Employers expecting you to give your life up

[3cats00]

I interviewed for a domiciliary care position, which I have previously done on a 0 hours contract. This one offers guaranteed hours which sounded good, but after interview I've found out they expect you to be available 7am-10pm 5 days a week to meet this.

As I say I've worked in the industry before and know how it works, but I was never expected to work 5 evenings per week. In my old company I agreed certain evenings, certain mornings and afternoons etc. And I could be called to do overtime but it wasn't compulsory.

It'll be split shifts with a gap in the afternoon. They've said care staff need to provide this essentially 75-hour availability window in order to get the guaranteed hours? I think I'm going to have to decline, it's not fair to my relationship and I have pets who need feeding/letting out in the afternoons, it's not fair on them either.

Would any other industry ask this? Maybe I'm being unreasonable but they're essentially asking care staff to give up any sort of flexibility or freedom.

There are all sorts of jobs in different industries with crazy hours, but they suit some people well.

This doesn't suit you that's all.

Care work is notoriously unreasonable to staff.

Does this mean you'd be working these hours every week or would you have a rota in advance of what early or late finishes you'd have?

YANBU I'm guessing it's Helping Hands. It's fucking cheeky whoever it is. They want the best of both worlds.

It isn't them but similar. I'm disappointed as it's rare for home care companies to offer guaranteed hours.

I asked and it sounded like I'd be doing a couple of hours in the morning, lunchtime, a break then back out for teas and beds, essentially split shifts 5 days a week, very difficult to plan anything around.

No that doesn’t sound fair and would only suit a very specific type of person. I struggle to understand how it would work, too. Surely carers would be given their regular client group with set days and times to fill their regular hours. I can understand that they would want maybe additional availability to cover illness etc, but not blanket full availability covering morning till night everyday, that’s ridiculous.

Oh gosh just saw your post where you would be covering earlies and lates everyday. Unless you are absolutely desperate for a job, who would want that?

I have no issue with working evenings, but asking staff to do 5 evenings a week is a lot. It's the fact that these 5 days you can't really do anything else, it's bits of work here and there throughout the day, might have a solid hour or so in the afternoon but by the time you've got home probably time to head out again.

I questioned this and they said I could mitigate it by offering a 6th working day of working just mornings and afternoons? No way. And they wonder why they're always hiring.

I am disappointed as I enjoy the actual work of caring for people but if I took this job I wouldn't have much of a life sadly.

If they want that sort of availability, they should ask employees to be available for example 3 long days a week and pay them at least NMW for all of those hours whether or not they're actively caring or travelling between clients.

Presumably being available for those hours means you can't travel too far away from your area or do something like go to the cinema because you're on call and could be asked to work at any time? So if they're looking to restrict your life in that way, it should be reflected in your pay.

Agree it would suit some people, but they'd have much better turnover of staff if they showed a bit more flexibility? I used to work with a lady who did 7-4 each day, and another lady who did 4-10 only, that was it, as the employer also worked around them.
Sadly that one was a 0 hours contract though.

Employers wonder why they cannot get staff.

If they want you to be available those times then they need to be paying you for that time.

You can't say to someone that they have to do what you want, in this case be available, without paying you for it

It's exploitative

Thank you. I've declined the role, I can just see it being a nightmare having any sort of life outside of it. It's a shame really.

This is the type of organisation that will then complain that they can't fill their carer vacancies...

Well done OP for avoiding them.

I’m completely over giving my life to work. I’ve been doing it for close to 15 years and I’m DONE. Currently trying to pivot to an internal role with more stable hours. May need to take a pay cut but at this point I don’t care. I want my evenings and weekends back.

Just remember your employer gives not one fuck about you and your wellbeing. It’s on you to have boundaries and protect yourself from being exploited.

I've worked every weekend and all evenings before and it's brutal, you feel like you miss out on a lot and always worrying about getting time off for things.

My DB was a carer for a long time and the split shifts were one thing that contributed to him leaving. It was impossible to have any kind of life when you were working in the early evenings five days a week. I appreciate that's when people need care - evening meals and getting ready for bed - but it's awful for staff.

Care industry is notorious for exploiting workers though.

Split shifts really suck as it is hard to do anything in the few hours off in the middle.

DD2's friend quit care work because of this - she got a job as a hospital cleaner with fixed hours instead. I did know a couple of students who were OK with it as a weekend job.

How do they roster it to ensure you get 11 hours between shifts?

I think this 11-hour thing goes out the window in care- I used to finish at 10pm and be back in for 7 which was tough.

This sounds very much like the company I've just left. So so similar.

That's interesting, it may be the same, did you end up having to work a lot of full days?

Which is illegal. However the companies don't care

But the wider problem here is that these hours suit virtually no one, so the posts cannot be recruited to and instead they rely on overseas work visas to fill them.

It's not like most jobs where there's someone out there who will accept tricky shifts. It's literally not possible to recruit anyone for these roles.