A TikTok user named @deszb_ has taken to the platform to call out inconsiderate managers and the schedules they create. Her criticism applies to retail and fast-food jobs, especially in mall locations. At the time of publication, the video had amassed 192,000 views and 941 comments.
@deszb_ has questions for the people responsible for making schedules in customer service jobs, such as fast-food and retail positions. Employees at these businesses often have schedules that change weekly. Sometimes, managers schedule employees to close a store one night, only to have them return the next morning to open it.
“Why do you think I would want to sit up here, clean the whole store, set up the store for in the morning and stay all the way until close and then turn around, not have no time for myself, get up and come open? ... Why would I want to clopen?” she asks.
“Clopen” refers to working a closing shift followed by an opening shift the next day. @deszb_ is specifically referring to this happening at malls, which she says close at 10 p.m. If she had to return the next morning to open the store, she would have little time to herself between shifts.
She also points out that the managers creating these schedules may never have had to clopen themselves. In her view, they wouldn't want to work those shifts, yet they expect their employees to do so.
“I have a life,” she says in the video, echoing what many retail employees are expressing in the comments. Employees' open availability can unfortunately be taken advantage of far too often.
Retail Workers Share Their Frustrations With Back-to-Back Closing and Opening Shifts
While rotating shifts and not knowing what they will be working from week to week are common in retail and fast-food jobs, that doesn't make difficult schedules any easier to manage.
“retail managers NEVER work any shift but morning but will have you closing EVERYNIGHT![sic]” one user wrote.
“Yall[sic] saying 'open availability' and never once considered the person you hired as a human being? You won't work back to back so why tf[sic] would I?” another commenter asked.
The video also seemed to strike a nerve with some managers, with one defending themselves and their colleagues:
“honey im a manager and I just clopen this week. I take hours making the schedule making sure ppl got hours and a fair schedule. then the minute.. then minute it dont fit their needs they complaining. like dang I missed it this give me a dang break. I be tryin and ppl still be unsatisfied. really as a manager can't win for losing.”
It's not always easy to create a perfect schedule for every employee. However, workers have a right to be frustrated, especially when difficult scheduling appears to be a recurring pattern. While these situations do happen, TikTok commenters were quick to defend @deszb_'s frustration and share similar experiences of their own.
The Daily Dot was unable to independently verify the claims made by @deszb_, which are based on her opinions and experiences shared in her TikTok video.
