What is meant by Open Availability?
When an employee has open availability the manager thinks that means they can expect for that employee to work on their scheduled day off by coming in and covering someone else’s shift. The manager assumes that an employee with open availability means the employee should be answering their phone and expected to work on their day off. In the managers eye, their employees with open availability should be expected to put off yard work, rest and relaxation, house cleaning, and spending quality time with their friends and family by covering unexpected absences. Whereas in reality open availability means that the employee is open to be scheduled anytime any days of the week; however, once the schedule is posted for that week, then the employees scheduled days off will remain their scheduled days off. A hard working employee shouldn’t be expected to be on call 24/7 just because of lazy management. Retail employees with an unhealthy work-life balance is a growing trend that department managers don’t want to admit.
Take for instance in a busy retail department…If an employee calls in sick or just doesn’t show up at all (also called a “no call no show” in the retail world) then the manager should be the one to cover the unexpected open shift. It doesn’t matter if the manager lives in a different city, has already worked beyond their scheduled shift for that day, or if the manager is just simply tired. Since they are the manager then they should be the one who covers their employees shifts…not their employees. The same goes with the assistant manager and anyone else in a management position for that department.
A Fair Work Week is mandatory!
Retail managers don’t care about their employees. They are human like everyone else and expect to receive management pay while working the least amount of hours. The thing is…with the new Fair Work Week (FWW) law in effect it is a critical violation of the law for any manager to make changes to a posted work schedule without the employees consent. There should even be at least 10 hours in-between scheduled shifts (unless an employee agrees to an unexpected shift change). The new Fair Work Week law gives more power to employees…not managers.
When retail store managers create schedules for their employees (which has to be at least one week prior to the scheduled work week starting in July of 2018 and two weeks starting in July of 2020), then that posted schedule is set in stone and cannot be changed just because the manager doesn’t want to step up to the plate and cover an unexpected absence.
Have you ever been inside of a store and noticed that a particular department is flourishing both in sales and customer volume? Isn’t it odd that department has a low turn over rate? Could it be that the managers in that department are actually fulfilling management duties and covering unexpected shift changes? Whereby giving their employees a fair work week and a healthy work-life balance.
I’ve noticed that a happy employee is one that has a healthy work-life balance. If you are an employee you should familiarize yourself with the Fair Work Week provisions. If you are a manager then you need to be the one who covers unexpected absences…not your employees. Give your employees a break during their scheduled days off and let them rest.
