Archived Is it weird that I always get 8.5 hr shifts?

[Theweather]

In the last few months I've realized that I get really long shifts in comparison to a lot of the other workers- not just other cashiers. I always get 8.5 hour shifts on the lanes and oftentimes see my coworkers come and go during them. Is this normal? A lot of my coworkers only have 4-6 hour shifts. I checked the time sheet the other day and noticed that sales floor, pharmacy, & back room didn't even get that many hours (just for the day).

Does this happen to anyone else? Why am I getting such long shifts?

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

Take the hours. You are lucky one. Your leaders like you.

 

[redstripes]

We commonly do 9.5 (10 with lunch) in my work center for coverage purposes. It's possible other cashiers have complained about long shifts whereas you haven't. If you don't mind the full day it's nice to be able to get all the hours without burning more gas and/or supplying two work-lunches to make two shifts. Also, if you find that you are scheduled 4 days in a week that will put you at 34 hours, rather than something like 16-20, so you are still making out better.

 

[Retail Girl]

Availability, position, and length of time with the store can all make a difference.

 

[TallAPGuy]

Is that including the 45 minutes you take for lunch?
If it is, i.e. scheduled 10-6:30, then you get paid for the 7.75 hours you spent on the clock, which is my normal shift length.
If it's not, i.e. 10-7:15, then yeah, that's pretty strange, as you should be getting overtime after 8 hours.

 

[Retail Girl]

Is that including the 45 minutes you take for lunch?
If it is, i.e. scheduled 10-6:30, then you get paid for the 7.75 hours you spent on the clock, which is my normal shift length.
If it's not, i.e. 10-7:15, then yeah, that's pretty strange, as you should be getting overtime after 8 hours.

Only in California are they required to pay overtime after 8 hours. And most of us only get a half hour for lunch.

 

[TallAPGuy]

Oh...whoops. I thought the 45 minutes lunch was company wide, as California only requires 30 minutes for lunch, and I don't expect Spot to be any more generous than necessary.

 

[PassinTime]

Hmm, my store always maintained it wasn't 'best practice' to schedule cashiers for 6 or more hours. I always assumed it was because they didn't want to deal with having to allow meal breaks since in my state you can to work up to 6 hours before the employer was required a meal break.

 

[OffYaPhone]

We commonly do 9.5 (10 with lunch) in my work center for coverage purposes. It's possible other cashiers have complained about long shifts whereas you haven't. If you don't mind the full day it's nice to be able to get all the hours without burning more gas and/or supplying two work-lunches to make two shifts. Also, if you find that you are scheduled 4 days in a week that will put you at 34 hours, rather than something like 16-20, so you are still making out better.

The bolded part. I can tell you -- standing in that box for 8 hours a day (well, 7.5 with the 2 15s) is torture. I finally told HR to stop scheduling me as cashier for 8.5 hours. I just couldn't do it any longer.

 

[Retail Girl]

Hmm, my store always maintained it wasn't 'best practice' to schedule cashiers for 6 or more hours. I always assumed it was because they didn't want to deal with having to allow meal breaks since in my state you can to work up to 6 hours before the employer was required a meal break.

Yep. We were told that best practice for our state was 5 hours (5 hour state for lunch) because that way we didn't have to give a lunch, and they didn't think the cashiers would be able to come back and still be effective after a lunch.

 

[dani346]

i'm a cashier and i'm scheduled for a 8.5 hour shift coming up too. 8 hours is bad enough. i was scheduled for a 9 hour shift last month. i think me and one other cashier have been given long shifts like that every once and a while.

 

[Sanzano]

For once California law is actually a nice thing to have when it comes to an 8hr work day.

 

[Retail Girl]

For once California law is actually a nice thing to have when it comes to an 8hr work day.

I would hate that. There were so many days I had to work over 8 hours to get my 40 for the week. Being limited to 8 would have cut my hours severely most weeks.

 

[SFSFun]

I would hate that. There were so many days I had to work over 8 hours to get my 40 for the week. Being limited to 8 would have cut my hours severely most weeks.

Or it would have gotten you tons of easy OT if the ETLs were desperate.

 

[mrknownothing]

In the last few months I've realized that I get really long shifts in comparison to a lot of the other workers- not just other cashiers. I always get 8.5 hour shifts on the lanes and oftentimes see my coworkers come and go during them. Is this normal? A lot of my coworkers only have 4-6 hour shifts. I checked the time sheet the other day and noticed that sales floor, pharmacy, & back room didn't even get that many hours (just for the day).

Does this happen to anyone else? Why am I getting such long shifts?

Do you have open availability? If so, that may be why.

 

[Retail Girl]

Or it would have gotten you tons of easy OT if the ETLs were desperate.

My store never approved OT.

 

[Theweather]

Do you have open availability? If so, that may be why.

No, I have half day ability on the week days

 

[Theweather]

Take the hours. You are lucky one. Your leaders like you.

Wow. I'm not complaining, just wondering why I get long shifts as opposed to my coworkers who complain that they're only in there for a little while

 

[mandie89]

Wow. I'm not complaining, just wondering why I get long shifts as opposed to my coworkers who complain that they're only in there for a little while

I get 8.5 most of the time as well.

 

[Guest]

Yes and you should see a doctor about it. Can't take any risks with that.