The problem as I see it is there are too many partners that DGAF so the manager has to hire more to fill in for the ones that don’t show up, isolations, stuff like that. It is unfortunate that it affects everyone, and I’m sorry you’ve lost some hours. Maybe you could ask for more or pick up?

I struggle to maintain 30 hours a week as a full time employee and often get cut down to 25-28 hours. I don’t understand why our business keeps hiring people when I actively tell them I want more hours.

Coming from a manager’s point of view, I can kinda understand. Let’s use a hypothetical store that gets allocated 400 labor hours each week.

If we have 10 full time employees that all work 40 hours a week, everyone gets the hours they want, but nobody gets any time off and there’s no coverage if someone calls out since we know OT is a no go.

If we have 20 part time employees and each getting 20 hours per week, then if one of those employees has to quarantine each employee only needs to pick up an hour to get your coverage back to normal. The impact of losing the one isn’t as hard when you have the numerous employees to pick up the slack. This also allows days off much easier.

Now obviously these are the two extremes, but in general it works out easier for the manager to have more part time employees who need extra hours so they’ll always pick up shifts when the coverage is needed. Is this okay? No. But it is common. My DM always told me to have the maximum number of employees I can while still giving them the minimum number of hours they ask for - so if barista Ben asks for 30-40 hours, he’s getting 30 but you know you can probably count on him picking up an extra shift or two since he’s okay with up to 40 hours. This works well IF you actually give baristas the minimum they need and have enough need for extra coverage that they can routinely pick up shifts. I tried to put my baristas right in the middle - so if they wanted 30-40 I would give them 35. Still allows them to pick up shifts, but they probably won’t be begging for more hours.

I don’t say this to discredit what you’re saying, because you are correct. Your manager shouldn’t be hiring more people if you are asking for more hours. I’m just saying this so that you might understand why they’re doing what they’re doing.

Sounds like they trying to not give u more than 20 hours so u don’t get the benefits.

Meanwhile I get 1 day per week 🙃

Asking the real questions dude, I have 24 hours. 24!

In the sense of a business especially with the general lack of work ethic nowadays, it’s smarter for a business to have lots of employees part time versus a few full time. Reason being people call out, don’t show up, get worn out. I feel your pain though just wanted you to get the perspective that most business see. I would recommend talking to your manager about it and tell him how hard you work and that your needs as a dedicated employee are for a certain amount of hours or you will be forced to get a second job.

And yet every other person on this sub is complaining about being understaffed

The same thing is happening at our store and it’s extremely frustrating. I just signed up for benefits and they’ve dropped me down to 17hrs each week. I haven’t even gotten my teeth fixed yet. I’m scared I’m going to lose my benefits. Ahhh.

SAME! It’s disgusting