Fuck! I no-showed a shift!

The BBQ Pit
1

After a great day browsing at the library, getting my grocery shopping done and making travel plans, I happened to glance at my phone.

I thought it was strange that Denny’s (where I work as a host) had called- maybe they needed me tonight. But then I went to look at the time they called, to see if it was worth calling them back. It seems that they called at eight this mornign, when I was sound asleep and my cell phone was safely and quietly tucked away in my backpack on the other side of the room.

I totally flaked the shift. I’ve never ever worked a Thursday and I’ve never even head of a host working on Thursday so I wasn’t going to check the schedule until Thursday afternoon when it was slow enough for someone to run back and check. When I called to apologize, the manager was too busy and said I’d have to talk to the general manager anyway.

I’m just so worried. I work so hard to do good at this job, and I can’t believe I ruined it with one stupid mistake. They love me, so I don’t think they’ll fire me. But I am definately in a whole lot of trouble and I’m not going to be able to rest until I get it all cleared up tommorow. Eegg! I’m so worried!

2

Well, I’ve been waiting tables/managing at local restaurants for a while now, and no restaurant I’ve ever worked at would fire a good, hard worker for unintentionally spacing a shift. This is not to imply that NCNS (no-call no-show) is not highly frowned-upon, and it is certainly grounds for termination if the management is so inclined (i.e. they’ve been looking for a reason to fire the offender anyway). But I’ve seen many a NCNS by a respected employee go without so much as a write-up, let alone a termination. I’ve even done one myself; same as you, I completely spaced the shift following a bizzare schedule change.

Even if you do get written up, assuming Denny’s is like every other corporate chain on the face of the Earth, it won’t change anything. I’ve seen files that are literally half an inch thick with “written warnings”, three of which are supposed to result in termination, simply because the employee in question performs well when he/she does show up.

In other words, yeah, you messed up, but it ain’t the end of the world. Go in tomorrow, show adequate remorse (which you clearly genuinely feel), and don’t let it happen again. Provided you don’t screw up again, everyone should forget about it in a couple weeks.

3

I totally missed a shift, about three months ago.

Now, I got the chops to do it and get away with it. No question of getting fired, or even really a reprimand. Schedule got changed, I didn’t check, my fault, but just a simple mistake.

But, I was terribly embarrassed, even though I have a record of being two minutes late to work once a year, maybe. I show up, or if I am sick, I call in a long time ahead of time, and have for a very long time. (Longer than any of my supervisors have been working there, in fact.)

But still. Man it was a complete bummer. They called. I was sitting at a restaurant, eating and reading a book.

“Are you OK?”

Fine, why do you ask?

“You didn’t call in, and you just aren’t like that, you know. We were worried!”

So, I apologized a whole lot, and the boss says just take the day as my regular off, which it normally was, since they already covered the shift.

But,

It’s a bummer. I was a no call no show. I hate that!

Tris

4

Well, if you’re a good worker and they fire you for a single no-show, they suck. I’m sure you’ll demonstrate appropriate contrition when you meet the GM, and promise to check the roster earlier and more carefully in future.

Best of luck, and i hope it works out OK.

5

You should be alright. Just tell them the truth. Crying often helps. (just kidding)

But you are not alone. I am a self-employed remodeler and majorly fucked up a job myself just last Monday. Was installing new ceramic tile in a kitchen and laundry room, which means the refrigerator, washer/dryer, etc had to be moved, thus making it a pain in the ass for the homeowner until the job is done.

My girlfriend and I went to the lake over the weekend, and in drunken idiocy, I decided we could just go back Monday instead of Sunday night. (I told them I would finish the job Monday)

Well, the homeowner got pissed when I didn’t call, and fired my sorry ass, and got someone else to finish the job, and I don’t blame her a bit.

Now I have to eat about $1500, and I look like shit.

I haven’t fucked up like that in years, but when I get most jobs by word of mouth,
it hurts.

Not trying to hijack your thread, but I hope you feel a little better.
There are degrees of fucking up, and yours is not near the top of the list.

Good luck!

6

Hey, even sven, aren’t you working, like, three jobs?

If there’s a possibility that you could get by on just the wages from two of those jobs, maybe getting fired wouldn’t be such a bad thing. Like, God’s way of telling you that you need to slow down before you do serious damage to your health?

Anyhoo, if you are a good worker, it’s highly unlikely that they’ll fire you over a single NCNS. Most of the companies I’ve worked for allow you one, but fire you on the second offense. Hell, my second week at Wally World (before I’d been there long enough that I was on the printed schedule) I did an NCNS because I was on swing shift and one day they took it into their heads to schedule me at 7:00 in the freaking morning. I even had an assistant manager look me up to see if I was supposed to work that day, and he told me, no I was off. He had checked for late morning and swing, not early morning. And nobody said a word…

7

So what’s the latest?

8

I did this once myself, back when I worked at Burger King. Up to that point I had a virtually perfect record, never once called in sick and I was rarely late. I totally spaced off the fact that I had to work that day. When I went in the next day they asked me where I was since I presumed I had the day off and I wasn’t home when they called (no caller ID, no answering machine to indicate they had called). I was surprised to hear of this, but when I looked at the preceding day’s schedule all I could think was, “Oh shit!” when I saw my name on there. I felt so bad about it. I knew what it was like when someone NCNS’ed and leaving the rest of the crew in a lurch, and now I was the one who did it. I apologized profusely and I was willing to take my lumps for it. Since it was the first time it ever happened and I was a good employee to them, there were no write-ups or threats of termination. They understood that this kind of thing can happen to the best of us; we’re all human. The manager was also cool. Now, had this happened before, when we had a total dickhead for a manager, he probably would have been a prick about it. Hopefully the management you work with is cool and understanding enough to know that we’re not perfect and everyone is going to miss a shift sooner or later at some time in their life. Best of luck to you. Let us know how it all turns out.

9

At least you didn’t try to make up a sick dog excuse. You’re a good employee. People make mistakes. Apologize to those who had to pay for your screw up and be forgiving should another co-worker make the same mistake.

Bringing in homemade chocolate chip cookies wouldn’t hurt, either.

10

Management checking in here…

Our place would never fire or suspend a good reliable employee for a single No Call No Show. Most managers recognize that it can happen to the best of us - especially when there are schedule changes. The good employees are the ones like you, even sven - who realize they made a mistake and apologize. The bad employees don’t give a shit.

I hope your manager was kind to you.

11

Oh crap, management is on to us then? :wink:

12

So I walked in bright and early this morning prepared for the worst.

“Ummm…I’m so sorry about yesterday…”
“Oh no, it’s okay. I probably should have called you Wednesday night”

Phew.

(PS. It’s four jobs this week. Maybe I should work on getting fired…)

13

Well, THAT’s a relief, I know how hard you’ve been working since you got out of college and stuff.

But I can’t imagine that even Denny’s would fuss over it, since they change schedules every week, it would be amazing if people didn’t miss one now and again.

All’s well that ends well? :smiley:

14

Well, that’s great news. Glad to hear everything’s OK.

15

Four jobs? FOUR JOBS???

OK, look, I know you just finished college and probably have student loans to pay off and all, but FOUR FREAKING JOBS???

I really would like to see you live long enough to, you know, find work in the field that you spent four years getting an education for.

[sub]uh, what was your major again?[/sub]

16

[inlivingcolorskit]

Four Jobs? You Lazy Mon, only workin four jobs, what a wrong wityou

[/inlivingcolorskit]

Glad nothin happened to ya sven I know what that’s like, done it excatly twice.

Last time, Just got back from St. Maarten, 12 hours on a plane, it was 2 in the morning (i was working midnights at the time) getting into the limo, my phone explodes with messages. “where are you?” “It’s 2 in the morning” etc.

Supervisor scheduled me the day I left, for the night of my arrival. Even though it wasn’t my fault, still made me feel like shite.

17

Is it even possible to work 4 jobs at once?? Holy hell…

18

I worked three jobs at once a few years ago. It’s very do-able for the short term if they are the right types of jobs. I worked full-time at one retail job…40 hours. On M-W-F Job One agreed to only schedule me from 12-close, and I worked retail Job 2 from 9-11:45 am, then walked downstairs to Job One. Since I had to work some Saturdays and Sundays, I often had T-Th off, and I was a substitute teacher in the school district I lived in (short commuting time) so I would get called to sub a few times a month. So with three flexible bosses, you can do it.

But back to the OP…between my daughter and my part-time co-workers, I get to see a lot of companies that seem eager to get rid of even good employees, and Denny’s was one. My co-worker got a second job at Denny’s a few months ago, and during her first week she was in a car accident. Her car was pretty mooshed, but driveable after some minor repairs that would take a few days to arrange. She had some minor bruising and was a bit shook up, and with having to deal with the police and insurance stuff, she was late getting to our store (she called and told us). She was supposed to work with us until 9:30 pm, then drive to Denny’s and work there until (I think) about 2 am. She called Denny’s at about 2 pm and told them she’d have a problem getting back and forth from work that evening because of the car, and would really like to switch shifts, but if they couldn’t change her, she’d borrow the money for a cab to get to work and back. They told her, don’t bother coming in unless you bring a police report about the accident. It’s two in the afternoon, the accident was at 11 am three cities over, and she’s at work with no car. The accident report hasn’t even been FILED yet (she called the police to be sure) and she has no way of getting there and back even if she COULD get a copy, but that’s what Denny’s wanted. They wouldn’t reschedule her at all without it, and then told her just to not bother showing up that night at all.

My daughter has gotten jobs at places that have a rule that if you call off sick in the first 30 days, you’re out. One in particular was Chipotle’s. Now remember how bad the flu was this last winter? And remember it’s food service, where you are not supposed to have ill employees working? At least four of her co-workers were showing up with upper respiratory infections, and she got sick too. She became ill at work and got sent home, but had to go to Urgent Care to get a doctor’s note…$70…that she was really ill. And they still said, sorry, you called off in the first 30 days, bye!

Even the one job at a CVS pharmacy, when she was so ill that she threw up on the manager’s shoes, they made her spend $70 to get that doctor’s note. I took it in to her boss, and when the boss said, “OOh, we were so worried about her because she was so sick!” I nearly lost it. I said, “If you knew she was really sick and not faking it, why did you make her spend $70 she doesn’t have to prove it?” They fired her a week later because she wasn’t wearing the right shoes…she had told them she had no money left for new shoes after having to pay for the doctor, and the boss was wearing tennis shoes too, but nope, she’s out.