Forcing our team to work weekends

psd99

psd99

psd99

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Joined
7 Sep 2008
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ouch last week we got told that because of high work loads we need to have cover outside of office hours - starting with weekend work!

couple of suggestions are:

1. splitting up the 15 people team into 2 - such as tue-sat and sun-thurs

2. 4 days on (11 hours with 1 hour unpaid lunch) then 3 days off

I'm not happy about this at all but what kind of shift patterns can you all think of that will help alleviate this.

the week is monday to sunday - need to cover basically 40 hour working week with what we call 5 hours of unpaid lunch....

the reason why this has happened is because of a certain stupid individual that decided to spend 25 hours last to last weekend working on double time and really taking care of most of our work - the high management saw this and thought if he could do that on the weekend without interruption then maybe we should get em all to work weekend. - there's always one person who messes up the rest

anyway thoughts welcome cheers
 
If 1 employee cleared all the work, maybe just have a rotor where you can fill in your own name on the extra days/hours you wish to work? Those that don't want any extra work don't have to and those that do can have as much overtime as they wish to claim.
 
Do they get paid or get TOIL?

I'd split it in such a way as everyone does the same extra time.

You may be stuck if their contract and HR won't allow it. Do you have control of the rosters? If so you could extend their hours for the next week to cover the shortfall?

Is it 40 man hours you're short? If so that's not too bad to cover - how much staff have you got? It's only 2 extra hours a day for 20 people.
 
Do you work with groen? Just you saying a single guy working 25hrs can do the work it takes 15 of you to do in a week has left me a little confused...
 
Count yourself lucky, i have had to work every single weekend for 12 hours each day for nearly 2 years now (barring booked holidays), i wasnt asked they just did it becuase they trimmed some of the staff and now don't have enough people to cover the work load on the weekends allowing team members to work out a weekend working pattern.

Sorry about that but this touches a nerve, i hate these companys as i bet the boss will not work the weekends GRRRRRR

Anyway sorry for making this all about me :)
 
You always get one who makes more work for everyone :S

Heres a novel thought... why don't management hire more people for better coverage?
 
lord filbuster said:
Seems reasonably fair, but perhaps you should be asking the other employees what they want?
I take it their contracts cover working on weekends?
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yes contracts are worded as such to cover this time
basically 40 hour working week between Mon-Sun

other employees feel pretty much the same in that it sucks.
 
doofer said:
Do you work with groen? Just you saying a single guy working 25hrs can do the work it takes 15 of you to do in a week has left me a little confused...
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no it isn't groen it is a bloke who really didn't use his noddle and always thinks of himself. perhaps my wording wasn't the best - basically he did not complete ALL of the work 100% but he made it look like he did - which I did point out to my leader. he's only done this because he got double time.
Also this takes into account no interruptions because during office hours we get lots of these stupid people asking us stuff oh and customer calls.


Colbaker said:
Count yourself lucky, i have had to work every single weekend for 12 hours each day for nearly 2 years now (barring booked holidays), i wasnt asked they just did it becuase they trimmed some of the staff and now don't have enough people to cover the work load on the weekends allowing team members to work out a weekend working pattern.

Sorry about that but this touches a nerve, i hate these companys as i bet the boss will not work the weekends GRRRRRR

Anyway sorry for making this all about me :)
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I agree- the high up management sucks - as the saying goes the fish always stink from the head upwards!

Rroff said:
You always get one who makes more work for everyone :S

Heres a novel thought... why don't management hire more people for better coverage?
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agreed - and that is something they want to do.
 
Freefaller said:
Do they get paid or get TOIL?

I'd split it in such a way as everyone does the same extra time.

You may be stuck if their contract and HR won't allow it. Do you have control of the rosters? If so you could extend their hours for the next week to cover the shortfall?

Is it 40 man hours you're short? If so that's not too bad to cover - how much staff have you got? It's only 2 extra hours a day for 20 people.
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mr le rat - it all comes down to how much people are willing to do
but I doubt management would like this extra payment because it won't solve the long term problem.

we do have control of the roster because atm we are being ASKED our opinion n input so I thought I'd ask u lot about it as well....

we are prob 3-4 people short atm.
 
Trifid said:
If 1 employee cleared all the work, maybe just have a rotor where you can fill in your own name on the extra days/hours you wish to work? Those that don't want any extra work don't have to and those that do can have as much overtime as they wish to claim.
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nice idea will put it forward
 
But wasn't the work done because you had extra resource?

I can't tell from your initial post of the efficiencies, but surely it's just spreading existing resource over more days?

If you have no slack/inactive time during the normal week, 600 hours resource will still be processing the same amount of work however you schedule it.
 
kibblerok said:
But wasn't the work done because you had extra resource?

I can't tell from your initial post of the efficiencies, but surely it's just spreading existing resource over more days?

If you have no slack/inactive time during the normal week, 600 hours resource will still be processing the same amount of work however you schedule it.
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good point.

yes it is spreading extra resources outside of business hours so that he alleviates the growing workloads that we receive say at the beginning of monday morning.

they also think that weekend work would be uninterrupted. ie no distractions but it is bs to be honest. working weekend if anything I would be demotivated and not want to work any extra.

how do I fight this? I like your point it is good and valid but how do I get this across?
 
psd99 said:
mr le rat - it all comes down to how much people are willing to do
but I doubt management would like this extra payment because it won't solve the long term problem.

we do have control of the roster because atm we are being ASKED our opinion n input so I thought I'd ask u lot about it as well....

we are prob 3-4 people short atm.
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I presume you've discussed training/recruiting others for the roles if you're short staffed?
 
psd99 said:
good point.

yes it is spreading extra resources outside of business hours so that he alleviates the growing workloads that we receive say at the beginning of monday morning.

they also think that weekend work would be uninterrupted. ie no distractions but it is bs to be honest. working weekend if anything I would be demotivated and not want to work any extra.

how do I fight this? I like your point it is good and valid but how do I get this across?
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The guy was working uninterrupted because he was on his own. If they get half the team in at the weekend they'll a) chit chat and distract each other just like they do in the week and b) be ****ed off that they're working the weekend and probably get less done.
 
Is this a permanent thing or just to get you through a tough patch i.e. just a month or so and they're willing to offer overtime.

If it’s proposed as a permanent arrangement and aren’t offering more money have you suggested to the management what they really need is more staff?
 
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Freefaller said:
I presume you've discussed training/recruiting others for the roles if you're short staffed?
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yes recruiting others - should be 2-3 more people coming on board but stupidly AFTER weekend work thing

PardonTheWait said:
The guy was working uninterrupted because he was on his own. If they get half the team in at the weekend they'll a) chit chat and distract each other just like they do in the week and b) be ****ed off that they're working the weekend and probably get less done.
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exactly it is bs!

Stretch said:
Is this a permanent thing or just to get you through a tough patch i.e. just a month or so and they're willing to offer overtime.

If it’s proposed as a permanent arrangement and aren’t offering more money have you suggested to the management what they really need is more staff?
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it looks like it would be "trialled" but knowing managers and how much they stink
once we are on this I doubt we will ever get off of it

that is why I thought I'd ask on here what kind of work pattern would you all recommend? A rota that somehow means u only work 1 day weekend a month!
for 15 ppl this is.
 
psd99 said:
... the reason why this has happened is because of a certain stupid individual that decided to spend 25 hours last to last weekend working on double time and really taking care of most of our work ...
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It sounds to me as if you have found yourself a terrible employer; I would walk out the door and go onto benefits; that'll learn 'em!
 
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