I am a dog walker/pet sitter. I contract with a couple of agencies. The work is intermittent. Most of my work is vacation pet sits or occasional walks when someone is going to be gone for the whole day.
About a month ago, I started walking a dog call for a client is a nurse. She doesn’t have a set schedule. She only needs me on the weekdays that both she and her husband are gone all day.
When she gets her schedule, she is supposed to tell my boss who is supposed to set my schedule. The first week it went well. The second week I had not received a schedule by Friday for the following week, so I messaged both client and boss. The client responded, but then Sunday evening she changed days at the last minute. The next week I asked for the schedule again on Friday, but didn’t hear anything from anyone until Sunday night when my boss told me they were on vacation until May 6th.
This past Thursday, I asked my boss for the schedule for the week starting tomorrow. She said she would ask the client. As of this minute, I have no idea what the schedule is for the coming week, or if they need me at all.
What is a reasonable amount of time to expect a work schedule in advance? How many times should I have to ask for my schedule before I can start making other plans for my week? Should I message either or both of them again, asking for the schedule or should I assume I’m not needed?
Most of my jobs have given at least 5 days notice of the next schedule. The shortest time frame was one job where the schedule came out on Friday, starting that next Monday. So, based on my experience, I’d say 3 days. I still felt like that was not enough time.
If the nurse is to contact your boss and the boss is to contact you - I don’t feel you should have to ask for your schedule at all! Someone is not upholding their end. Maybe the nurse feels that since she is going through a service, that people should be on call for her at any time? (I’ve been thinking about applying to pet-sit through Care.com, and now I’m second guessing…)
Bottom line, I’d guess it comes down to how badly you want/need the money vs. how you feel about personal time and plans. The work week starts tomorrow and you still don’t know… make plans. But if you want/need the money, you might have to be prepared to rearrange or cancel things at the last minute.
Pretty much this. You can attempt to put your foot down but it might just cost you work. Tell your boss you need a schedule by Friday afternoon. If someone wants to schedule you after Friday afternoon it will depend on weather you’d made alternate plans or not.
I ended my retail career after one of the other managers was handling the schedule. My schedule was full flex and I could never plan in advance. Have no partner or kids my life was considered more flexable than other… He would put out a schedule on Thursday then modify it during that work week. I’d be scheduled Wednesday and Thursday off then get called on Thursday to ask why I wasn’t in because the asshat rewrote my schedule on Wednesday and couldn’t even be bothered to let me know.
Running my own business I’m on call 24/7 365, but I can schedule open days wherever I want, they just might be interupted. If I’m traveling I have surrogates I can send on site but I still need to manage remotely.
If I get my schedule in time, like by Friday evening, I can let the other agency know the days I’m available. Then I can possibly pick up walks or pet sits for the days I’m not needed for this client. (This boss knows I am with another agency as the owner of the other agency referred my services to her.) Also, then I can let my volunteer teams at the animal shelter know what days I am available to be at the shelter to help them out if needed.
I went ahead and messaged this boss, and she said she didn’t have the schedule from the client yet. I told her that since I didn’t have a schedule for this week, I did go ahead and plan a few things and hopefully there won’t be a conflict when the client gives her the schedule. I guess we’ll see how it goes.
First come first served? That’s the policy I use. Jobs come in, and I accept them or not, and once accepted they become a priority over anything that hasn’t been accepted.
I’ve worked retail where I wasn’t “guaranteed” to know my Sunday schedule until Friday at noon.
Guaranteed is in quotes, because frankly, for a while I had a boss who didn’t actually write the next week’s schedule until after the deadline because he was “too busy”. He was legitimately busy, but I still think it’s rude to your team to postpone writing the schedule that much. Especially since I didn’t get a couple of days off I asked for because he said something like “oh, just use last week’s again” when put on the spot for a schedule. And since the boss I had before and after tended to post the schedule on Tuesday . . .
Our schedule for Sunday - Saturday is usually posted on Thursday. We pretty much work the same hours every week, and the Boss will ask you if you can work any changed hours by Tuesday.
Finally got a schedule yesterday afternoon for this week. Tues/Thur/Fri…fortunately I am available, but Thursday I would need to a half hour early. Boss said that’s fine. Looks like it is the client being slow getting her information to the agency and not that my boss is slow getting it to me. Boss basically told me to schedule what I need and if the client can’t get her schedule in on time, it’s her own fault. My problem is, of course, that I would feel bad for the dog.
Well so long as you are dealing with people, some of whom will be unreasonable and inconsiderate, I would say there will be changes up to the last minute.
Other businesses have cracked down on inconsiderate customers - by charging them extra money. Service people will tack on extra charges for nasty customers. Most businesses have late payment charges. Or a late return fee. They charged for VCR tapes which were not rewound and extra for rental equipment which is returned dirty. Etc.
So depends on how competitive your business is and what similar businesses are willing to put up with. What other businesses in your line charge. Also what other employees are willing to put up with.
So are you willing to lose that customer and the income from her? If yes, then set up a late fee. If she moves to another business, then that is that!
