You don’t know how long you will work when they do call you in.
You will be paid a princely sum of $8.30 an hour.
My son is home from college due to medical reasons. He’s currently working two jobs, saving up money for a car and to go back to community college. One of his jobs is giving him crappy hours, so he’s quitting it and going full-time at his other job.
He put in an application at Wal-Mart, which is where the above questions come from. The manager was apparently very new, had never given an interview, and I can only assume she got some of the info wrong. Basically, if he got the job at Wal-Mart, he was to quit both jobs and sit by the phone and wait for them to call.
A successful job is one that has give and take from the employer and the employee so that neither side feels “owed” by the other. That sounds like only “take” from the employer.
I’ve had jobs that won’t tolerate you having hours they would have to work around, if they ever did decide to change yours. Places that pay almost nothing seem to have that mentality. I guess people are a dime a dozen to them, and they want you to lick their boots for a 3 cent per hour annual raise.
“I’ll tell you what. Why don’t you put me down, and I’ll call you when I’m prepared to work. How does that sound? No??? Yeah, that’s pretty much my answer to that kind of arrangement.”
I’ve had on-call jobs, but it was usually in addition to a regular schedule (as in ‘on call’ every other Wednesday and Sunday or something like) but that just sounds like a crappy job with a crappy manager. No way in hell would I take a job like you’ve described. Sounds like an easy way to not have a life (because you don’t dare go anywhere or do anything in case you get ‘the call’) but not make any money either or plan or budget or anything (because you never know how many hours you’re going to work).
Sounds like the manager hiring wanted a ‘resource’ as on-call fill in for any of their other workers who have regular hours who got sick or bunked off work but wasn’t willing to give them a regular shift.
However, I should say that if I had no job, and needed money, I might take that job while I continued my job search. Even if I was unavailable the very first time they called and was fired as a result, I wouldn’t have lost anything. And maybe I would get a few shifts in and some cash in my pocket before I found something else. Usually I am pretty strict about giving proper notice when quitting a job … but I think in this case the company has established up front that notice is not a big deal for them.
That description sounds tailored for for either someone who really wants to work at that store and will deal with the nonsense until a regular position becomes available, or someone who has no better options due to a criminal record or similar. It seems like even restaurant work or temp agencies could probably do better for your son. Wishing him luck!
I’ve worked for W-M for 19 years and have never heard of that kind of job-arrangement! I’d have your son call the W-M district manager (I think they now call them “market managers” :rolleyes: ) to find out if that’s kosher by W-M standards.
Damn. I thought sure the last item was going to be “…but it pays $75/hour.” So then you’d actually have to think about it from a risk management standpoint.
Like GomiBoy, I’ve had jobs when I was prescheduled 74% of the time, the other 26% was to be scheduled as needed. Mostly this unscheduled time was used to cover for other people’s sick leave or vacation.
One where you’re expected to be available at any time? I refuse to do that for my mother, so why should I do it for someone who doesn’t even cook for me?
Absolutely not and, if I was offered a job on those terms, I’d probably forget myself and stare at the person for a moment. I’ve worked retail and done some on call work. I’ve even been called into work on at a retail job right after a dental appointment. That retail job didn’t guarantee hours, either, but there was a weekly schedule as well as the odd bit of on call work.
On the other hand, even if you don’t say something to the higher-ups at Wal-Mart (I would), if this is the standard offer of employment, I suspect the law of supply and demand will kick in eventually and they’ll have to offer something better. Is there a lot of unemployment or are there a lot of kids looking for summer jobs? Those are about the only circumstances I can think of in which they could do this and find half-way decent employees.
I’m in a similar situation as FriarTed, and of a similar opinion; something is not adding up. The computerized scheduling system WM uses (which includes safeguards that prevent employees from being able to clock in when they’re not in the system schedule for that time) makes this kind of set-up virtually impossible. Even holiday temps are properly scheduled. If a store manager indeed is doing this on-call thing, higher-ups would definitely like to know about it, so they can review a few records.
The “manager is new, never gave an interview before” thing makes me think that the interview wasn’t from a store manager. (Store managers have worked their way through the management ranks, and there’s no way someone would get their own store without having given an interview on a lower level.) Perhaps a department manager or something.
Until you said it WM, I woulda thought your son app’ed a temp agency. Otherwise, it sounds crazy.
I remember going into work one day at an assignment, and worked for a few hours and then they told me to go home because I wasn’t needed anymore. Nice the agency told me anything!
But no, not for me. Maybe if I didn’t have a husband and kids and I really *loved *the work (like midwifing) but not for schleping boxes and dealing with the public.
