That’s how it was when I worked retail, with one exception. You got paid till you clocked out. If the store closed at 9:00, sometime you could be out the door by 9:10. If you had stragglers, you might not clock out till 9:30 or later.
Bolding mine - good. That’s a really shitty thing to do - schedule someone till 9:00 (when the store closes), but expect them to stay later to do cleaning or counting cash drawers.
I’ve seen this discussion before, about being made to stay late off the clock. IIRC, it was mainly fast food places that did it.
The one exception was a linen store (kinda like a low-budget Bed, Bath & Beyond) that was just expanding into the Mid-Atlantic area. This was 1985, I think. I was hired as an Assistant Manager, and usually worked the closing shift. After the first few weeks, I was questioned as to why we weren’t clocking out at 9:00. I explained that we had to straighten up, vacuum, count the cash drawer, prepare the deposit for the morning, blah, blah, blah.
I was told in no uncertain terms that the closing shift people were to clock out at 9:00, and then complete those duties. We got very good at getting it all done before 9:00, so all that had to be done was putting the money in the safe.
I quit soon after that, for various reasons - but that was a big one. About four years later I got a settlement for unpaid overtime, because someone had filed a class-action lawsuit against the company, and I was automatically included.
I’ve heard this before, (I think someone said Dunkin’ Donuts did it) and I can’t believe it. It makes me feel sad that an employer would take advantage of their worker drones in such a way. (Luckily, in my menial retail jobs, I never had this come up.) For whatever reason, whether it’s because they’re teenagers and don’t know any better, or because they’re desperate and don’t have any other prospects, I can’t believe anyone would clock out and then stick around and work for free. If a manager asked me to do that I would have laughed in their face.
When I did a 2 month stint as a cashier at Target, you might have been scheduled to work until closing time but you were expected to stay and help clean up. We got paid for this however. Still sucked if you worked an 8 hour shift and then had to stay an extra 1hr+ to fold t-shirts and put back merchandise. I don’t know why they didn’t put the extra hour on people’s schedules. Some people would avoid it by clocking out when the store closed and leaving before they locked the doors. I’m glad those 2 months was the only time I spent working in retail.
I worked at a large clothing store we shall call… Old Army… yeah that’s it.
I was in the fitting room at closing time. I got out the vacuum, paper towels, cleaning supplies, and started to clean. Woman comes in with a cart full of clothes. “Oh, I just needed to try a few things on… Please let me in!” All desperate and stuff. So I oblige and let her into a fitting room. Ten minutes later, I realize I need to start cleaning, whether a customer is there or not, and it might encourage her to move along.
“Ma’am, I’m going to start cleaning, if that’s OK.”
“Oh, sure, yes, go ahead! I’m so sorry I’m taking so long! I know you’re working later than usual! I’m so sorry!”
“It’s OK. Don’t worry about it.” She kept apologizing, over and over. She was so sorry, this must be horrible, hate that you have to stay late, etc.
So I start cleaning. Five or ten minutes into vacuuming, her fitting room door flies open and she runs out. I walk past her fitting room and see all the clothes she tried on.
Off the hanger.
On the floor.
In wrinkled. Messy. Piles. She didn’t buy a goddamn thing, according to my manager. I wouldn’t have thought it weird for a customer to be an asshole, but she was apologizing to me the whole time. She was like the most thoughtful shitty person ever.
When I worked retail, the last thing we did in closing was clock out - in other words, no matter how long it took we did get paid for it. (Rarely, of course, overtime.) It really mattered at Christmas, when the mall would close at 10 and we’d have so much to do we wouldn’t get out until nearly midnight, and then we’d be back the next morning at 7.
Bootis, the proper response here is “Well, of course we can! But, you do realize that the same groups monitor our computer system to track the new number, right?” If he is going to be nuts you might as well push him all the way.
Nah – shoplifters stroll out, excessively casual. If they run out, it’s a snatch-n-grab thief.
You can even get snatch-n-grab’ers who work in collusion – one of them goes into the back of the store, puts expensive merchandise on the top of her cart, then wheels it by the entrance where her confederate grabs it from her cart & runs out the door. Then she plays victim, and is so in shock that she has to leave without actually buying any of the stuff in her cart. The store employees have to put it all back on the shelves – that makes this much more annoying than shoplifters.
I worked at Disneyland which, as people who work there will tell you, employees are paid to be treated like shit.
Our restaurant usually closed with the park, so often we’d have stragglers walk by at all hours of the night right before we closed and ask for burgers and drinks. We had to serve them and pretend to be happy doing it.
Unfortunately, Disney has a policy, and I don’t know if this is legal or not, that said that once you walk on to your job, the manager can extend your shift to 12 hours without warning. Luckily we get paid for that; unluckily the pay was crap.
So every night, especially during the summer when there’s a lot of people, we’d be open, with lines mind you, at 11:55pm and still at least 20 mins away from finishing up service. That means we have to keep our huge industrial sized burger grill open and at least 1 fryer. Heat lamps, conveyor belts, display food were all still up, all the way until that last hungry asshole decided what he wants on his cheeseburger.
As for cleaning, we stayed until it was done. It doesn’t matter that so many people were ordering food and you couldn’t clean. Either get it done in time or stay late. During peak seasons, that means everyone always stays late. And Disney’s peak seasons are like 6 months out of the year.
