An experience at a job that

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So, a couple things before I go on my rant:

1. This is my 1,000th post on WP!

2. I would post this in the “work and finding a job” forum, but very few people seem to go there and a few other threads for some reason.

So anyway…………

As we have reached the new year, I’ve gotten to reflect on a lot of things that happened in 2023(and I mean, there were A LOT of things). Some of those instances were about people having a negative perception of me because of their inability to understand my intentions or where I was coming This one particular incident maybe wasn’t a “misunderstanding” per se, but it was about someone being mad at me for something that seemed to ridiculous for someone to be mad about.

For a few months, I worked at a skating rink. I would normally just hand out skates to people during the public skates. myself and everyone else were always scheduled 30 minutes, or on a couple of occasions, a whole hour before the start of these public skates. We would all just sit and do nothing during that time. I figured out how ridiculous that was and I just started showing up closer to when the public skate started. For a month, that went off without a hitch, until I showed up for a shift and the manager was there for some reason(which was unusual since I only worked weekends, which he usually was never there for). He proceeds to get mad at me for not showing up when I was scheduled, asking “why are you 24 minutes late?” And “what time were you scheduled?”.

I’m just going to put it to y’all like this, and it’s the part I can’t stress enough: he got so mad at me because I wasn’t showing up to sit and do nothing. I at least hope that anyone who just read that sentence can understand how insane that is.

I can understand if it was some sort of corporate policy(which would be stupid, but that’s beside the point), and that my manager would civilly ask me to arrive when I’m scheduled. But damnit, it’s ridiculous that he reacted the same way he would if it were a job where I DID start working right when I’m scheduled.

It also didn’t help that both my parents acted as if it was an idiotic assumption I had made to show up later, not thing my boss could be such a jerk about it and without seeming to realize that that was the first job I had in which things were like that.

Your parents are right. You need to be there when the schedule says.

Congrats on your 1000 post.

Yeah, jobs are stupid, rules are stupid. But if you want to keep your job, you need to stick to the rules. If you can't learn to do that then you're going to have a tough time in employment.

If you really feel the schedule is unnecessarily padded then you should speak to your line manager about it, not just assume it will be okay if you show up when you think it's appropriate.

Yeah if they can get by with you working fewer hours, they won't have to pay you as much, so it's a win for them.

Of course someone diverts this to the rule itself rather than the part I was talking about……

Since it’s been brought up I’ll just ask, why on earth is it so important to show up 30 mins before anything is happening to sit and do nothing to the point that it’s worth me getting scolded for? (I know you didn’t say that last part, but you and others seem so adamant about it that it gives off that vibe, no matter the nuances).

They are presumably paying you by the hour. You made money you didn't earn. That doesn't sit well with employers. There may be a reason for you to be there "on standby" in case something popped up.

But even if that's not the reason, you are being paid when you are on the clock. If your employer is not efficient with time management, that's their problem, not yours. If the employer literally wanted you to sit doing nothing for a full shift, then you need to do it, talk to the employer about it, or get a different job.

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I was never explicitly told how important it was that I do that. If it was another job where the work started right when I showed up, there would be no doubt in my mind as to when to show up.

I figured that if I did show up when I was scheduled, I would be taking things too literally. There are lots of things in life, in employment and otherwise, where things don’t need to be taken so literally.

Employment schedules, even stupid ones, are to be taken literally. 8am means 8am, not 8:34am. Always.

Did the manager counter with any sort of logic like what the staff are Supposed to be tasked with doing for an hour before opening? Like cleaning, maintaining skates/laces/blades, spraying disinfectant in skates, stocking soap and paper towels and toilet paper in washrooms, replenishing snacks for sale, changing light bulbs, sweeping floors, disinfecting benches, door handles and high touch areas, washing windows... a n y t h i n g ? Has there ever been a task assigned for that first hour? Are you supposed to spend it doing pre-shift stretching to ensure you don't get injured hustling around?

Seems like a management problem to me.. if people are scheduled but they don't know what they're supposed to be doing for that time. Seems like something the manager should have given clear instructions on from the beginning, but really should have clarified during a conversation about your start time.

Yes it does seem pretty stupid for a manager to get annoyed at somebody not being there when there's nothing useful to do. Unfortunately bosses often have the staff over a barrel because there aren't enough jobs to go round, so they can get away with being unreasonably rigid. Some of them aren't very bright. Rigid working hours seems to be a feature of lower-paid, "blue collar" jobs. In some places they even have a clocking-in system where you have to get a card time-stamped.

My job wasn't usually like that. As long as the work got done, the boss (a scientist) didn't care when we arrived and when we left. He was pragmatic like that. But there were a few bureaucrats who would occasionally try to tighten up the rules. The rules said I was supposed to be there for a certain fixed number of hours, but they got more out of me when they didn't insist on it, and it worked out better for me too, because it allowed me to bend the rules and get a bit of important shopping in or pick up my son from school.

The only thing I didn't like about it was that the boss was free to increase the workload as much as he liked, and to make it difficult for me to work efficiently, so there was no guarantee that I wouldn't suddenly have to work longer hours than I'd signed up for in order to meet the targets. Luckily I was always able to find clever ways of working efficiently enough, so overall I worked fewer than my contracted hours, and thus had a slightly better work-life balance than the bureaucrats wanted me to have.

When he was berating me he did say something about a hypothetical scenario in which a birthday party would be happening there in which us staff would have to help out with. Except for the fact that the times in which I did show up when I was scheduled, there was never one of those. He had all our numbers, so he could’ve always texted us to let us know whenever our help would be needed. That’s a long winded way of saying that him throwing that into his logic was bulls**t.

That's just how it is when you have a job. You have to do the things you're asked to do, even if they don't make any sense to you or you think they're stupid.

If an employer is willing to pay you do nothing for an hour I would take the money. Nothing unethical about taking advantage of an employers stupidity if that is what it is. I would not stay at a job where I did nothing all day because my brain would rot.

I wonder if the manager came from some old school of thought that everyone should arrive an ~hour before their shift so he schedules people like that And has new enough thinking to believe they should be paid for that time?

I know a lot of older people who had the habit of showing up 30-60 mins before their shift, then drink coffee/read or whatever before they get started. That way if there was bad traffic that morning due to an accident or something they'd almost never be late.

I see their logic, but I don't agree with it. F off - if you Expect me to be there an hour early then pay me for it, otherwise I'm sleeping in a bit longer.

Then there are other companies that have been abusing things like this for decades - like McDonald's. People who work in the back cooking have to come in And Start 1/2 an hour before their shift time starts as a "pre-shift," to get stock ready to work with on the line. Ummm, wtf? That's work you idiots you have to pay people to do work. But they didn't - people were required to start working 30mins early w/o pay. That's a part of why I never worked in the back cooking; F that. If you're paying me hourly then you must pay for my time as agreed or I'm not working.


Anyways, the ice rink manager sounds stupid. What a waste of money x however many employees x every single day = the owner of the place would be furious with that sort of waste for no benefit if people aren't even tasked with anything to do.

I strongly suspect that this is the case here.

Personally I've been referring to this as 'accounting for potential chaos' time.

I understand your frustration though, OP. Following inefficient or arbitrary systems can be incredibly annoying. I could tell you stories but I best not.

I had a factory job that was a real drag that I started 29 years ago. I was fine on the days that were busy. I had lots of waders to turn the right way and excess threads to trim off garments. On the days that were dead, I had to tape zippers with double-sided tape for 8 hours straight. My poor demented mind was slowly going. I only lasted three years.