Would you take this job?

In My Humble Opinion
21

I’m sorry it sounded like you said

  1. There will be no schedule. You are on call.
  2. When you are called, you must come in.
  3. There is no guarantee of hours
  4. I won’t know when (or if) they will call you.
  5. I won’t know how long you will work when they do call you in.
  6. I will be paid a princely sum of $8.30 an hour.

and I know that can’t be right.
Oh it is?
Why would anyone with two or more functioning brain cells agree to a deal like this?
I was born at night, but it wasn’t last night. Seriously, do I look that stupid?
This is just a guess, but they don’t drug tests here do they? Because you would have to be on drugs if you think anyone with a pulse would go for a deal like that.
(FTR I have been told I have a bad attitude.)

22

[QUOTE=KneadToKnow]
The OP’s description sounds more like a booty call to me.

[/QUOTE]

That’s funny. It does sound like a booty call, doesn’t it?

I’ve told my husband what the Wal-Mart Dopers have posted here, and we’ll see about pursuing it. In any event, my son lurves working as a waiter as Sonny’s BBQ, so he has no problem picking up extra shifts there, which they seem more than willing to give him.

23

Should have added - when I was an hourly employee with agreed / scheduled call times, I would have my normal 3pm-10pm shift M-F, but then would have an additional 16 hours of ‘scheduled’ call time every two weeks on alternating Wednesday and Sunday nights where I would be ‘on call’ from 10pm - 6am. Regardless of whether I was called or not, I was paid 1/4 of my hourly rate for the on-call hours. If I was called, I got time and a half for any hours worked and would work as long as needed.

Once I worked my full shift on a Wednesday, then was called in at 11pm and worked until 7am the next morning on an emergency, so I got my normal shift wage + time and a half for the 8 hours I worked on call + 1/4 of my normal hourly wage for the 8 hours of call time. That was a nice fat weekly paycheck, although I was pretty knackered on my Thursday normal shift and the guy died anyways - I was a surgical tech in a hospital so was running for blood and drugs all damn night during an abdominal embolism repair; surgeon repairs one then after 6 hours, then another embolism lets go almost immediately so the guy didn’t make it and we had to cancel 4 scheduled surgeries the next day due to lack of blood supply on-hand.

I think asking someone to just be ‘on call’ with no defined shifts or regular wage may even be illegal, but it would likely vary dramatically from state to state so YMMV.

24

BWHAHAHAHAHAHA! No.

My brother in law has a similar job

  1. There will be no schedule. You are on call for two weeks then off for two weeks
  2. When you are called, you must come in or someone might die
  3. The position is salaried, there is no overtime no matter how much you work - you may work 38 hours straight
  4. You don’t know when (or if) they will call you when you are on call - you must be within 10 minutes of work at all times during those two weeks.
  5. You don’t know how long you will work when they do call you in.
  6. You will be paid a salary of over $100k a year

He’s a CRNA (Certified Registered Nurse Anetheistist - I’m misspelling that badly). Two weeks on, two weeks off for $100k a year is a pretty sweet job - even if you are tied to your house four blocks from the hospital for half the year.

25

That sounds just about like the job offer I had from a Summer Camp just down the road from the house I grew up in.

I showed up one day, worked 10 hours, and got $75 out of the deal. That seemed GREAT! It was a one time deal because they needed the help.

The next week the camp owner called and, well, they kinda overpayed me. They then offered to work me 70 hours a week, for minimum wage. (ooookay, I’m with ya so far), but then they’d take a little off the top for the food they’d feed me for lunch, you can understand, right? And, we’ll take some more off the top for room and board because we want you available 6 days a week, 24 hours a day. But hey, you get good food AND Sunday off!

26

He wasn’t interviewing for a specific position? That just seems wierd. My husband has his own scheduled on call time but that’s the nature of his job (computers). And it’s a given in the medical community. But retail? Yeah right.

27

Actually, he was. They were looking for a “cartboy,” which I assume is someone to bring in the carts from the parking lot.

Way back when I worked as a cashier, the bagboys did a round of the parking lot whenever we were slow. I thought it a bit odd, and from what others are saying, isn’t SOP for Wal-Mart anyway.

28

I wouldn’t mind if there were a signifcant on-call retainer. My employer is paying for my time. My time costs money.

29

[QUOTE=Rick]
Seriously, do I look that stupid?
[/QUOTE]
I hear that some guy named Arnold is passing a photo of you around here. You may want to take that question back. Just sayin’ :wink:

30

[QUOTE=ivylass]
Actually, he was. They were looking for a “cartboy,” which I assume is someone to bring in the carts from the parking lot.

Way back when I worked as a cashier, the bagboys did a round of the parking lot whenever we were slow. I thought it a bit odd, and from what others are saying, isn’t SOP for Wal-Mart anyway.
[/QUOTE]

I’ve put a bit more thought into this whole thing, especially now that I know he was applying to be a cart pusher.

I think there might have been a mix-up in the original telling; either the manager mangled the explanation, or used in-house terminology that your son wouldn’t have understood (which I hate-- I get on coworkers constantly for using in-house terms with customers and such).

Wal-Mart’s scheduling, especially for lower job codes like cart pusher, is based on customer flow. Usually, cart pushers are in demand more in the day and evening than overnight; they are more in demand Thursday-Saturday than other days in the week, etc. More demand around holidays. You get the gist.

Schedules are needs-based, then, and are based on the individual store’s customer pattern. The system determines that, two weeks from now, anticipated customer flow on Friday requires one cart pusher available from 8 am to 4 pm, three from 4 to 10 pm. It then matches needs with “associate schedule availability,” slotting available associates in.

“There is no guarantee” of hours is probably due to this. Someone may wish to work a certain number of hours per week, but if they can only work 8 am to 3 pm, they may not be guaranteed full-time hours as a cart pusher, since the greatest need for pushers is in the evening, and they’ve already got someone working the daytime hours. The system tries to spead available hours around, but someone who’s got a less rigid availability will invariably get more hours.

I think there may have been some mix-up, mistelling or misinterpreting a “no set schedule” concept, as well. People will say “I’m available 8 am to 10 pm” or something, expecting to be given either a permanent 1st or 2nd shift schedule… however, the scheduling system will look at that availability and then start slotting the person in to fill staffing needs that match the availability. Monday and Tuesday, they might be scheduled 8 am to 4 pm because someone’s on a leave of absence, Wednesday 2 pm to 10 pm because the cashier in electronics is on vacation, Thursday and Friday noon to 8 pm to cover the after-work rush. And, it’ll be a different schedule again the following week. In other words, there is a schedule, and it is set two weeks in advance, but it’s often not a consistent schedule. (It’s much easier to get a consistent schedule if you’re in a job code that’s less reliant on customer flow-- stockmen, cash office, claims, department manager.)

As for the rest, especially the “on call” stuff… dunno. Perhaps they’re referring to the fact that scheduling is done two weeks in advance, thus new hires get pencilled in by management during that time period. Usually not a problem for stockmen or cashiers, who are almost always needed whenever they’re available, but it might be a problem for cart pushers or other positions.

As an aside, would the medical conditions for which your son is away from school affect his ability to perform hard labor? Cart pusher is an incredibly physically taxing job.

31

[QUOTE=Student Driver]

As an aside, would the medical conditions for which your son is away from school affect his ability to perform hard labor? Cart pusher is an incredibly physically taxing job.
[/QUOTE]

Without going into details, the answer is no. My son’s job that he’s quitting is basically a janitorial job at a department store, vaccuuming, cleaning bathrooms, that type of thing.

32

Um, no, and I probably wouldn’t even get out of bed for $8.30 an hour. It probably costs me more than that, per hour, just to run my house. (AC/Heat, water, power…) At current gas prices, it would probably cost me more than $8.30 to leave the house.