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Working hours - Informal Letter
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
in Work & Study
It's more of an informal letter to my manager than anything official at this time, I would however like to get some opinions. cheers
Opinions would be brilliant, I want to come across as an informal enquiry without rattling feathers at present.
REMOVED AS IT WAS CRAP
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Opinions would be brilliant, I want to come across as an informal enquiry without rattling feathers at present.
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Comments
Obviously this is just my personal opinion, so you should feel free to write whatever feels right for you. Just curious what type of manager or person it'd be sent to, it can make a big difference in how you might approach the issue.
If sending an email does feel right then, as others mention, I'd start by just saying clearly what you want - if it sounds informal, it'll be informal, you don't need to say that, just make sure it reads that way.
Focus on the main issue. Is it the Late Hotel followed by the Audit or is it the more general gap between a Late Hotel and Morning Resort. If it's the worse situation you want to focus on right now then I'd stick to that and not wander into the other issues.
By the way, are these shift titles capitalised or not, you've used it both ways so I'll assume capitalised.
Also, it's important to decide, in your own mind, whether or not you want to approach this as something that's about your legal right to a break of a certain length between shifts or whether it's about a casual or informal requests to try and avoid it happening.
You say it's an informal letter but as soon as you mention the working time directive then it isn't really informal, it's a little more than that. I imagine you're trying to strengthen your case but it does change the tone
I know it can be hard to figure out how to get something across so I'll give you my example. But feel free to play with it or disregard it if it doesn't feel right. I've assumed you want it to be informal so that's what I've focused on. This wouldn't stop you mentioning things like the Working Time Directive in a reply, but for now I've suggested not bringing that up.
But again, I'm focusing just on the very worst situation here - not on the late followed by early. See what you think though. Oh and I'm assuming you'd be okay to chat about it? If you think your working with a manager who would be offended to chat with you or any other staff about problems then you could maybe massage their ego a bit ("I know you're really good at working shifts out, can you find a way to avoid this?")
Yeah, I've worked a day, through the nighat and the ne day, but that's when it needs to happen because something has broken. I just wouldn't accept planned work with less than a 9 hour break (unfortunately, I do that quite a lot)
Just mentioning it, so you don't think you're being out of line for wanting a decent night's sleep
:yes: And isn't the law 12 hours too?
Honestly? The first paragraph confused the hell out of me. If it's informal I see no reason why it has to be a letter rather than a face-to-face chat. I've done what you talk about in your letter (finishing at 10/11 and then starting early the next day) and it's horrible. Hell, even a 12-8 followed by a 7 or 8 am start is horrible.
You have every right to demand 11 hours, too, even if you don't feel like you want to. If they haven't got the staff to do the shifts, they need to hire more people, not fuck over those who do work there.
We've got the staff Franki, that isn't the issue, the problem is the rotaing, and by rare i mean once every couple of weeks / 1/2 times a week per person.
The rota works like this, 4shifts a day (for us) 2earlies, 2lates,
06.30-14.30 (called Early Hotel/Audit)
07.30-15.30 (called Early Resort)
14.30-22.30 (called Late Resort)
15.00-23.00 (called Late Hotel)
The problem is how they structure the rota, for example we're often given a Late shift followed by an early shift, and no matter what late followed by early you do you never get 11hours, the best you can hope for is 9hours. and although rare but still happens a Late Hotel followed by a Early Hotel is around 7.30 hours in between shift.
It is something I want to bring up, the problem is, they'll ask why am I bringing it up now as it's been like this for ages (the 3 years I've been there) My argument is that regardless of that it is starting to have a negative effect, for example my son did not see me at all yesterday through till 14.30 when I finished today,
With the new one on the way it'll mean staying up at night, however one part worries mean about this, a section from the direct.gov website regarding the working time direct.
The part I've put in bold worries me as it is so vague but I am classed as working in Tourism.
Sorry but regardless to this I don't care if their is a JOB to be done, at the end of day I have a LEGAL right to work no more than 48hours (which is not an issue here) and have 11 hours in between breaks
Sorry but there is being flexible and then being used/fucked over. regardless of being flexible I am still entitled to what I am entitled to.
Just because it says 'hospital work' there, and I know doctors are still covered by the directive... and have to have 11 hours break.
Edit - sorry I actually have no idea....
There are 3 times of breaks covered by the WTD,
Rest Breaks - Daily breaks at work
Daily Breaks - Breaks in between shifts
Weekly Breaks - Breaks at the end of your working week (your weekend basically)
After checking the section refers from what I can tell to all breaks not just "rest breaks"
Rather than kicking up a fuss about working time directive as such, if you can do it as a face to face conversation just put your point across, a good slant may be that if you've got a stupid gap between shifts then you'll be tired when you come back into work, and not presenting the company well, etc, that suck up kind of stuff. As for why its an issue now, if they ask, point out that when you started it was just you and relatively few other commitments, you've now got a little one and expecting another so you've got less leeway in the rest of life.
I just wouldn't do it.
In your case, you may get "well, i will think about it"...
But the best thing you can do is to propose a plan to change that, not only submit a complain, just try to think a way of making it work ....design a plan for it...and you´ll succeed!
wish you luck!