Unethical?

[Anakah]

My fiance applied for a different shift in the same department as me. Now, I thought since it was a different shift it would be okay... Evidentally not. I was told today that the head honcho said no.

Now, my question is why is it okay for a mother and a son to work on the same shift but not for me and my fiance on different ones?

[Gurndigarn]

My fiance applied for a different shift in the same department as me. Now, I thought since it was a different shift it would be okay... Evidentally not. I was told today that the head honcho said no.

Now, my question is why is it okay for a mother and a son to work on the same shift but not for me and my fiance on different ones?

It's not. Who let the mother and son combo in?

[SuperDan]

At my store they do allow family or SO employment, but they must not work in the same departments. I'm not sure how far out on the family tree this is enforced though, as we do have an aunt-niece combo on the front end. They also didn't have any problems having me fill in for call-offs and busy times on the front end when my sister was there, but then again it wasn't my official job I was just a fill-in.

It is possible for you and your fiancee, being on different shifts, to work together to clean the place out, or to make things hell for the other employees. Even if that isn't your intent, one bad apple spoils the bunch.

Advise your fiancee to apply for a different department. And make a "casual inquiry" to the district office or to HR about the ethics of having a mother-son combo in the same department. They have the tendency to go back and look at things that they may have missed.

[TNT]

Where I work, it's explicitly stated that family and couples can work for the company and even in the same department. The only thing that's not allowed is when one is directly superior to the other. That is, we have a mother and son who work in the department. The mother could be a supervisor, as long as she's not her son's supervisor. However, she couldn't be the call center manager, as she would be the boss of everyone in her department, including her son. (Obviously, the same would hold true for the son if he were the one in the superior position.)

The policy gets sticky sometimes, but then again, life's going to be sticky at times. We deal with it.

[Department stores *sigh*]

really? my manager is married to the cashier manager, we had one upstair service personel's brother work in Home E, the resteraunt managers daughter was a cashier, DM's son is a stock guy, had an upstairs assoc and a downstairs assoc as sisters, stock guy was a bro to an upstairs service (didnt work together long). ummmmmmm....thinking thinking thinking.....some temps where youger kids of managers if there was no one else to work em. thats all that come to mind

[Becks]

I guess it all depends on the policy at one's place of employment. Where I work, we have families working there, some in the same department, some in other departments. Case in point--One son works in frozen, other son works in produce, daughter works in the front end, mother works in foods to go, and daughter-in-law/wife of son in frozen works in customer service. No problems.

[GayleShy]

Where I work, it's explicitly stated that family and couples can work for the company and even in the same department. The only thing that's not allowed is when one is directly superior to the other. That is, we have a mother and son who work in the department. The mother could be a supervisor, as long as she's not her son's supervisor. However, she couldn't be the call center manager, as she would be the boss of everyone in her department, including her son. (Obviously, the same would hold true for the son if he were the one in the superior position.)

Same in our store. We've had a mother/daughter working on the front end, a mother/son working over nights and a CSM who is married to a Department Manager, which is fine becuase they are on equal footing, rank wise.

[AFpheonix]

In both hubby's and my respective chains, family can work for the same company but not for the same store. It works well for my chain, because I swear we're attempting to take over the world or something with the number of locations we're opening up. At hubby's store, the reason why was illustrated perfectly by one engaged couple who had a falling out, and it really affected the work flow there until one of them was transferred.