Teenager’s boss & his shift

[Hazyjaneishere]

My son (16) has a job as a waiter in a small independent restaurant. When he started he was told he would have 1-2 shifts a week at weekends. There was a girl working there doing same role and it seemed for a while she would work one, he works two and then the next weekend it reversed. All fine though he did like the two shift as more money.

anyway the girl started to be a bit unreliable, calling in sick etc - son gets the call, goes in etc. now she’s quit and the boss just said something like ‘so you work all three shifts now’. My son feels a bit iffy about this, but obviously he’s young and whilst he’s quite confident, he doesn’t really want to lose the job. So he didn’t say anything but in reality whilst he’s OK to do three shifts on weekends there are other times when he would want to be spending time with friends or going to a football match, that kind of thing. And of course there is school work to consider as he’s doing a levels. But it’s also so long since I had any kind of casual job like that, I’m just not sure whether this is the way things are now and whether he has to suck it up. Am I being unreasonable to think that actually the boss should’ve asked if he wanted to do the three shifts? He has subsequently asked if he can occasionally take time off, and the boss hasn’t said no, but he also hasn’t been very welcoming to the idea either. It’s 15 hours a week which feels a lot for a kid. Would welcome thoughts on how to handle this, if there even is a way!

Poor child….seems to want it all!

In one way it's an early introduction to what employers will do to him for the next 50 years, so at least he's on a good learning curve.

But with all employment situations you have a number of options.

Do nothing and either accept it or look for another job. The preferred option for thousands, or

Clearly saying what your position is and why the imposed changes don't work for you. They might agree and go back to original or they might say bye bye then, or,

If not resolved after conversation either suck it up and look for something else or just leave and look for something else, generally what happens with most people,

Go formal and tell them that I can legally only work 12 hours. Chances of keeping job minimal.
Depends if their are other jobs around and how much the money is valued.

It’s not right if they are over school leaving age. How else do you think 16 year olds can do apprenticeships? Do you think they only work 12 hours a week?

Yes, sorry, I've just reread it. OP's son is doing A Levels, so he is over school leaving age.

And sorry to Gall10 too - you are right. It's dependent on whether you have reached school leaving age, so if OP's son was 16 and still doing GCSEs, it would be illegal, but not now he is doing A levels.

Because he has school and studying to do as well? What a silly comment.

OP you’re not being unreasonable at all, he needs time to study, socialise and rest too else it’ll impact his grades. I say this from experience- I was in exactly this position as a teenager and pressured by my boss into working long shifts on both Saturday and Sunday and it definitely took its toll. His boss is taking the mick.

He just needs to say how much he wants to work.

DS's college was very keen to push that working more than a full day a week impacts on grades, and how paid work is beneficial but we should support our DC in not overcommitting to it. A levels can be pretty full on in themselves.

He doesn't owe it to his employer to do his colleague's job as well as his own. Thankfully his mum is supporting him navigate this rather than just telling him to suck it up.

Exactly!
I left school 3 months after my 16th birthday and got a job working 40 hours a week and I’d also picked up extras!

I think the difference here is you had left school whereas the OPs son is doing A levels??

He does. I think he was just a bit blindsided by the assumption he would do them all and feeling a bit caught between not wanting to annoy them but also needing one of the three off sometimes.

He hasn’t left school. He’s year 12 and doing a levels. Thanks for your response but also think you are missing the point of my original post. I’m not really here to debate as to whether my son can or should work lots of hours. It was more about how to deal with a boss, who is just going to assume that you will do that and whether he can actually enforce a different shift pattern on somebody on a zeros hour contract with him.

I find your attitude to all of this quite puzzling, but thank you. It’s given me something to think about.😂

Yes he did gave to give his NI number. No payslip. No mention of holiday pay.

Yes thanks for understanding my concerns. It’s a mixture of being concerned that he just won’t have enough time off to take a break as well as doing all of his schoolwork and revision and also that he’s in a situation with an employer who seems to think he gets to call all the shots.

Totally get that mix. He should be getting an annual leave allowance, though that may just be rolled into a slightly higher hourly rate.

If he is a A level student he has finished compulsory education and can work more than 2 hours on a Sunday.

Because a 16 year old who is in full time education also needs to be doing other things. A job is just about a bit of work experience and pocket money at that age. He needs to study, see friends, do sport, have hobbies, spend time with family, tidy his room etc and not be knackered for school on Monday.

He’s being paid £8 an hour so I don’t think holiday pay is included… hmmm