New care work job, bad split shifts *WISH I WAS DEAD*

[Cosimo]

those hours sound dreadful

You're dead right there. A first step towards and early grave.

 

[cjgardens]

A care home near me charges £890 per week for some residents.

My wife used to work in a care home. The standard room is £500-600 a week. Then if the family want Luxury's for the person in there, then the price goes up.

I think its things like I better view of outside a bigger TV more food etc. But the extra cash isn't worth it. I think the max they paid where my wife worked was £800 a week of there hard earned cash. So they either need to have it in the bank or sell there old house.

So basicly you pay into the system all your life and then when you lose your marbles you have to carry on paying and be I'll treated in a care home....

 

[bakes0310]

the care home system is a joke full stop. I deliver medication to care homes and some of the stories i have been told from the nurses is terrible, and what has been said is right, nurses get paid a close to minimum wage as possible for doing work that very few people would do themselves.

Are you sure that's right dude, your not getting care workers and nurses muddled up. I only ask cause around here nurses in care get paid £14 per hour, and carer's get minimum wage.

 

[AmyS]

The pay in a care home is ridiculous. My sister works full time, 8pm-8am, and her son, who is a Painter & Decorator, can earn working one Sunday what she earns in a week.

 

[Raumarik]

Ensure you have the hours written down by your employer as evidence before quitting imo.

 

[RedvGreen]

Are you sure that's right dude, your not getting care workers and nurses muddled up. I only ask cause around here nurses in care get paid £14 per hour, and carer's get minimum wage.

Could be different sorts of nurses - do MacMillan and charity nurses require the full training that NHS nurses do?

Either that or the staff at the care home are trying to aggrandise their position.

 

[mattyg]

How can someone get out of this job?

It's care work doing 48 hours a week 7:00am - 9:30pm 7 days a week. Problem is it's split shift which wasn't advertised/agreed to during the interview and only revealed after the training.

The split shifts are stupid, work for 2 hours then a break of 2 hours or 1 hour etc. It adds up to over 100 hours a week if you include the little breaks which are unpaid.

They want £380 training fees if you quit within the first six months (this wasn't mentioned until after the training).

Any thoughts? Who else works split shifts?

Illegal:

The legal number of hours between shifts is determined by the Working Time Regulations 1998. They state that the minimum rest period in a 24-hour period should not be less than eleven consecutive hours. In brief, workers are entitled to at least 11 hours rest per day, at least one day off each week and a rest break during the shift if it is longer than six hours.

 

[Nate Silvers]

Thanks for the replies everyone I took your advice and decided to get out. I spoke to CAB and they've advised me to write a letter to my employer and job centre.

I've written one up but I'm not very good at wording things, I'm not sure how to end it, would be really grateful if someone could have a quick look at it to see if it looks good enough.

https://www.mediafire.com/?ti50xt7r2wfp211

 

[RedvGreen]

I've had a quick read over your draft letter; there are far better ways of phrasing things, as well as a few typos.

I'll edit this post in a moment with a more suitable style...

Spoiler

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

On <date> I commenced employment subject to completion of a training process. This role primarily consists of carework based on 3/4 days per week with a requirement to be able to work any 5 days out of the 7-day week, as stated on my contract (enclosed).

During the interview for this position, I specifically stipulated that I would be unable to work split shifts due to personal circumstances. Due to the offer of employment it was assumed that I would not be operating on a split-shift rota, however, upon successful completion of the training process and my commencement of work I have been given multiple split shift hours working 7 days a week, 0700 - 2145. I was not at any time notified of this until I commenced work.

On <date> I raised this matter verbally to my Line Manager explaining that I cannot commit to these fragmented hours due to my personal circumstances, of which I had previously advised.

My Line Manager responded to my situation by stating "It's not like you have any commitments". This comment was unprofessional and I felt infringed upon my personal circumstances due to the inference that I would have to justify 'commitments' to my Line Manager for his 'approval'.

Due to not holding a full UK Drivers Licence, I use a road bicycle which places me under undue pressure to meet the demands of multiple commutes to many places of work. Due to these pressures, I have been involved in a road accident on 14/06/2014.

Alongside the disregard of my personal circumstances, I was also advised of receiving a period of shadowing colleagues to learn the procedure and interactions, however this did not transpire and I was immediately placed on the 'frontline'. Due to the immediate expectation that I was to work a 7-day week on split shifts placed me under further stress as I was unable to attend to my other responsibilities, which caused myself and my family a large degree of inconvenience, anxiety and distress.

The European Working Time Directive (2003/88/EC) stipulates that EU workers have the right to a minimum number of holidays each year, rest breaks, and rest of at least 11 *consecutive* hours in any 24 hours; restricts excessive night work; A day off after a weeks work; and provides for a right to work no more than 48 hours per week. It is my belief that this role and the expectations placed upon me violate this directive.

Due to the culmination of these circumstances, I have dismissed myself with immediate effect as I could not continue working inside these inflexible, unhealthy and illegal arrangements.

Due to my Line Manager being obstructive in my attempts to resolve my working hours, and my ultimate requirement to hand my resignation, it is my belief that I have been subject to constructive dismissal.

That is what I can do for now... if you or others want to work on it further...

 

[benneh]

Spoiler

WITHOUT PREJUDICE

On <date> I entered employment with <company>; subject to completion of a training process. This role primarily consisted of carework, based on 3/4 days per week, with a requirement for work on any 5 days of a 7-day week (as stated on my contract, enclosed).

During the interview for this position I specifically stipulated that I would be unable to work split shifts due to personal circumstances. Owing to the offer of employment it was quite naturally assumed that I would not be operating on a split shift rota. However, upon successful completion of the training process, and my commencement of work, I have been given multiple split shifts, ranging 7 days a week, 0700 - 2145. I was not at any time notified of this until I commenced work.

On <date> I raised this matter verbally with my Line Manager, explaining that I cannot commit to these fragmented hours owing to my personal circumstances; of which I had previously made <him/her>clear. My Line Manager responded to my situation by stating; "It's not like you have any commitments". I found this comment to be unprofessional, and I felt that it infringed upon my personal circumstances; owing to the inference that I would have to justify 'commitments' to my Line Manager for his 'approval'.

Due to not holding a full UK Drivers Licence, I use a road bicycle -- placing me under undue pressure to meet the demands of multiple commutes to many places of work. Due to these pressures I was involved in a road accident on 14/06/2014.

Alongside the disregard towards my personal circumstances, I was also informed that I would undertake a period of 'shadowing' colleagues in order to learn the correct procedures and interactions required for my position. This did not transpire, and I was immediately expected to operate at full capacity.

Due to the unreasonable expectation that I was to immediately begin working a 7-day week on split shifts, I was placed under further stress, and left unable to attend to my other responsibilities; which caused myself and my family a large degree of inconvenience, anxiety and distress.

The European Working Time Directive (2003/88/EC) stipulates that EU workers have the right to a minimum number of holidays each year. To rest breaks; and rest of at least 11 consecutive hours in any 24 hours. It restricts excessive night work, allows a day off after a weeks work; and provides for a right to work no more than 48 hours per week.

It is my belief that this role and the expectations placed upon me violate this directive.

Owing to the culmination of these circumstances, I have dismissed myself with immediate effect; as I could not continue working inside these inflexible, unhealthy and illegal arrangements.

Owing to my Line Manager being obstructive in my attempts to resolve my working hours, and my ultimate inability to meet the unacceptable, and previously undisclosed job requirement; I am compelled to hand in my resignation. It is my belief that <company> will be unable to provide a position which meets the original expectation. Therefore I am of the opinion that my resignation constitutes constructive dismissal, and I would seek a timely conclusion to my employment.

Regards,

Yer mom.

Bearing in mind buddy that we don't know what you actually signed.. Rly need to pay keen attention to the employment contract before you aim for constructive dismissal. Worst case scenario though?. They hunt you down for the cost of the training; which is by far better than being stuck in that utterly depressing work situation. **** that for a game, old boy.

I'd personally ditch the bit about having to justify commitments to the manager too. I would imagine most people have to, in a fashion.

 

[FortuitousFluke]

A bit of a shift of topic but can I ask if the care provider you are working for holds a contract with a local authority? The reason I ask is I work in Social Care Contracting and I can tell you that any contracting authority would be very interested to hear about the fact that you didn't receive any shadowing, despite being promised it, as might the CQC.

 

[jimjamuk]

At the end of the day - it will be the contract you signed - if there is no sign of these ridiculous hours in there then you can walk away. If it is in there then give notice and walk. Chalk it up to experience

 

[Schlong&Stable]

This is one thing that actually baffles me about our monetary system.

I know it's because no body wants to do them, that it's the 'bottom end' (and I use that term incredibly loosely and not at all in a detrimental way) of society (e.g. cleaners, bin-men, carers), that is, the people who fell through the cracks that tend to take this jobs as a last resort and hence get paid so poorly, but surely it makes more sense to pay people more for doing the jobs that no-one wants to do? There are thousands of middle-management jobs that does nothing but paper-push yet find themselves paid above average.

You couldn't pay me 40k pa to scrub poo for a living. So why does paying minimum wage (which is realistically worse than that if you're on part-time hours) make any sense?

Because it's unskilled. I absolutely agree the work is probably more valuable to society, but that will never be reflected in the salary.

 

[ColdAsIce]

Was pretty shocked reading this. The hours of your contract are absolutely disgusting. I think you should be letting newspapers/BBC know about your contract so this issue can be raised on a larger scale.

This kind of setup cannot be good for either the Carer or the person receiving the care. It's no wonder people are at breaking point.

 

[Judgeneo]

Ouch, great advice from others in this thread, I hope you get out of it as soon as possible!

 

[Amp34]

Split shifts and zero hour contracts should be illegal. Alas!

My advice is to avoid if at all possible as it will effect your health in the long run.

No they shouldn't Nix. Zero hours contracts (or tempting) are ideal for many people who want flexability and or can't work regularly. The problem is the bad eggs spoil it and stick everyone on them, for their own benefit. Employment should go both ways, we need to weed out the bad employers not blanket ban practices that some take advantage of.

This is one thing that actually baffles me about our monetary system.

I know it's because no body wants to do them, that it's the 'bottom end' (and I use that term incredibly loosely and not at all in a detrimental way) of society (e.g. cleaners, bin-men, carers), that is, the people who fell through the cracks that tend to take this jobs as a last resort and hence get paid so poorly, but surely it makes more sense to pay people more for doing the jobs that no-one wants to do? There are thousands of middle-management jobs that does nothing but paper-push yet find themselves paid above average.

You couldn't pay me 40k pa to scrub poo for a living. So why does paying minimum wage (which is realistically worse than that if you're on part-time hours) make any sense?

unfortunately most minimum wage jobs are minimum wage because they are no/low skilled jobs. Almost anyone could get a job tomorrow as a binman, do a days training and be out picking up rubbish. Middle management jobs should involve people who have the necessary skills and experience, meaning there are fewer people able to do it ergo higher pay.

It's not the hard and fast rule but generally pretty accurate.

OP, while the hours you posted don't seem that bad (finish at half 3) the overall contract sounds awful. Get out while you can. They are the bad employer I mentioned above...

 

[elmarko]

It's a ****ed up world. Care workers are just used and abused, hence why some go off the rails.

My sister works in care. She looks after mentally handicapped people (has to wipe their asses and stuff...), some are violent etc, and she gets less then 7 quid an hour..

I make more in a day then she will in 2 weeks. It's shameful really.

It's something I've noticed as I have moved up the pay scales.

My life get's easier, I work more standard hours & my work is less stressful. To be, that isn't very balanced on the grand scheme of things.

I'd like to see nurses, care staff, cleaners get paid a much greater amount - as it's not pleasant or easy work. They also have real world responsibility, something which many well paid jobs lack.

To the OP.

I'd leave right now, it's not going to get any better from the sounds of it & neither is it going to be an easy job on-top of that horrendous shift pattern.

Middle management jobs should involve people who have the necessary skills and experience, meaning there are fewer people able to do it ergo higher pay.

Should being the key word, across two large energy companies & one of the largest insurance providers I've seen countless staff members doing jobs for £30/40k+ which a trained monkey could do.

 

[PiKe]

Are split shifts actually illegal then?

 

[mattyg]

Are split shifts actually illegal then?

No but you should be having 11 hours continuous rest in a 24hr period

 

[Pestilence]

The OP does need to carefully check his contract, however, as it's possible to opt out of the WTD via contract terms.