Employer enforcing to work out of hours

[Rossi94]

I have name changed so I am not identified by previous posts but I am a regular on here.

Work is beginning to get me down and I am hoping for non biased opinions.

We close at 20:00, lines close at 20:00, I work until 20:00. However, we are told we cannot sign off until all the calls have been answered. So any call queuing before 20:00 will continue to queue until we pick them up, no calls can come through after this time.

The lines are absolutely manic after 19:00 and we are often left with few staff having to answer calls outside of working hours.

I understand from a customer point, lines close at 20:00 if they call at 19:59, they should be able to get through but these are often not quick calls and more often than not, we are not logging off until 20:30, occasionally beyond that.

Don't get me wrong, work will say we can take the time back at the beginning of a shift or take it is as overtime but I don't want either of these, I just want to finish at my scheduled time.

I feel my employer should just change our hours to finish half hour later but keep the lines closed for 20:00 but they won't do this. Or alternatively put an automated message on stating lines close at 20:00 and if the call is not picked up before this time, the call will be disconnected but they won't do this either.

If it was a one off, I would not care but it's every single shift, seeing 20 calls queuing at 19.59 is so disheartening.

YANBU - you should be able to finish at 20:00

YABU - you should stay until the calls are picked up and get your time back or claim overtime

We would get sacked for that
no toilet time allowed in the last hour unless it’s an emergency (as in if you do it once a month it’s fine but daily would be misconduct for call avoidance)

They are. The OP said so. I don't agree with the way they run things, but I am not the one that makes the decisions and neither is the OP. So I would be ignoring all the barack room lawyers who are saying to walk out dead on 8pm, because unless they have seen the contract and the working terms, and know for a fact that this won't get the OP sacked, they are shooting in the dark. This is a very common system, and sacking is a very real possibility.

If everyone feels the same, then this is what unions are for. If it's just you OP, then that is what "situations vacant" is for.

I have read about plenty of occasions where people go into a shop just before closing time.

As for calling at 7.55pm or so, I bet many people don't know a call centre's hours.

@itsleviosa that’s absolutely crazy, I very much doubt they could enforce that in employment law. For example, I have extremely heavy periods and there’s no way I could avoid going to the toilet for an hour, or when someone is telling me to.

Anyone obeying that silly ‘rule’ is a mug.

Well you don’t HAVE to if you’re having a heavy period. But we have a no personal time (toilet, making a coffee etc) in the first and last hour of the shift or if more than 1 other person is out

if you’re flooding then yeah go, but if you’re doing it to call avoid then it’ll be disciplinary and it’s obvious if it’s the last few minutes of your shift
I have stage 4 endo with flooding and it’s never been an issue once

@itsleviosa

I have to, and it’s as simple as that. So I would be.

What i am saying is there’s a difference
if you are going to the toilet every single shift, exactly 5 mins before the end and not coming back before the shift ends, that’s an issue because you are avoiding doing your job. Because you aren’t likely to be having a period for a full month and need to change at exactly the same time every single day

if you have a week where you are flooding and need to go 30 mins before the end, next day an hour before, that’s fine and nobody would bother

I don’t think the poster is saying you can’t go for that specific reason, but if you were going every single day at 7:50 to avoid the last 10 minutes of the shift you’d be getting the sack.

@Thebloodynine we can take it as overtime or start later but it's every shift and I just want to finish at my normal time, I guess I want to be able to arrange things in the evening but I can't because I never know what time I am going to get finished.

@ArtTheClownIsNotAMime I would be more than happy if they gave me it back at end of another shift but they don't allow it at that end unfortunately.

@Mrsttcno1 I would have to check my contract, it's fairly ancient so I might just be in luck 😆

But many callers will have made the call say 20-30 minutes before and be waiting in the q all that time. I would be pissed off if I queued for 20 minutes and was then cut off. I agree that lines should close 30 minutes before your shift ends.

Bet you were popular with your colleagues.

@saveforthat

everyone used to do the same or similar actually!! Otherwise you would be stuck there until god knows what time.

What does that have to do with what I posted, which was about people doing it deliberately?

What does that have to do with what I posted, which was about people doing it deliberately?

Yep they do !!!
I worked at Argos for a number of years and I couldn’t tell you how many people would bring back returns 3 minutes before we shut hoping we would just give them the refund coz we want to go home . Sometimes it would be a tv and you had to get it out the box and plug it in , check serial numbers . It was so annoying but there was nothing worse than 8.03pm and someone shouts upto the stockroom “theres still someone at the till” people would breeze in at 7.59pm to pick up their click and collect and it would always be a problem . They can’t find it or it’s damaged or they’ve ordered the wrong one and the tills are off .

I swear the public think they are the only ones in the world and shops have their doors open til the closing time but they can stay as long as they want .

You see it on a Sunday afternoon people walking into Tesco at 4.50pm with a trolley . They have security on the doors now and they don’t let anyone in after 4.45pm and they’ve now changed the announcement to basically say the tills will shut at 5pm . It was terrible over Christmas , Sunday before Xmas I popped in on my way home and at 4.55pm they still had queues of customers with full trolleys . I was in and out .