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That day is coming in a couple of weeks, Black Friday, the darkest day of Retail in the whole year (aside from the poor souls who now have to actually work on Thanksgiving).
I thought maybe we could take this opportunity to share our tales of Black Friday.
My story:
Black Friday, 2003
Location: Department store in a major urban mall.
I was part-time, like almost everybody else there. I had no set schedule and my hours varied from week-to-week from around 12 to about 30. For the week of Black Friday, I had 14.5 hours scheduled, all of it that day.
The store normally opened at 8 AM and closed at 10 PM. For Black Friday, they would open at 6 AM, and publicizing their new early opening. They wanted virtually every employee there when they opened, they were expecting a storm of customers, and wanted no shortage of salespeople. So, at 6 AM that morning, I was there.
It was indeed moderately busy at 6, but not super busy. They had a brisk, but not crushing, traffic of people throughout the morning. Most people they had brought in for that day had to only work until noon. I was on the schedule until 9 PM, only an hour before closing.
(Also, they made it clear that calling in sick to work that day would result in termination unless you had a Dr.'s note, as an exception to their usual sick-day policy where they didn't care as long as you didn't exceed the allowed number of sick-days taken per year)
The management made it crystal clear: no breaks at all could be taken without prior management approval, and no lunch breaks at all could be taken before noon and then only with management approval (to keep the entire store from going on lunch at once).
Well. . .I didn't get to go to lunch until 1 (they were staggering the lunch breaks apparently, I lost), so that meant 7 hours on the clock without a meal break. Also, no rest breaks, my manager said it was way, way too important of a day to be off the floor for any reason. Never mind that by noon the business had slowed down to being only slightly busier than usual. Management was hyped up that Black Friday was such an incredibly busy day that required every employee to be there constantly.
Well, I got my half-hour lunch at 1 PM (normally I would have got a full hour lunch for working 8 or more hours, but you know, Black Friday, so normal rules didn't apply). However, the boss was clear, no break time allowed, it's too important for everyone to be on the floor during Black Friday.
By 5 or 6 PM, business had slowed to a trickle, the usual dead state of things at work where there were only a handful of customers in the store at any one time. The Boss still refused to allow any breaks, since "it's still Black Friday, it's important to be out there for the customers!"
Well, my boss finally left at 8 PM. By company policy, I'd racked up 45 minutes of break time (15 minutes per 4 hours on the clock). I was off work in an hour, and by company policies I could clock out up to 15 minutes early and not be penalized if I'd already worked at least 8 hours that day.
So, at 8 PM, after I saw my boss walk out the door (and at this hour, only one manager was left in the building), I took a side door into the back-room areas and went to the breakroom and chilled out for 45 minutes watching TV and relaxing, and I got up to go to the timeclock to punch out.
The only manager left was standing by the timeclock, leaning against it, arms crossed. She threatened to fire me, on the spot, for "walking off the sales floor without permission" (since breaks weren't allowed on Black Friday). Apparently "someone" had told her that not only had I walked off the floor to go on break, I'd abandoned a customer to do so, and she threatened to fire me for that too.
Having been there from before dawn until after dark, of now over 14 hours on the clock at minimum wage and over 12 hours without a break. . .I let the [censored] have it. I told her it was illegal to prohibit rest breaks just because it's Black Friday, all I did was take the break time I'd accumulated from my 14+ hours on the clock, I didn't abandon any customer and we haven't had any customers in my department in a couple of hours because they all came this morning, that if she doubted me the Security office was right over there and we can pull the tapes, and if she tries to fire me for taking break time that is mandated by company policy AND labor laws I'll be on the phone with a labor law attorney first thing Monday morning.
She just stood back, scowled, and muttered "Well. . .don't let it happen again."
I quit the job shortly thereafter to return to college.
I thought maybe we could take this opportunity to share our tales of Black Friday.
My story:
Black Friday, 2003
Location: Department store in a major urban mall.
I was part-time, like almost everybody else there. I had no set schedule and my hours varied from week-to-week from around 12 to about 30. For the week of Black Friday, I had 14.5 hours scheduled, all of it that day.
The store normally opened at 8 AM and closed at 10 PM. For Black Friday, they would open at 6 AM, and publicizing their new early opening. They wanted virtually every employee there when they opened, they were expecting a storm of customers, and wanted no shortage of salespeople. So, at 6 AM that morning, I was there.
It was indeed moderately busy at 6, but not super busy. They had a brisk, but not crushing, traffic of people throughout the morning. Most people they had brought in for that day had to only work until noon. I was on the schedule until 9 PM, only an hour before closing.
(Also, they made it clear that calling in sick to work that day would result in termination unless you had a Dr.'s note, as an exception to their usual sick-day policy where they didn't care as long as you didn't exceed the allowed number of sick-days taken per year)
The management made it crystal clear: no breaks at all could be taken without prior management approval, and no lunch breaks at all could be taken before noon and then only with management approval (to keep the entire store from going on lunch at once).
Well. . .I didn't get to go to lunch until 1 (they were staggering the lunch breaks apparently, I lost), so that meant 7 hours on the clock without a meal break. Also, no rest breaks, my manager said it was way, way too important of a day to be off the floor for any reason. Never mind that by noon the business had slowed down to being only slightly busier than usual. Management was hyped up that Black Friday was such an incredibly busy day that required every employee to be there constantly.
Well, I got my half-hour lunch at 1 PM (normally I would have got a full hour lunch for working 8 or more hours, but you know, Black Friday, so normal rules didn't apply). However, the boss was clear, no break time allowed, it's too important for everyone to be on the floor during Black Friday.
By 5 or 6 PM, business had slowed to a trickle, the usual dead state of things at work where there were only a handful of customers in the store at any one time. The Boss still refused to allow any breaks, since "it's still Black Friday, it's important to be out there for the customers!"
Well, my boss finally left at 8 PM. By company policy, I'd racked up 45 minutes of break time (15 minutes per 4 hours on the clock). I was off work in an hour, and by company policies I could clock out up to 15 minutes early and not be penalized if I'd already worked at least 8 hours that day.
So, at 8 PM, after I saw my boss walk out the door (and at this hour, only one manager was left in the building), I took a side door into the back-room areas and went to the breakroom and chilled out for 45 minutes watching TV and relaxing, and I got up to go to the timeclock to punch out.
The only manager left was standing by the timeclock, leaning against it, arms crossed. She threatened to fire me, on the spot, for "walking off the sales floor without permission" (since breaks weren't allowed on Black Friday). Apparently "someone" had told her that not only had I walked off the floor to go on break, I'd abandoned a customer to do so, and she threatened to fire me for that too.
Having been there from before dawn until after dark, of now over 14 hours on the clock at minimum wage and over 12 hours without a break. . .I let the [censored] have it. I told her it was illegal to prohibit rest breaks just because it's Black Friday, all I did was take the break time I'd accumulated from my 14+ hours on the clock, I didn't abandon any customer and we haven't had any customers in my department in a couple of hours because they all came this morning, that if she doubted me the Security office was right over there and we can pull the tapes, and if she tries to fire me for taking break time that is mandated by company policy AND labor laws I'll be on the phone with a labor law attorney first thing Monday morning.
She just stood back, scowled, and muttered "Well. . .don't let it happen again."
I quit the job shortly thereafter to return to college.
If they were actually nice we'd whip them up a plate from leftovers from the employee potluck; if they were grumpy then no dice. One even had the audacity to say, "I know it's your holiday but they should know Canadian shoppers will be coming down the day before so someone should be open for us!" Wanted to smack that one.
He is my Black Dragon (and yes, a good one) strong, protective, the guardian. I am his Silver Dragon, always by his side, shining for him, cherishing him.
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