Is this usual retail availability

[ElinoristhenewEnid]

Just seen a retail job advertised in national supermarket - 16 hours per week.

You have to be ' available' to work 6 am to 11 pm Monday to Saturday and 8 am to 8 pm on Sunday.

Your 16 hours will be slotted into these times - 3 weeks notice of shifts.

How do you manage to have a life outside work with that availability- cannot plan ahead socially!!

Is this normal nowadays?

At 16 hours that will only be a few shifts though, not every day

I think 3 weeks notice isn’t too bad really. How long are the shifts? Are they 7/8 hours twice a week, or more popular in retail is 3/4 hours over 4 days.

Likely be 4 hours shifts so they don't have to give breaks. But yes, this was the norm when I worked in retail almost 10 years ago.

3 weeks notice isn't too bad, but a constantly changing shift pattern makes responsibilities such as childcare arrangements very difficult

16 hours is only 2/3 days a week - far less than most people work. 3 weeks worth of notice is plenty. I really don’t see the issue? Sounds like you’re getting off lightly!

OH took one of these roles when he retired.
Was actually just what he was after and suited him down to the ground. The days & hours were agreed a couple of weeks in advance and it was no problem to say he wasn't available. Worked 18hrs/week although more were available.
Some on the same contract regularly worked straight days (or nights).

So it's not enough hours to be a decent wage.

But for that you need to be available most hours of the week, meaning that you cannot take on another job.

Childcare would also be difficult - as your shift patterns would be constantly changing.

If the shifts are short, say 4 hours then travel costs could be quite expensive in relation to the pay available

sounds normal to me. Although every retail job I’ve had you’re also expected to work more than allotted hours, cover people at the drop of a hat, and get bitched about behind your back if you don’t 😅

@purplepeopleeater28 yes they did say 16 hours guaranteed so assume could be asked to work more.

All part time jobs I have had were fixed days and hours so you knew exactly when working and days off.

Having to be available 114 hours per week for guaranteed 16 hours work seems very controlling to me.

Yep I work in retail and basically you have to be fully flex and be willing to give up your life for them however, the min you need to change a shift or you want extra hours it doesn't work both ways!
I work with people who have to be fully flex for 10 hours and some have 15 hours over 5 days.. Our contract states any shift over 5 days a week.

A lot of retail staff are being screwed over right now by universal credit expecting us to work 18 hours a week minimum.. Which seems fair but I know of many people at my job who beg them for bigger contracts and we get told there's no hours.. So UC need to be forcing companies into giving more hours rather than penalising us retail workers when it's not our fault that employers want us fully flex so we can't get another job. We are damned if we do and damned if we don't.
My contract is 25 hours and our rotas can run into the next so sometimes you don't get a day off for quite a few days.

Retail work really does suck!

They do give a few weeks notice though, so if you can't do a certain shift you just tell them and change it to a different day. It's how it works now. 16 hours is potentially as little as two shifts a week anyway.

We also were never asked when our employer stopped the delivery staff doing nights so now we can be expected to work now from 5am til 10.15pm and til midnight during Christmas week in any shift pattern they need us to do.

Telling them youre fully flex in my experience totally screws yourself over because then you're given all the lates that no one else wants.

You cant plan anything or book anything at all. You also can't book anything during the Xmas period coz in our experience it's so busy management don't get to do rotas as often so the 3 weeks in advance is never the case and we are expected to work, the last couple of xmases, they have said you either work Christmas Eve and New Year's eve or Boxing day and New Year's Day. So you basically get xmas eve and Xmas day off or Xmas day and boxing day then back to work :(
No annual leave given from 1st week of November til middle of Jan.
I would LOVE to go away for Xmas!

My workplace 16 hours would be minimum 4 days of shifts over the week. Occasionally 3 but not often.

Basically they pay you for 16 hours a week and expect full time. When you are off sick they pay you your contracted hours.

This is a trick they use.. So they give workers small contracts like 6 hours but bump up their hours a lot more every week to a normal working week... However if you call in sick you prob won't get paid especially if you've already done your hours for the week coz you only get paid for your contract so if you've already done 2 x 4 hour shifts then ring in the rest of the week you've got your contracted hours. And same with holiday they only give you holiday on your contracted hours not "hours worked".

It's really unfair. Retail workers are screwed over so much and it's getting worse. The amount of customers who still ask "can you go get some staff out the back to serve us" lol I wish there was more staff but this is it!!!
One morning the fire alarm for our shopping centre went off and we all had to go and line up in the car park and there was more staff in a tiny little coca cola advertising van than there was in our massive retail unit with a stockroom and shopfloor!
Now we are expected to work like Aldi do and 1 member of staff has to do the job of 5 people!!

Lol last retail job I had before I went into management and then bailed entirely we had one weeks notice of our rotas and they could change them at any time up to 48 hours before the start of a shift. That was the "required notice". So I could go through the week thinking I had Saturday off only to be scheduled in for a ten hour Saturday shift on Thursday morning.

Retail fucking sucks.

I'd say it's unusual, but only because I was never given 3 weeks notice of shifts! I was given a week if I was lucky, and a day if I was unlucky. 2 weeks notice for busy periods, like Christmas and the full chain's stocktake, but subject to immediate change in case of illness. And there was always illness, because the flexibility worked one way only, so if you couldn't beg someone to cover your shift, typically people would call in sick.

I no longer work in retail.