Do you go? Even when they’re seriously inconvenient?
Do you go on your regularly scheduled days off?
Today I blew off our mandatory Diversity training. I’ll find out how they’re going to react when I go in tonight for my regular shift.
1> I am running a 100 degree fever. I woke up yesterday after 4 hours of sleep, drenched in sweat.
2> My right shoulder hurts like hell. Torn ligaments.
3> I changed over last week from second shift to third, then due to someone quiting without notice, I have been adjusting back my shift over last night and tonight to cover parts of two shifts. So I’m short of sleep and messed up from multiple adjustments of my sleep/awake cycle.
4> They’ve been remodelling the apartment next door and that’s been messing with me trying to sleep during the day.
5> I worked 7:30pm to 5:30am this morning and am working 6pm to 4am tonight. (10 hour shifts).
6> The meeting was from 2pm to 4pm this afternoon. I would have gotten all of 3 hours of sleep before having to go in (after the 4 yesterday), then basically been there 14 hours tonight because it wouldn’t be worth spending 1 hour of that 2 hour break driving home and back.
Of the two other 3rd shift guys, one is regularly off today. The other was complaining that no one would be there when his kids came home from school and he’d have to make arrangements for them to go to a neighbor’s house. But neither of them is willing to no-show, because they’re afraid of being written up.
So how about you? Do you go? Would you go if you were in my place?
Too many unknown variables to make an informed statement: Do you have sick time/pay available? Are you being paid for the training, and at overtime rates if required by law/contract? If your employer thinks this training is so damn important, have they made legitimate efforts to provide the training during (or abutting) a regular night shift for the 2nd shifters?
Given that you have a fever and an injury, I’d have called in sick too.
We get ungodly amounts of sick time (20 days per year, plus 20 vacation days) and it’s counted as regular hours, so if it’s outside of or on top of your regular 40, then yes, it’s overtime.
Oh good god no. Two weeks ago they required the 3rd shift people (11pm to 7am) to come in at 5pm for a meeting about staff conflicts on their shift. Because that’s when it was convenient for the management people. Fortunately, I was not one of them at the time, or I would have refused.
I’m salaried, so I go whenever. I’ve gone to weekend meetings out of town and don’t get paid any extra or get to take days off to make up for it. And no, I’m not what I’d consider “well compensated” for this.
I would check with your company how they can have mandatory meetings when you are off work. Sounds contradictory to me.
I would also let them know in advance when you are not attending (whether because you are sick or just protesting). It gives a much better impression rather than explaining afterwards that you blew them off.
I should also add, I think that in shift-work situations they should give options for completing training. It’s not quite the same thing, but at the hospital I work at, they offer options for second- and third-shift people to attend “state of the hospital”-type meetings and benefits information meetings. These aren’t mandatory things, but I think that shows even more flexibility that they’ll give off-hours info sessions.
It seems like for some jobs, though, the OP’s situation is a common thing. I have a friend who works retail on the weekends as a second job, and they have some mandatory meetings scheduled monthly, so even if you’re not scheduled for that day and time, suddenly you are.
I am required to go to non-normal business hour meetings – most recently was an all day saturday training seminar. We were paid 9I’m salary non-exempt) but that doesn’t lessen the fact I just had to work an extra day when I didn’t want to and would have much preferred spending time with my family.
I have another one coming up after wor hours on a weekday – wheich means I have to work around and try and find someone else to pick up my son as my wife works later than I do every day. I wouldn’t mind if they weren’t such a frickin waste of time. I hate having to sit there and listen to someone else regurgitate what my boss is saying just to hear themselves talk.
Mandatory off-hours Respect Our Elbonian Brethren diversity training is clearly a covert op by the Send 'Em All Back To Elbonia On The First Slingshot crowd.
The last mandatory meeting we had was on Saturday after closing. Supposed to start at 6:30, but it was more like 7 before things got going, and then the stupid meeting took two hours. To talk about things that could have been covered in a one page memo. It wasn’t so bad for me, since I was already there, although it did mean I worked 8 or 8 hours on a ten minute break. But most of the people came in especially for the meeting, expecting it to start on time and be of reasonable length. We have another one scheduled for six o’clock this Sunday, which can’t possibly start on time, since we close the doors at six and then there are things that have to be done, like closing out the registers. I don’t plan to be there. It’s supposed to be my Sunday off, I requested it off on top of that, just to be sure, and I’m going to Iowa for brunch. I’m not running back and messing up my plans for a stupid, unnecessary meeting. So I’ll either find out ahead of time what it’s about, or afterward. All the same to me. My boss may not like it, but she probably won’t say anything.
I work for a university department that staffs computer labs in a bunch of different buildings, with all kinds of different hours. They realize that if they scheduled a mandatory meeting during our days off, there would be mutiny. They solve this by simply warning us weeks ahead of time that we are all scheduled for X hours on Y day at Z place. Nobody is upset because their day off was suddenly snatched away from them, and the X hours are always during hours when the labs are normally open and staffed, so we aren’t hauled in when we’re supposed to be sleeping.
They also pay us for attending these, including overtime pay if it bumps us over for that pay week. Generally they also feed us. (I have worked in places that don’t count meetings as part of your work week if they aren’t very long – I didn’t work there for long, for obvious reasons. Typically they’re places that hire high school kids or desperate college students, neither of whom are known for being especially well-informed about labor laws.) If either of these were missing, they would be getting a lot more “I have the stomach flu” call-ins, I’m sure.
One other person did not show. They aren’t happy with her, but she recently stepped down from being a supervisor and is known to be leaving within a couple of months.
I heard there were some slight rumblings about me not showing up at the start of the meeting, but not a word was said to me about it and nothing further was discussed by management after the fact.
Though my new supervisor is towing the line by declaring that attending such things is a “condition of employment”, regardless of how inconvenient they are.
Next time I’ll probably schedule a chiropractor appointment or something. :rolleyes:
When I worked the overnight shift (for 7 YEARS, btw), my managers insisted on doing this. Finally, after year 3, I told them that if it’s important, they’ll either compensate me or come in when I’m working. So, rather then showing up at 7am, they decided that it was only important enough to give me the powerpoints to figure out for myself.
Actually, in a lot of places (my company included) Diversity training IS a condition of employment, along with a few other mandatory trainings. But we usually have more than one class available, so that people can make arrangements to attend whichever they are able. But they DO have to attend one or the other.
My people (and I) also have to attend off-hours meetings. I am required by company policy to have a semi-annual meeting with my entire team (as a whole, not broken down by shift.) So, since my team is 24x7, I have the meeting on a different shift each time. So sometimes it’s on days and everyone on 2nd/3rd is inconvenienced. Then the next time, it’s on second shift, and the 1st/3rd shift people are inconvenienced. The last one was on 3rd, so this one is on 1st. Tough. I’m salaried, and I don’t get out of them, or get paid extra to attend them. That’s just life. At least the hourlies get paid extra to attend.
I’ve never had a problem with it. I make it clear that I’m either going to get paid for the meeting, or the meeting isn’t mandatory and I won’t be there. Occasionally an employer will bribe me with food instead of money for a meeting. That’s OK too.