vB Easy Archive - Part-time Cingular Employee Issues

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Part-time Cingular Employee Issues
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Posted by: smackdat

I have been with Cingular corporate for nearly 6 months and before that worked for several worthless agent companies. I go to school full-time and was hired to work at Cingular ONLY Fri, Sat, and Sun because of school during the week, basically 20-24 hrs/wk. Now everything is going fine as I love Cingular and I talk it up all the time to everyone. I am constanty in the top ten every month as I am a good salesman and take pride in my work so to speak. The mgr that hired me moved to a different store and a new mgr came in. Then comes Christmas and my new mgr asks me about being able to work anymore then just the weekends I work. I said I may be able to squeeze in an extra day possibly. So I do and now I'm working 4 days instead of 3. Now that I'm working this extra day, I decide that well if I'm gonna do this then I might as well get the discount on my insurance for a part-time person who works 30+ hours so I got my insurance reduced because of this.

Now comes the start of my new semester and I need to change the one day I work during the week to another day and my mgr comes at me with:

"Cingular does not allow set schedules...blah blah blah...you need to have more availability...."

So I'm like WTF?? He was basically saying that I need to be available whenever I'm needed(I would have become FT if I had that kind of availabilty). So I ask this, what is the point of Cingular offereing part-time to employees if your not being treated like you are a part-time worker. PART-TIME means just what it is....means you need a set schedule because you have other things going on besides work. He said he would faxed my school schedule to my district manager for an aproval. I have to wait for the answer next week to see what happens. And if for some reason, it's not...sh@t I don't know....So I have a question to all Cingular employees...

Has anyone ever encountered this problem?
Heard of anyone having this issue?
Is this just a store level mgr thing or is this nationwide?
I have heard of mgrs strongholding their employees into working more hours...Is this true? Especially ones who sell well...like me?
I know several part-timers working 40+ hours in my area(because they want to) and not get the full-time insurance benefits.

If anyone has any input on this it would be great. And can the Union help me on this? Even if I don't pay any dues as Cingular told me that we are AUTOMATICALLY a part of it anyways. I just want to get this resolved as I love working for Cingular and love selling Cingular products, just don't want this to be as big of a deal as it is looking to be.

This job is excellent while I'm in school as I make a very hefty of money. I appeciate any help as I am very concerned about this.

Posted by: blessd24

He can help you out and does not need approval for that. I just give my manager my school schedule and she takes care of my work schedule. I am actually full time and she still takes care of me. She does the same for the PT.

Posted by: within360

You might get better advice from someone who has gone through it, but here's my two cents. You have two choices, either union or non-union. If you are not sure what is going on or if you feel that your manager is flying by the seat of his/her pants on this issue, set up a meeting to make your case and make it clear what are the consequences of you holding the company to the original arrangement. It is best for the company (and managers) to have the most flexible schedule as possible and there is a lot of pressure to fit the store schedules (and manpower levels) into the current scheduling system. See if you can find out why your current mgr is being less flexible.The company is very inconsistant on part-time schedules and it is common for some managers to never hire PTs with certain schedule requirements and for other managers to hire the best and brightest no matter what sort of scheduling crazyness it results in. It could be that your current mgr just has very different views of PT employees or could be low seniority and wants to mold his crew into exactly how he/she feels the company wants it. You may want to reach out for advice from your previous mgr, if you had a good relationship you might get some good advice. You also might get some support from an HR representative if you can say you were hired specifically for the 3 day weekend schedule. Most of the HR people will want to avoid a union issue if it is just a misunderstanding or communication problem. If ,on the otherhand, you have been told you will be terminated if you stick to your original schedule agreement or you have done some of this already and think it is a lost cause, go to your union steward. You might want to find your little orange book first and review the contract, I can't remember what it says specfically about PT schedules. The drawback with the union approach is that, more often than not, it becomes pretty adversarial with union and management making it a real us vs them (loser or winner) argument rather than creating a win/win solution. Remember Managers have to juggle a lot of issues and scheduling can be a major stress inducer especially if you have inflexible PTs (not a criticism, just a fact).Sometimes the management just needs to realize that to have talented PTs on staff takes a little flexibility, good luck.

Posted by: jflore02

[B]If you are a union employee then maybe you should go to your manager and state that you want a union rep there when he tells you what your schedule is.

Posted by: smackdat

I believe we have a resolution now!! I thank you for all of your help on this matter!! Well back to selling phones, DSL, home service, satellite and everything else you can think of!!