"jmcquown" > wrote in message
...
> On 12/13/2013 1:25 PM, Janet wrote:
>> In article >, says...
>>>
>>> The dry cleaner I applied at, expected me to be up, showered and dressed
>>> by
>>> 8:00 a.m., 6 days a week
>>
> Did they check to make sure you'd taken a shower? <G>
>
>> 8 am, eh? Imagine that.
>>
> Heh. I worked on a help desk for years. I had to be there by 7AM when
> the phones turned on automatically. We were located in the US Central
> time zone. But a lot of our offices were open an hour earlier, so we
> opened at 7AM. There was also a 9:30- 6PM shift to cover the offices who
> were on Pacific time. No big deal.
But I'm pretty sure they didn't expect you to get up and get dressed for
work on your days off *and* stay home all day, ready and eager to work, just
in case they needed you, right? According to what I was told, my only real
day off was on Sunday. I was free to do what I wanted then. And they could
only guaranteee me 10 hours a week which would be perhaps worked in two hour
increments. The logistics of that were never discussed because I thanked
the lady and walked out. This has nothing at all to do with getting up
early.
I have probably worked every shift there is between the inventory company
and all of the retail jobs that I worked. This has to do with the company
expecting me to get up early on the days that I was not scheduled to work.
Dress for work and stay home, waiting. Also telling me that I could only
smoke on Sundays or after 6:00 p.m. on all of the other days just in case
they might call me into work. And if they did call me in to work, I had to
go to any one of their 10 locations to be paid for probably no more than 10
hours a week, most likely in 2 hour shifts. I don't think so!
As I said to Janet, that could conceivably mean my sitting home for 60 hours
out of the week. Okay, probably 50 because 10 of those hours would have been
spent working somewhere for them. But if it was my day off and I wanted to
work in the garden? I would have to wait until after 6:00 p.m. because they
might call me in to work and I couldn't go in there in gardening clothes.
Nor would they allow me the time to clean up and change. Those were the
parameters of the job and if I wasn't willing to do that, they didn't want
me. And I didn't want them either. And
AFAIK, nobody ever took that job.
I used to go by that dry cleaner all the time because my hairdresser and the
post office were in the same building. Always the same lady in there.
Never once saw anyone else and the "Help Wanted" sign was still there.
>
>> Good thing you never worked in a restaurant serving breakfasts,
>> hospital, school, hotel, care home , factory shifts etc.
>>
>> Janet UK
>>
> I understand wanting the day shift, for sure. But being up, showered and
> dressed (not to mention at work) by 8:00 a.m. isn't asking too much.
It isn't? I think it is! Especially when they can't guarantee any work.
So you would just get up and dressed for work. Not just dressed but dressed
for work as they told you to do, and then sit in your house until 6:00 p.m.
not going anywhere? And not doing anything that could involve your time
like baking a loaf of bread? Because that's what I was expected to do. Sit
by the phone and wait to see if they might need me to work. All for a
guarantee of a measly 10 hours a week at minimum wage which IIRC in those
days was $5 an hour. Well, have at it then. Not for me. Especially when I
had a husband who was working. Heck it was cheaper for me to stay home than
to go buy those clothes that they expected me to wear to work which were not
the clothes I even owned. Dress pants or a skirt and a blazer.