Scheduling Practices

I am a current worker at a McDonald's and NEVER had a problem with
scheduling. I had Scholastic Bowl, Future Business Leaders of America
and Track (different seasons of course) and my work schedule worked
very well with those. Even when my only availability was weekends
during the Track season.

It is the individual scheduler for each place. I was just lucky to
have the one I do. It was a crappy thing for them to do. The only
thing is, she should have talked to people personally about covering
for her,instead of posting a note. Even if they did schedule her for
the days she asked off, it is still her responsibility to have those
hours covered, as it is said during orientation. Still a crappy thing
to do though.

Come by and take a look! :)

http://planetfeedback.typepad.com/mommage/thoughts_and_insights/index.
html

I dont think this is necessarily a reflection of mcDonalds as a whole,
but of the individual manager. It is crappy when management wont
consider extra curricular activities, and tries to schedule a student
anyway. Most companies now have computer programs that allow
schedulers to post in advance requested days off and when the
schedules are being made, they wont even let you add that employee
name to that day. I think the manager should have been honest when
hiring your daughter, stating that they absolutely must have someone
available for anytime, weekends, etc. and not hired her if she could
not work their shifts. Unfortunately, many big companies are just
trying to get a body into the workplace, and will often bully them
some to get them to work. Hopefully your daughter will find a
friendlier environment to work in. There are many other great
companies out there that love hiring students. Good luck.

At the end of the day, of course McDonald's should be able to choose
not to employ someone who cannot work the schedule needed. However,
it seems to me to be a bad idea for McDonald's not to accommodate
students participating in extracurricular activities -- especially
sports. It is a very high-profile company that often is *the*
shorthand when talking both about low-paying, no-benefit jobs and
health problems due to over-consumption of fast food. It seems to me
that firing a high school student for participating in sports sends
exactly the wrong signal about McDonald's corporate values on both
issues.

By the way, that is also why sending this letter to the corporate
office after making some reasonable attempt to work with the location
in question is very appropriate. The manager of one McDonald's may
not need to care about brand perceptions. The CEO of McDonald's does.

hmmmm.. perhaps.. your daughter should have put in the same schedule
that she put in at the beginning of the season. every two weeks.

I've never worked in fast food but, my son and daughter did. They were
both in extracurricular activities and always had to remind the
manager of their need for a day off. They also (they worked in taco
bell, a german restaurant and in the movie theater) always had to find
a replacement IF they were scheduled when they had an activity. It WAS
their responsibility, to ensure their position is covered at that
specific time.

When they were hired at the above locations they were clearly told
that they would TRY to accomodate them but, it was never guaranteed!
I'm pretty sure that is the same thing they must have told your
daughter.

Lots of folks walk in and out of those offices bringing papers and
telling managers this or that.. things can get lost or managers can
forget. If she had an activity (she knew her schedule) she should have
reminded the manager every 1-2 weeks about it.

She should take some responsibility. In the real world she won't be
given this opportunity.

Hope she learned her lesson!

Okay, I work for burger king and I have been a scheduling manager as
well, I worked at a burger king that had only 10 managers and 18 - 20
employees! With that said, when an employee gave me their event(s)
schedule, I, as a scheduling manager who is suppose to be flexible
with my employees schedule, ensured and went out of my way not to
schedule them for the days off they needed,... only thing i really
truly asked for was 2 weeks in advance, and in writing... I may have
accepted 1 week in advance if the schedule wasnt up, but it was always
still in writing as then if they were on the schedule and they came up
to me saying they booked off, I went thru my day off envelope and if
they either booked off wrong or something, then i could show them what
they did book off!

Now I also had a couple employees at the time that i scheduled close
to 7 days a week, they didnt tell me for a few weeks, until i noticed
my mistake, and the interesting part was, is that they actually liked
the hours.. but i went out of my way to at least give them a day off
of their choice, since they insisted that they still would like to
work those kinds of hours, as I said, i was flexible and enduring with
my schedule, plus this was a slow burger king that i worked for (thus
the only 18-20 employees) and it also helped that I was the hiring
manager as well, I knew what shifts needed to be filled and did that
myself or with the help of the general manager.

So with that said, i am looking at the second line of the writer and
it said that the employee gave mcdonalds her cross country schedule as
soon as she got it, .. so with that, I would hold mcdonalds
responsible for the schedule conflict, not the employee as fast food
outlets are suppose to be flexible as they do have lots of high school
students with other side obligations!

Also it sounds like they were having more problems than just having
people no showing,.. it sounds like they were having a hiring
problem... some stores, no matter where in the world you live in, if
you live in certain neighbourhoods, it will be a struggle to hire. as
if you live in a so called rich neighbourhood, no one wants to work at
a minimal wage job when they can stay at home and live off their
parents! Its a fact of life, but even then, you as the hiring manager,
if they are suppose to be flexible with the employees hours, then if
the employee gives you their events schedule, they should honour that
schedule and ensure you arent on it.. not hard really!

Well if your daughter was cheated and unfairly fired than Mcdonalds is
going to lose lots of business. A lot of high school kids usually go
to Mcdonalds for their lunch break because they are old enough to
leave the school without parental permission. If she tells her
friends what happened than they will probably support her and not go
to Mcdonalds. She probably has friends in her classes and in the
cross country team. Ofcourse this probably will not put them out of
business but they may lose lots of high school customers, especially
if they did the same to other high school students.

Although I agree that your tone in the letter could use some
improvement, I am going to disagree with most of the commenters here.
When I was in highschool, I nannied, and was also in marching band,
drama club, and rainbow girls (please don't laugh at the geek!).
I also held a part time job. I would, like your daughter, present my
schedule restrictions to the manager in a timely fashion, and they
would schedule me to work around it.

Likewise, now that I have children of my own, and I've left my career
to work part time, I present my schedule to the restaurant and they
schedule work around it. I have limited avaiablilty (2 days), and ask
for lots of time off. In fact, I took tonight off to set up the
Santa's Secret Shop at my son's school. One of our many
extracurricular activities.

Anyway, I agree with you, and I think your best bet is to just have
your daugther find a new job. There are LOTS of companies out there
that would be more accomodating to her schedule. Try a local grocery
store or restaurant (like Friendly's) that does not serve alcohol (if
she's under 18. Or, she could hostess).

I can understand how upset you and your daughter are. I agree that
this should be your daughter writing, instead of you, mainly because
the complaint need to come from the party it happened to, not an
observer.

I worked at McDonalds in high school. McDonalds has prided themselves
on having a flexible schedule and hiring students. Or at least, this
is the way it used to be. I had after school activities, and had a
very unexpected change my junior year, but they were always very
accomodating. My manager had a notebook for us to all write in, and we
had to request a day off about 1-2 weeks in advance, but if we knew
something was upcoming, we could do it months ahead.
Every manager at every job does it differently. When I was in school,
managers knew this, and always asked for a copy of my schedule and
asked if I did any activities outside of school. It was almost easier
just telling them when I could work. I had one company even tell me
that my schedule wouldnt work for them, and I couldnt work there.

By reading your letter, I can make a few assumptions. One, either your
daughter did not inform the hiring manager of her sports schedule, or
the manager did not ask. Two, your daughter did no call, no shows when
she had meets, except for her last one. That is unacceptable. Some
people get fired after the first no call, no show. I do think that the
manager should have tried a bit harder to find someone to cover your
daughter's shift, but your daughter could have also reached out to
maybe do a shift trade. Posting a note doesnt always work. I know I
didnt read notes that were up in the office, I still dont!

Your daughter is in high school. Its time for her to take some
responsibility for her actions. I hope she finds a job that will best
suit her needs...maybe a sports store? I worked at a sports store and
they were by far the BEST when it came to accomodating my, and others,
sports schedules.

My son works for Wendy's and goes to school full time. The day he was
hired I received a note from his new manager saying that Wendy's is
cognizant of the importance of school and will do their best to ensure
their student employees have enough free time during the week to
concentrate on their studies.

I was blown away. I had made him quit Burger King as they were keeping
him until after midnight up to three times during the week and he
didn't know how to get them to stop. His grades were plummetting and
he wasn't getting enough sleep. Not only that, the buses in our area
quit running at 11:30pm so we would get phone calls asking for a ride
home. (I have to be up at 4:45am during the week)

My daughter is in college full time and also works. Each semester her
manager asks for a copy of her timetable and does NOT schedule her
during those times.

I don't see how this is difficult for businesses to do. If the
employee is a good one, it's in the company's best interest to keep
them. My son has already had a raise and has only been with Wendy's
for a few months. My daughter is still working at her job after almost
2 years.

The OP states that her daughter turned in her schedule showing the
weekends she wasn't available. At that time, McDonalds should have
either agreed to accommodate or said they were not in a position to do
so.

My son also sits on our city's Youth Advisory Board and attends board
meetings bi-weekly. Wendy's is aware of this and schedules
accordingly.

I apologize for the ramble, but I'm at work trying to type this in
intervals! :)

How far in advance does McDonald's post employee schedules? You say
the first time that they scheduled her on the day of a meet, they
called you and you told them where she was. Does that mean she had
been on the schedule to work that day and just didn't show up, so they
called you looking for her? From your letter it sounds like this is
what happened, because you then say the THIRD time a scheduling
conflict came up, she told them ahead of time. Well, that's what she
needed to do EVERY time. Even if it was McD's error, it was her
responsibility to go to her manager and explain they'd scheduled her
for a date she couldn't be there - not just figure she had already
told them once at the time she was hired, so it was no longer her
problem. Because if she knew in advance she was expected to work and
didn't show, then I'm sorry, she deserved to be fired.

I agree that this is unacceptable. When I was in high school there
were plenty of my classmates that were in one or more sports and still
managed to hold down a job. This would not have been possible without
the support of the owners/managers of the establishments they worked.
If McDonalds was unable to work around her cross country schedule, she
should have been told right away. Then, if the hiring manager was
having issues scheduling others to work on days that she was off, your
daughter should have been notified of the conflicts. This way she
would at least have gotten a choice as to whether cross country or her
job were more important to her.

I've worked with high schoolers for more than a decade who have the
same type of extra curricular activities as your daughter (in fact one
of my favorite employees was a cross country runner herself). You
have every right to be ticked off at the management of this place.
This sounds like a place that has very little empathy/sympathy for its
employees. In the long run your daughter may be lucky not to have to
work for these bunch of dorks. From experience the management at this
place seem like their TOTAL "control freaks".

This is my experience from working at jobs where there had to be a
certain number of people on at certain times.

If you hire too many people, then a lot of people will complain that
they don't get enough hours. Some of them will go find a job they can
work in addition to the one you've given them, which will cause all
kinds of scheduling conflicts, and eventually they will have to pick
one or the other. They'll pick the other job, because you can't give
them enough hours. Other people will just quit to go work another job
with more hours. Either way, you end up with ridiculously high
turnover and also too few employees.

If you hire too few people (or too many quit), then a lot of people
will complain that you're not respecting their availability. This
will especially be a problem on weekends, because nobody wants to work
weekends, which is why at a lot of places you cannot get hired if you
don't agree that you're available to work on weekends. Everybody will
be turning in all sorts of schedules for "I'm not available on Tuesday
night, and I can't work before three on Wednesday ...," which will
mean that you can't fill the shifts you need to fill. In addition,
since everyone will have the same times that nothing else is going on
as a time they can work, people will start complaining that they're
not getting enough hours. See the previous paragraph.

It's a huge balancing act, and at least where I worked it was a
balancing act that required constant thought on the part of the
managers, because it's really easy to slide ridiculously far in one
direction or the other very quickly.

Definitely some people are better at putting schedules together than
other people. They can figure out more creative ways to get the right
number of people and the right set of skills working at the right time
while respecting people's availability as well as it is possible to
and still sticking the people with the highest wages on the shifts
with the biggest labor budget and meeting whatever requirements a
company has for managers and when they work and how often and ....
But at a job like McDonald's there's a decent amount of turnover, so
you don't always have completely skilled people doing every job.
Including writing the schedule. And it is often hard and sometimes
impossible to give everybody the time off they want even if you have
someone skilled doing the schedule.

So you end up with a sort of compromise: there are times when you
really truly honest-to-God can't schedule people (I would assume that
with your daughter this includes Monday to Friday 8:30 to 3:30 and any
night after 11:00 and longer than 6 hours on a school night or
something like that) and those are negotiated when the employee is
hired, at the start of each new semester for college students, when
the school year starts and ends for parents, and so on; and there are
other times when you can because they agreed up front that they're
available for those shifts but you try not to schedule them if they
have "requested" time off. Note that word. I'm willing to bet you
think McDonald's promised not to schedule your kid at any time when
you say she needs to be at a meet; I'm willing to bet McDonald's
thinks they promised to make a good-faith effort not to schedule her
then. If you schedule them at a time they have requested to have off,
then they're responsible for finding a replacement. And if it were
easy to find a replacement and you were any good at writing the
schedules, then they wouldn't be scheduled to work at that time.

"Availability", in the jobs I've had, means the first kind, the
really-truly-honest-to-God stuff, and it's the same every week until
some sort of renegotiation happens.

Yes, it's tougher than if you work regular hours the same time every
week, because if you work from 9 - 5 on weekdays then you can plan to
go off somewhere for the weekend or buy tickets for a Wednesday night
game of some sort and be sure you won't be scheduled. And yes, it's
frustrating and hard. But that's the deal when you work at a job like
McDonald's. But it's also tough on whoever's making the schedule.
Believe me, I've been on both sides of this one, and unsurprisingly
the one thing that never changed was that the people on the other side
struck me as very unreasonable. :)

So your daughter made 3 choices. The first one was to go to a meet
when she was scheduled to work and not tell them. I'm willing to bet
that they didn't say it was okay for her to do that, but rather that
they'd deal with it. I'm also willing to bet that someone had a long
talk with her about the importance of that never happened again. The
next two times she may have told them or she may not, but she didn't
show up for a scheduled shift. That earned her a writeup and then a
firing.

And not only was that a problem for the company, but it was a problem
for every other worker there. McDonald's isn't in the business of
trying to make its workers rich. If there are 5 people scheduled,
they expect to need 5 people. Or maybe they expect to need 7 but 5 is
all they can fill. When your daughter doesn't show up, other people
who are being paid the same amount that she is and who are having to
struggle to fit in their jobs and the rest of their lives at the same
time are the ones having to cover for her. It's not fair. So, yeah,
I think she deserved to be fired and I don't see that the scheduling
manager necessarily did anything wrong.

If your kid is not going to be at the job when they need her to be at
the job -- and she has established that she won't be, not reliably --
then they should get rid of her and find someone else who will be.
Her being a high school student and an athlete and whatever else is
irrelevant.

Now, I don't think high school kids should hold jobs during the school
year. Ever. I think getting a solid education is enough work, and
I've had coworkers who spent more time at school and at work on some
days than I spent awake -- and then they went home and did homework
until 1 in the morning. I don't think it's fair. But some people
need to work, and some people want to work, and it wouldn't be fair to
prevent them from doing that. But if they're going to hold jobs, then
they're going to be held to the same standards as whoever is working
next to them, and McDonald's is not in the business of trying to
decide whether your daughter's cross country meets are more or less
important than someone else's daughter's anime cons and a third
person's daughter's church retreats.

The most charitable reading here is that your daughter was not a good
fit for this job and that she misled them into thinking that she was
-- maybe she misled them on purpose and maybe not. What she needs now
is a parent who will make that clear to her, and help her find a job
that is a better fit so that she has a chance to succeed or encourage
her (if that is a possibility) to focus on school and sports and not
get another job right now. What she doesn't need is a parent who will
reinforce in her mind that she is special and doesn't have to play by
the same rules as everybody else. Because if she goes through life
expecting special treatment she's going to go through life
disappointed and unhappy, and I really don't think that's what you
want for her.

McDonald's Corp has zilch to do with the scheduling practices of the
stores. They are franchises and the Corp stays out of that.

this should be written from your daughter. You were not there and you
do not know for a fact your daughter provided McDonald's with her
sporting event schedule.

I do remember, working at Wal*Mart, we had to give at LEAST a 2 week
notice for days off. It usually wasn't a problem. HOWEVER, I knew of
some of the student workers who would complain that they put their
notices in 4 weeks prior to wanting off and did not get it. It seems
funny, but it would happen with the same group, when others would wait
till the last minute and they seem to have had an easier time getting
their time off.

Oh, and yes, if the schedule was already posted and people needed time
off, they were asked if they could find others to work for them. That
was a last resort, though.

We need to direct him to this letter so he can see why he has to wait
20 minutes to get a blob of greasy ice at McDonald's - half the
employees just didn't bother to show up because they had 'other
obligations'.

That should be an acceptable excuse, right??

"Sorry it took a half hour for you to get your food - we're short
staffed today. Julie has cross-country, Emma has a choir rehearsal,
Jim is at Bible camp, and Larry is performing in "The Sound of
Music.""

I'm sure ALL the customers would be understanding of their long wait
once they heard that, right???

When I worked at Hardee's (four years, high school and college), we
did have a lot of say over our hours. I was dating the guy who made
the schedule ;) so I got whatever I wanted (plus, I was good at that
job), but I know he did his best to be flexible and accommodating with
requests.

Everyone was responsible for knowing when the schedule was being
worked on, even if it meant asking managers about it. If you needed
to be off the schedule, you'd give the manager advance notice --1-3
weeks. That's fair -- setting the schedule is a time consuming when
you're dealing with so many parttime employees.

But I can tell you for sure, what never would have been accommodated
is an employee giving their personal obligations schedule to
management and ask them to be sure to check it as they do each week's
schedule.

McDonalds is not a neighborhood event or volunteer activity where you
sign up for the hours that you can help out. McDonalds is a business,
and your daughter had been hired to work the hours that she was
scheduled.

Back in my fast-food days, we would work around employee's other
activities, but mistakes happen. The way this letter reads, she never
did anything about the first 2 times she was scheduled on days that
she had cross country meets, just went to the meets and didn't worry
about work. Schedules are posted well in advance, and she should have
had time to get the issue corrected. Did she let the manager know
about upcoming meets before the schedule was posted? Trying to juggle
one schedule is bad, try juggling the schedules for 10-20 different
people.

I also agree that this is something that should have been addressed
within the store. If you felt the need to have a public letter
posted, then it's something that your daughter should have written,
without the vulgarity.

It looks like Mcdonalds agreed to let her work around her cross
country schedule. Was this a written or verbal, if it was verbal than
there is nothing that you can do about it. If it was written on N/A
on the schedule for that date, yet they scheduled her most companies
let would say that it is okay not to show up on that day, but they
would encourage you to get someone to cover the shift.

Did your daughter request those days off and have a form signed by
management. If so I can see why you would be upset. However from your
letter it sounds like your daughter had a verbal agreement about
working around her track schedule not a written one.

The first time that your daughter did not show up they did not do
anything because everyone makes mistakes. The second time they wrote
her up. At this point she should have made a decision of what is more
important crosss country or her job. I am pretty sure that when they
wrote her up they warned her that if she keeps this up she would not
be terminated.

The third time she did this she was fired. Perhaps she was fired not
because of the fact that she did not show up but because she did not
call before not showing up. If she had called in saying that she
cannot make it than perhaps they would have been easier on her. Maybe
the fact that she did not call in had something to do with being
fired.

While I agree that it is okay for you to guide your daughter and
advice her on what actions that she needs to take, I do not agree with
your writing this letter on her behalf. I think that she should have
written the letter herself, and had you check it over to make sure it
looked good. This way Mcdonalds would pay more attention to the issue
because it shows that she is concerned about getting her job back or
atleast that she does take responsibility for herself.

If your daughter still wants to work there are many jobs that she can
do that can work around her schedule. She can work part time after
school at a day care centre. Those jobs usuually require that she
works Monday to Friday. Ofcourse this would only work out if this
type of job was of interest to her. If not I am sure there are other
jobs which she can do which don't require her to work on weekends.

It looks like Mcdonalds agreed to let her work around her cross
country schedule. Was this a written or verbal, if it was verbal than
there is nothing that you can do about it. If it was written on N/A
on the schedule for that date, yet they scheduled her most companies
let would say that it is okay not to show up on that day, but they
would encourage you to get someone to cover the shift.

Did your daughter request those days off and have a form signed by
management. If so I can see why you would be upset. However from your
letter it sounds like your daughter had a verbal agreement about
working around her track schedule not a written one.

The first time that your daughter did not show up they did not do
anything because everyone makes mistakes. The second time they wrote
her up. At this point she should have made a decision of what is more
important crosss country or her job. I am pretty sure that when they
wrote her up they warned her that if she keeps this up she would not
be terminated.

The third time she did this she was fired. Perhaps she was fired not
because of the fact that she did not show up but because she did not
call before not showing up. If she had called in saying that she
cannot make it than perhaps they would have been easier on her. Maybe
the fact that she did not call in had something to do with being
fired.

While I agree that it is okay for you to guide your daughter and
advice her on what actions that she needs to take, I do not agree with
your writing this letter on her behalf. I think that she should have
written the letter herself, and had you check it over to make sure it
looked good. This way Mcdonalds would pay more attention to the issue
because it shows that she is concerned about getting her job back or
atleast that she does take responsibility for herself.

If your daughter still wants to work there are many jobs that she can
do that can work around her schedule. She can work part time after
school at a day care centre. Those jobs usuually require that she
works Monday to Friday. Ofcourse this would only work out if this
type of job was of interest to her. If not I am sure there are other
jobs which she can do which don't require her to work on weekends.

This is actually the world we live in. You can tell a prospective
employer what days you can or cannot work, but once they hire you -
all that is out the window. It then becomes the responsibility of the
employee to let the "boss" know.

Sorry, when you don't "show up" for work - you are basically saying "I
don't care about my job"!! And if someone does not care about their
job - there are plenty of people out of work that would love to have
it!

My daughter has her first job, she is 16 and I would be furious with
her if she pulled that - and just not showed up. It is so important
that they learn at that age, consequences for their actions. Please
reconsider your thought process and stress the importance of
responsibility to your child. The schduling manager and McDonalds
does not live in your home and has no idea the life that you lead.
You can't possibly blame him for any of this!

If your daughter is old enough to have a job, she is old enough to
write her own complaint letter. I understand that you probably feel
very protective of her, but she needs to fight her own battles.

From my own experience, it is often the case with employers that once
a schedule is posted, they do consider it the employee's
responsibility to cover the shifts. This has happened to me more than
once, and as frustrating as it can be, I dealt with it. Furthermore, I
also know that just because you request a day off, that doesn't always
mean you'll get it. Scheduling managers have many different employees,
all with different needs, as well as many shifts to cover, and
requests off can't always be accomodated.

I don't know why your daughter's scheduling needs were ignored, but
this is her problem, not yours. If she's still upset, she can write
her own letter.

If your daughter is old enough to have a job, she needs to be
responsible enough to manage her time and handle her own affairs.

I too question how she knew that she had submitted these dates she
couldn't work, but somehow didn't know she had been scheduled for them
until the job called to find out why she didn't show up! If she did
know about them, why didn't she deal with it as soon as the schedule
went up?

Better still, why didn't she REMIND the scheduler a few days before
the schedule was posted. SHE had the special scheduling needs. It
was HER responsibility to make SURE the appropriate people were aware
of it, no matter HOW many times she needed to tell them.

Your daughter didn't get fired because the scheduling manager screwed
up, she got fired for repeatedly pulling what is known as a "No Call
No Show." She does not deserve an apology for that.

Perhaps you daughter needs to decide which is more important, having a
job or running track because apparently she is not organized enough to
deal with both.

And while I'm at it, cut the apron strings already, Joelie. You
aren't helping your daughter develop ANY sense of responsibility
fighthing all her battles for her. No wonder she blew the job off
like that - she figured Mommy would take care of it for her.

I, too, worked at a McD's in High School. Granted, that was 10 years
ago. But still, the daughter was wrong. When I worked there, the
schedule was put out TWO WEEKS in advance. If there was a problem, it
was fixed THAT DAY that the schedule came out.

Also, the school district I went to had NO say so in if a student
worked after school. There were/are laws, however, on how late some
on under 18 could work on a SCHOOL NIGHT. The weekends were what ever
time. Sports/Choir/Band/Drama were/are CHOICES. If it was a REQUIRED
event, than (I think) yes, they had to let you off. BUT, (and this is
a big one) the student needs to give notice of the needed days off
WELL in advance. Did you daughter sit down (like a mature adult) and
talk to the manager to see if it would work if she ran BEFORE she
started the season? They might have told her then that it was too
much hassle and if she decided to do it anyway, SHE needed to find the
people to work for her.

It sounds like she just "No-showed". Then she deserved to be fired.
I have to give my boss at least a weeks notice that I need time off.
Then I keep letting him know what day I am going to be off. The day
before I am off, I remind him that I will NOT be in the next day.
It's not that he is forgetful, it is just a good thing to remind him.


When she gets into the Real World (NOT the one on MTV!) she will see
that work does NOT revolve around fun you want to do.

You are kidding, right? I volunteer my services as an EMT to run
rescue, and, if I can't run, I'd better find coverage.

This is completely an adult responsibility. It simply means to check
when you are on the schedule, if you can't (in this case, your
daughter) be there, be ready to find a replacement.

I have a problem with the fact that in the first part of this letter,
the OP says McDonald's called her when her daughter didn't show up for
work on a certain Saturday because she was at a meet. That sounds to
me like the daughter completely screwed McD's over by just not showing
up. Because if the daughter had really told a manager in advance that
she would be at a meet - not just turning in a schedule, but actually
telling the manager face-to-face "Hey, I notice you scheduled me for
Saturday, I won't be able to come in" - then why would anyone need to
call Mom at home? The schedules are put up ahead of time; the
daughter would have had time to complain personally to the manager.
Did she not speak up? Did she just decide "To hell with this, I
already said I couldn't work that day, so I'm just not coming in"?

The problem with a mother posting this sort of complaint on behalf of
her child is that the mother doesn't necessarily have all the facts
straight. She only knows what her daughter has told her - which may
or may not be a complete version of the truth. I'd be interested to
hear from the manager of the McDonald's in question and find out what
the daughter actually said in regards to her schedule.

While I agree with the others that this isn't the correct way to go
about this. Your complaint is valid. And I will tell you why... (I'm
going by MY area's rules for minors having jobs and I understand this
isn't the case everywhere...)

In order for a minor to have a job they need a work permit that is
issued by the school district. Apart of a school allowing their
students to have after school jobs the company must agree that school
events take priorty over work. That means if you are involved in
after school activities, the company must take that into consideration
when planning the schedule. If a student calls in because they need
to get their homework done, they are not allowed to seek disciplinary
actions against the employee. If a company is found to not follow the
terms of the permit, the company can be heavily fined and can even
lose their ability to hire minors. Companies agree to this because
students are cheaper to employee than adults. They don't have to pay
them health benefits and they can pay minimum wage.

My advice to you is to talk to your school district about this. They
may be equipped to talk to the location for your daughter. Otherwise,
I would really just have your daughter find a new job. Grocery stores
and even some hospitals are always looking for part time employees.

Additionally... a 15, 16, 17 year old isn't prepared to handle
something like this on their own. So long as the parent is reasonable
I see nothing wrong with them taking up this cause for their child.
You are talking about a CHILD here, not an ADULT.

Is this the second or third time this complaint has been recycled? I
keep forgetting.

A) this is not the forum for such a complaint;

B) your daughter should write her own letter;

C) if your daughter can't handle a job schedule, she shouldn't have a
job. Period. End of story. No discussion necessary.

It is ridiculous that you would even consider writing this.

"When does it become an employees responsibility to find someone to
work for them when management already had a copy of her
availability..."

I have a job. I tell my boss that I can be in the office this Friday
afternoon.

A client calls my boss on Friday morning and says that we need to
talk.

My boss tells me that I need to make myself available. It's my JOB.

So, what do I do? I think about how important my reason is for being
out of the office. Is it for a doctor's appointment? Is it to get
some Christmas shopping done? is it to visit my kid's school?

And then I decide... is this something so important that I'd put my
job up for it? Being with my wife having surgery? Yes, that's worth
telling the client "no, I can't be there." Am I taking off because I
want to get a jump start on driving out of town for vacation? Then I
offer to be available by phone (I'll pull off the road and talk them).
Was I planning on taking some time off to get to the mall? I'll
cancel it.

You see, in real life with real jobs, we're required to be there when
our boss says. If we can't be there, then we risk losing the job.
And, unlike you, I see to think working at McDonald's is a real job.
It requires real responsibility.

And, no, just because she already said she wasn't available doesn't
let her off the hook. I can tell my boss all I want that I can't work
on a particular day. If he later has a need for me to be there, he
can ask me to be there.

I can't believe I'm actually reading this. If your daughter wants to
work a part-time job, she needs to be available when they need her to
work. It is not their responsibility to work around her schedule of
extra-curricular activities. And yes, it is her responsibility to
find someone to cover her shift if she can't work, not theirs.

Your suggestion of them puttin up a big board with the times they need
help and letting people fill it in is completely laughable! So, if
they need 10 people for Saturday and no one signs up, what do they do?
Close?

My mouth is hanging open.

First, this is an individual store issue to be raised with the
manager.

Second, and this is important: McDonald's is a business. It is not
the job of a business to make life easy for your child. Who has
chosen to participate in sports. Chosen.

The manager of the store should have let your daughter know that he
cannot consider people's sports schedules. He should have laid out
the hours that he may need her to work. If she was unable to commit,
then she needs to leave and find another job that will work with her
schedule.

I also find you use of the phrase "what a crock of crap!!!" to make
this a very questionable letter. Something makes me thing that it's
not Mom writing this... but an understandable immature teenager.

Once again: McDonald's isn't a babysitting service, it's not a summer
camp, and it's not the local arcade. It's a business and if they need
people to work, they have a right to schedule them.

Don't go claiming this is about not being fair to HS students. If
they were scheduling her to work at 10:00am, while she's in class, you
MIGHT have a point. However, since she's being scheduled during
sports, which are extraciricular, she has to make a decision: work or
fun. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against the physical, social, and
educational benefits to playing sports. However, playing this
particular sport is, unless I don't know your school, an option which
your daughter has chosen to take.

I have an idea. Why doesn't your daughter tell her coach not to put
her in any meets when she's scheduled to work. I'm sure, since you're
under the impression that the world can schedule around your daughter,
that the coach will be more than happy to change things around to
accommodate her. After all, that's what you're asking McDonalds, a
for-profit BUSINESS, to do.

Okay, first of all, it isn't your place to be writing this letter,
it's your daughters. If she is old enough to work, old enough to
compete in athletics at the state level, she is old enough to write a
letter of her own.

Mostly, however, this should have been taken care of at the store
level. I worked fast food and retail while in school and yes, had
occassional problems scheduling around classess and outside
obligations. I didn't run to my mommy so she could write a letter. I
confronted the manager, explained what was going on and eventually
came to a workable arrangement. It's part of being a responsible
adult. It was her job, she should have taken care of it herself.