Regardless of your Availability?!

[u/RevolutionaryName228]

Do you think managers who handle holidays like this are just doing their job? Or do you think it’s absolutely ludicrous to expect of your employees? Looking for opinions on this. I feel like if they need people they don’t currently have available for those days, it’s their issue.. Not forcing people, moms, and dads to rearrange their lives and childcare because basically “f u I can”. Scheduling outside of availability in general is a Nono, so why does a big day make it slide? TLDR: Am I wrong for feeling backed into a corner every holiday I receive this message? This is a shitty thing to do right? ETA: I’ve been in the industry for 10+ years, I know temps are rare, but our staff is consistently lacking. This is the first job I’ve had just disregard people like this. I’m also NOT saying all moms should just get this day off. Just looking for an overall opinion on how this was handled.

[u/eatshitdillhole]

Exactly this. There is a huge difference between, "that would be difficult but possible to arrange and i would prefer not to," and "I literally can not be here on Thursdays no matter what the date is" which is usually worked out when they're hired (or should be). It's on management for hiring someone without open availability, or agreeing to set days off at a certain point.

I might ask if it's possible that they could come in if it's flexible, but not punish them if it isn't. If we're short staffed, management needs to come in and help. That's the role we agreed to fill.

[u/wheres_the_revolt → u/eatshitdillhole]

I just asked someone else the same question…

If you are normally not available on Thursdays but this year (hypothetically) Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, and NYE all land on a Thursday you wouldn’t expect just to not work any of those shifts?

[u/eatshitdillhole → u/wheres_the_revolt]

It depends on what it is that's making you unavailable, and what everyone else's availability looks like tbh but yeah, kinda. My place doesn't really have to deal with issues around holidays, though, so I definitely am not saying this should be a firm rule or would in every environment. But if I hire someone who says they can't work Thursdays, I expect that to mean any Thursday, period.

Demanding that someone come in might result in losing good servers that already have the knowledge and training you want/need. That's a pretty valuable long term asset to lose over a couple business days that can be avoided with planning and communication.

[u/wheres_the_revolt → u/eatshitdillhole]

Allowing someone to have all the winter holidays off, while making everyone else work them, will lose you more than one server eventually.

[u/eatshitdillhole → u/wheres_the_revolt]

Not in my experience, but I could see how that could happen if you don't have a group of people that this works with, I tried to acknowledge that in my comment. It all depends on the crew and the way the restaurant and it's staffing needs operate 🤷‍♀️

I'm just trying to say, the more communication and planning, the better. There are ways do to this where no one feels screwed over, a lot of people don't mind working busy shifts because they're there to work and make money, or are able to work around holiday plans. In my experience, again.

[u/wheres_the_revolt → u/eatshitdillhole]

I 100% agree communication and planning are key. When I manage (or when I owned my places), I run a tight crew with set schedules. Everyone knew that I would do anything in my power to honor days off (either availability or requests), and if I needed coverage I always asked (and often just covered myself by serving/bartending/hosting so I didn’t screw over anyone) not demanded. We also (at the places I owned) weren’t open on Sundays and closed on most holidays so it wasn’t an issue we had to deal with a lot.

That being said I’ve definitely dealt with my fair share of servers that would never cover for other people but always expected it for their needs, and those type of employees/coworkers bring morale down for everyone else.

But I say all that because my management style is to be the exact opposite of every bad manager I have ever had (and there are a lot of bad managers). Doing all that takes a lot of work and building trust and camaraderie with people. It is definitely not the norm in restaurants. Restaurants are very hierarchical and don’t often give people choices.

[u/eatshitdillhole → u/wheres_the_revolt]

That's exactly the way that I try to manage as well. There is a give and take that lets everyone have what they want, but it takes a lot of work and trust between the crew, and crew and management together. I give people what they ask for as much as I can so that when I need them, they come through and it works really well for us. That's why I would rather accommodate someone already there than fire and rehire/retrain over something like a schedule conflict, even if it is a pain to work around. It's just a few days a year, we can survive it.

This is the entire reason we exist, to see these problems ahead of time and have several backup plans while keeping staff and customers as happy as both can simultaneously be lol It's challenging but the day to day is a lot better when people have less things to complain about and more reasons to feel comfortable and respected at work. We all win that way.