Assignment 2c

When you are accepted to work at a particular company, your employer will address and assign you the times you will be coming in. Shift work can be defined as a ‘work schedule that utilises 24 hours a day and occasionally, 7 days a week, to keep an organisation operating. Once you come to the end of your assigned hours, the next employee will come into work doing their shift, so the business will carry on operating as usual. For example, you are allocated a shift from 12-9pm; you are obligated to carry out the tasks given to you. Many retail companies close around 7pm, and if you are still working, your job will be to re-stock all products and improve the presentation for the next morning. There are certain circumstances where you have other priorities like going to university, meetings or even you are ill, you have to inform the company so they can get someone else to fill in your shift. However, there are several disadvantages regarding situations in which people phone in sick. Employees who enjoy their work will try their upmost best to try minimise being ill, as it will increase the workload on other workers.

Going back to the point I made about negotiating times in which you are available to work, there are different types shifts in which people can work. They include:

Day shift – You are responsible for finishing off all the last minute preparations and getting the store in good condition. Other than that, you are responsible for opening up the business. Your typical day shift is naturally Monday to Friday, 0600-1400.

Night shift – According to the Working Time Solutions Company, they define this type of shift as ‘this model covers typically, but not exclusively, Monday to Friday 2200-0600. The alternative Sunday to Thursday stint tends to be popular with employees. The default cover would be: 5 x 8 hours = 40 hours. When used in conjunction with 2-shift system, it gives 120 hours total. When used in isolation, 4 x 10 hour night shifts are popular. Meal breaks are frequently but not exclusively paid. People who work on ‘Regular Nights’ often do so because it suits them. It should not be assumed a revised system which includes some rotation into days will be welcomed’.

Once the employer of a certain company accepts your application for a specific job role, the employer will give you an ‘employment contract’ which will briefly outline how long you will be working at the company for. Many contracts vary from short term (you may work at an organisation for 2-3months) or a long-term contract (you may work at a company for a long period of time). A very good example for this matter happens in the film industry. If a camera assistant is in on-going negotiations with the production company, you will either be discussing a short-term or a long-term deal. If your current deal expires, the production company have the right to whether they should offer you a contract extension. Looking at this matter from another perspective other than film, the UK’s governing body states that ‘if the employee has 2 years service, the employer will need to show that there is a valid reason for not renewing your contract’. All companies are obligated to discuss the type of contract they wish for you to sign, and add-ons regarding whether you do well or they don’t want you to leave. However, once you reach the final stages of your contract it is very important that the manager of a company will either offer new a contract extension or give a valid explanation as to reasons they should not.

The rules of office hours have changed over the last few years. Your traditional office hours are 9am-5pm, Monday-Friday. Going back couple years, no company in the UK breached the traditional office

hours. Nowadays, people around the UK are working over these hours and are not getting a decent worth of pay for their hard work. If you were to ask people ‘what is office hours’, they may stereotypically state ‘people who work in offices for their assigned times’. Well that is not the case. There are many matters regarding how people are being given a large workload. Teachers today have to do so much work and are giving up their own time do plan out their future lessons. After having a discussion with my tutor regarding how teacher and student relationships have faded away over the last year or two. Some of the ‘key’ points from the conversation were how teachers have a lot of work to do, that most of them are giving up their lunch breaks to things that are required by them. All of this is down to the government bringing in new laws.

According to the Home Business website, freelance work is defined as ‘A freelancer is someone who performs tasks, usually for multiple employers over the course of a year’. People who are freelancers often have no fixed time working hours, so they come into works whenever they want. All freelancers will not be classified as an official ‘employee’ because they are not at the company everyday and they are not permitted to perform certain tasks. Also, freelancers will have a decision as to whether they may work on a part-time or full-time basis. If I was an account manager for a television production company, I would not be coming into work everyday, as there is a lot of work for me to do. A lot of the tasks such as managing the portfolio and accounts of the production will mostly take place outside of the production. You will be taking so much time out to get the production company, by attending meetings and meeting serious deadlines.

Irregular work patterns are were people work different shifts at different times. This type of shift can either be a continuous 24 hours per day, 7 days a week, or a constant running 2-3 shifts per day ad it does not have to include the weekends. This may only happen if someone phones in stating reasons why, the company will have to get someone else to fill in. This may require then rotating their shifts. So, you may be working day, afternoon, night or midnight shifts.

Under the scheme of a company an employee has a contract stating how many hours they will be working at the company. All companies are obligated to pay their employees for the work they but into the business. However, if you are working on a voluntary basis, they are not obligated to pay you. The hourly rates are calculated by the amount of hours you work and the quantity of work you have done. Employees who are paid on an hourly basis are required to be paid at least minimum wage. However, people who are working over their allocated times are entitled to be paid over time wages, if only you have worked over 40 years per week. In the film industry, the job role of a production manager is very demanding and they may have to work over-time. The role of a production manager will require you to develop schedules of a breakdown to how the production will run through a period of time. There are several jobs that you have to ensure before going forward with the production; from monitoring budget available and checking to see whether you have the appropriate equipment and resources. Moving away from the film industry, the chancellor of the UK, George Osborne is attempting to abolish the Labour and Liberal Democrats coalition, by stating his intentions on increasing the UK national minimum wage. He believes that the jump from £6.34 to £7 will not harm the UK’s economy, even though they have been in recession since 2007.

Piecework is any type of employment, whether it is in financial or in retail, which a worker is paid a fixed ‘piece rate’. In other terms, an employee is paid money for each task/activity they complete. This is a situation in which employers have to pay you the mandatory minimum wage. There are

several people in the UK who work at home and they are known as ‘output workers’. Bestowing the government services website, they clearly state that if you’re an ‘output worker’ your employer will have to choose between paying you:

The National Minimum Wage for every hour you work A ‘fair’ piece rate for all the products you produce and all of the tasks you perform.

Bibliography

http://workingtime-solutions.com/leaner/shift-patterns/

http://humanresources.about.com/od/glossarys/g/shift_work.htm

https://www.gov.uk/fixed-term-contracts/renewing-or-ending-a-fixedterm-contract

http://www.theguardian.com/education/teachersworkload

http://homebusiness.about.com/od/homebusinessglossar1/g/freelancer.htm

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/chancellor-surprises-vince-cable-with-call-for-increase-to-minimum-wage-9065481.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piece_work