minutes.

It isn't something unexpected here, nothing special has happened. Restaurants and bars have always been like this and workers just arrange their own way home. You know during a shift if it's going to be a quick or long clean-up. The pub manager doesn't expect OP to stay, we don't even know if the 19yos or their parents do, OP just needs to lock up and leave.

They're adults. They ought to be making their own way home. I worked in a pub from age 16 and got myself to and from work.

If you wait with them tell the parent that they need to arrive earlier otherwise the young girls will be left alone outside and they may shake them up a bit. I'd also say you wait with them because you feel you should, but that means you're doing that in your own time, you can't accommodate for others on nights you don't work

I think those who say you don't have any responsibility for these workers are wrong.

You absolutely have a duty of care for your staff IMO.

But yes, you also have a duty of care to yourself also - you need to sort out your time management.

Have a grown up conversation with your staff, set out your expectations for closing out end of shift and explain that for insurance purposes, security and safety reasons all staff must be off the premises and picked up/lifts etc promptly at closing.

Whilst I tend to agree with the “make them wait outside” comments, a local pub has recently been slated on social media for doing this very thing. They subsequently denied it and all blew over.

I can’t see what other option you have as team leader though. At one time it was routine in my city for pubs and clubs to provide taxis for their staff. I’m comfortable out on my own, but I’m not sure I’d be happy waiting outside at the end of a pub shift - too predictable, chance of drunk customers about.

Yanbu but you need to kick this higher up. You are acting as unpaid babysitter when you are knackered and want to go home. Being paid for it isn't much of a solution. You need to tell the boss that if it doesn't get sorted you will be seeking a job elsewhere. There are plenty of pubs needing experienced staff. If these young people can't make arrangements to be picked up immediately when it's time to leave then they cannot reasonably have this job. Either they make their parents start coming earlier or they can't work rhere. Someone (probably the parent in question) is making an active choice that their time is so valuable that they can't risk wasting a couple of minutes of it if they arrive before their child's shift finishes. That's a real slap in the face to you that you are expected to sacrifice 20 minutes of your time to prevent the risk of them losing 5 minutes of theirs. You absolutely must not accept this. Stop being nice about it and make it clear it will not happen again. If they don't feel safe waiting outside alone they have to make their parent arrive a few minutes before lockup time - it is not your responsibility to make up for their parent's failure to turn up on time.

The pub - the employer - does have a duty of care to their staff but the OP does not have to accept such a duty to herself unpaid and without her consent. An appropriate duty of care solution would be to only employ people without their own guaranteed transport in shifts rhat aren't very busy where they can clock off half an hour before closing time and wait for their lift while the pub is still open.

They are two adult women. How is their safety enhanced by having a third adult woman waiting with them? Leave them to it.

My DD as a teen worked in a rural venue that she needed collecting from - bar restaurant with a lot of weddings etc so finish time was very fluid. The managers were hopeless at giving her any indication/warning of likely finishing time. I always set off for her (10 mins drive) as soon as she let me know she could go. I would have been furious if I'd arrived to find her locked out. However I don't think the managers clocked off until they'd seen all their staff safely leave.

Tell them you need to lock up so can they arrange their lifts for closing time as its adding onto your day and you need to get home

I'd give them a fixed finish time. If the close takes longer, I'd be the one to stay. That way at least you get paid for the extra time.

Sounds like your manager, and the other team leaders, are happy to lock staff out when they do this shift, so maybe you should do the same.

If you feel you really can't, tell the staff to clock out when you estimate there's about half an hour's worth left of work for you alone. It will still delay you by fifteen minutes, but at least you'll be paid for it.

Snap, @Bluetoe !