AIBU to think these expectations of a charity shop manager are unfair?

[SorcererGaheris]

In the last year or so, the charity associated with the shop I volunteer in has become much more stringent on the issue of the shop remaining open all the time, even when staff shortages make this difficult or impossible without our manager giving up her time off to come in and cover without extra pay.

Our shop has a paid (FT) manager and a paid (PT) deputy manager. The rest of the staff are all volunteers.

Neither of the managers work on the Sunday, so the shop is staffed entirely by volunteers on that day. It's the only full day off that our manager gets, as her working hours cover the other six days.

In the past, if not enough of the Sunday volunteers could come, the shop just wouldn't open that time. But according to what our manager says, she is now being told that if a suitable number of the volunteers cannot show up on Sunday, she needs to come in herself to provide cover, if other members of staff can't/won't. The (non-Sunday) volunteers are usually unable or unwilling to work on a Sunday, so it ends up falling to our manager.

This Sunday, for example - two of the (four Sunday) volunteers are unable to be there. I can be there, but our fourth Sunday volunteer does not arrive until between 1-1.30 pm. The shop opens shortly after 11 and health and safety rules dictate that staff are not allowed to be alone in the shop when it's open to the public. The manager has been told that she is expected to come in and cover.

I am 100% sure that she will not be paid for these additional hours; from what has been said, it's typically expected that additional cover is done unpaid. I think the charity works around it by offering time off in lieu, so as not to be in conflict with the law, but due to the complexity of rota staffing when the majority of staff are volunteers (and thus can have as much time off as they want, for any reason) I think our manager finds it quite tricky to take all of her leave.

If the above was just a one-off, I don't think it would matter, but whilst those of us who volunteer on Sunday do our best to be there as much as possible, there are times when other things conflict and take precedence. Last Sunday, I myself did not come in because my mother and I were looking after my nephews for the day. One of my colleagues has a partner with fragile health and she sometimes has to arrange for him to go to the hospital at short notice. So there are times when, for a multitude of reasons, not enough of us can show up at the same time to ensure that the shop is adequately covered throughout the day.

In the past, it was just accepted that the shop would not open for that day if enough of us could not make it. But like I say, in recent times, the charity has become less understanding/tolerant of this and are more or less insisting that our manager come in to provide the cover instead.

My view is that - given the majority of staff are volunteers, with the freedom to have time off whenever - that expecting the shop to always remain open isn't realistic or fair. We're not a 'typical' retail business in that respect, because most of us are unpaid.

Considering that the only day off our manager gets is the Sunday, I think it is unfair to expect/demand that she always cover, especially for no pay.

The managers should alternate who will cover a Sunday

Interesting how nothing has changed since I was DSM and then SM some 15yrs or so ago!

This is the job and how it's also been. They want the shops to compete commercially and the people that open it to act voluntarily.

The only way around appeasing the area managers want for Sunday openings is to either split the DSM and SM's hours to cover all days of the week or get more volunteers in for Sunday's specifically.

If he's still with the company I bet I could tell you which area and or area manager it is 🤣

And don't get me started on TOIL... when I started the manager I worked with was owed more days than my life amounted to at that point!

I'm of the view that she's being paid to manage and part of that management would be recruiting sufficient volunteers. If she's suffering because she hasn't I've not got that much sympathy.

You have spectacularly misunderstood why people volunteer.

@GeminiGiggles

My perception has been that the role had become even more demanding in recent times, but perhaps there has always been an element of high pressure and high expectations.

It's good (well, not good, really, but you know what I mean) to see people with experience of this come in to back up what I'm saying. It makes me feel vindicated in my perception that this is something that (in general) happens across the board. Perhaps not in every single individual case, but often enough.

There has been scepticism in this thread (perhaps some understandably so) because I think perhaps some people have the assumption that managing a charity shop is a fairly laid-back job. That may have been the case a few decades ago, but it doesn't seem to be now.

@ClayPotaLot

Recruiting volunteers specifically for the shop is her responsibility, yes.

What you say may be true to an extent. There are parts of the job that she perhaps isn't very good at. I do think that in recent years, her job has become more complex and demanding in the last few years - so it's got more difficult than when she first got the role.

It's also my overall perception (which is shared with other members of staff) that those above don't have much idea of the day-to-day realities of the workings of a shop.

Yes, I think some have a vision of a "cute" little job opening up a shop and having tea and biscuits with the ladies whilst the reality is vastly different.

What I would say in regards to recruiting more volunteers is it sounds simple but can actually be quite complex. Especially when you are looking for people to in effect run the shop without management present (as first choice).

As general rule someone with the skills required (think co-ordination of volunteers that day, cashing up, level headed in a "crisis", key holder, conflict management, knowledge of the different elements covered that day etc) is already making use of those skills being paid elsewhere.

Sundays in particular are often still family days to people of a volunteering disposition.

Also much like employment say someone has reasonable adjustments made to allow them to contribute, that information can't easily, if at all, be shared with other volunteers it's just quietly managed by those who can and do know. (Eg we often had people in various stages of recovery, or returning to society after a sentence and try to beef up their cv's for employment.)

The best thing she could do is some online advertising (Facebook or similar) specifying that's it's Sunday cover that is required and see what comes up.

@GeminiGiggles

Sundays in particular are often still family days to people of a volunteering disposition.

And in our specific case, we do have a team of volunteers who work the Sundays (one being me.) So the shop is already regularly open on Sundays. It's just that sometimes several of us are taking time off at the same time, or are unable to come in for other reasons.

It used to be that on such occasions, the shop just wouldn't open, but now higher management is insisting that the shop not be allowed to close in such circumstances. I understand wanting a shop to be open as much as possible, but I personally feel they are not taking into account the fact that people have lives outside of the shop - including the manager.

@1weekinjuy

In an earlier comment, you said to me "each to their own."

It doesn't seem like that's borne out here, though (putting the word "fun" in quotation marks makes it come across as sarcastic.) You're not coming across to me as someone who is very understanding of the fact that humans are diverse and sometimes find things to be enjoyable that you don't.

@Elbreth exactly that people that were incapable of making good decisions because they were high on drugs. It was a food project run by a church. We fed up to 90 people a session and though their heart was trying to be helpful by letting some of the addicts help it just wasn’t a good idea seeing some of the things they did.