How do you respond to "Can you work weekends and nights" if you honestly ...

Greninja

don't want to work weekends and nights?

This is for my best friend looking for a job

Malgaras

"No."

Not to sound flippant, but the answer is pretty straightforward by my reckoning. If it's something you aren't willing to do, then what are you hoping to gain by stating otherwise? Clearly there is a fear of removing yourself from consideration by giving the "wrong" answer. But, If the position requires conditions you find unacceptable in the first place, you aren't really losing anything other than an opportunity to be offered a job you wouldn't want anyways.

Consider if you say yes, then they expect you to work nights and weekends, which you don't want to do. Then what?

MechMantis

As someone who is involved in hiring and interviews for a hotel:

Your friend should answer straight and honest. Otherwise when suddenly his/her schedule has weekends and nights on it and he/she starts complaining, we pull his/her application, point to where he/she said he/she was willing to work those shifts, and ask what the deal is.

And then explain if your friend doesn't work those shifts, we will treat it (appropriately) as an attendance issue. If said attendance issue gets bad enough, we will simply terminate your friend for excessive absences.

If your friend contacts our HR department about it, our HR department will ask for the application, see where your friend indicated that he/she would be willing to work said shifts, and say "Well your application says that you are willing to work these shifts, and they scheduled you those shifts, and you didn't work those shifts. Sorry."


EDIT: Which, well, answers the question at the end of Malgaras' post.

bowen

Schedules change though. Scheduling someone that doesn't want to or can't work those shifts and then firing them for 'attendance' when they tell you no is a pretty shit thing to do, even if it was on their application originally.

Some examples of why a schedule/availability might change or differ from something originally offered:

Family situation (caring for someone)
School
Not wanting to work that time
Second job

The answer is "no" or "I have other obligations, sorry"

You might lose the job like in MechMantis' situation where the employer is basically a jerk, but whatever, you don't want those jobs in the end anyways. No offense MechMantis, that's not a play at you.

MechMantis

If you are applying for a position, and you state on your application "I can work these shifts", then immediately turn around and say "I can't work these shifts", what do you think is going to happen, @bowen ?

EDIT: Like, seriously. If I'm hiring for a Night Audit position for weekends, and you apply for the Night Audit position for weekends, say "I can work nights and weekends" and I schedule you for nights and weekends, then you say "I can't actually work nights and weekends", my response will be some polite variation of "the fuck".

EDITEDIT: Let me elaborate a little more.

If this person were already employed and was trying to find a good way to tell their employer "Hey I can't work nights and weekends anymore because of X", firing them after missing shifts scheduled during that time would be a dick move. And at least in my case I'll shuffle others around to accommodate (according to those preferences), or hire a part-time worker to fill those gaps.

But when this person is looking for a job (like the OP says this person is) and is trying to find a good way to answer "Are you willing to work nights and weekends" on an application? There is only one way to answer that, and that is truthfully. Otherwise you are wasting everyone's time.

bowen

That clears it up more, it seemed like you were just saying "tough bananas" to any employee that had worked for decades and needed a shift.

But the answer is still yes, truthfully, I don't want to work that schedule.

DevoutlyApathetic

Yea, it's a different issue for long term employees but even then, you have to understand that sometimes the answer to "I won't be available during the times I was available" is "We wish you luck in your future endeavors." Coming at it from a shift work perspective, my not being available at a certain time would have meant directly bumping somebody else off of their preferred time so I completely understand it. With long term employees I think it's a bit of a jerk move to terminate for cause for it but somebody hired in the last few months? Yeah, that's basically on their head.

@Greninja The correct answer really is honesty to this question but your friend should understand that they're cutting themselves off from a lot of jobs if they refuse to work nights and weekends. If they're looking for a first/entry job they're going to have a real tough time getting into anyplace. Just how much they need/want a job really determines what the answer should be. Though understand "I'd rather not" will vanish like smoke on the wind instead of a firm "no".

bowen

Another answer is "for increased pay for that undesirable shift, yes." Sometimes evening shifts pay like $2+ more an hour.

Darkewolfe

If it's retail, be completely honest and also recognize that most retail places just won't hire someone who won't work weekends.

If it's an office job, I'd suggest saying, "I believe strongly in work life balance. I'm willing to put in a rare weekend for really important projects, but I wouldn't want a position that regularly requires weekends."

Invectivus

Or you can be my employer and tell me "Its just a few hours job" and then discover that you need to spend 4 weeks out of town re-doing said project that your fellow meatheads have borked up

Inquisitor77

Given the threads you've started in this forum, I think you may also want to look into other sites and resources that deal specifically with applying to jobs, entering the workforce for the first time, etc.

Siska

deleted

Greninja

DevoutlyApathetic wrote: »

Yea, it's a different issue for long term employees but even then, you have to understand that sometimes the answer to "I won't be available during the times I was available" is "We wish you luck in your future endeavors." Coming at it from a shift work perspective, my not being available at a certain time would have meant directly bumping somebody else off of their preferred time so I completely understand it. With long term employees I think it's a bit of a jerk move to terminate for cause for it but somebody hired in the last few months? Yeah, that's basically on their head.

@Greninja The correct answer really is honesty to this question but your friend should understand that they're cutting themselves off from a lot of jobs if they refuse to work nights and weekends. If they're looking for a first/entry job they're going to have a real tough time getting into anyplace. Just how much they need/want a job really determines what the answer should be. Though understand "I'd rather not" will vanish like smoke on the wind instead of a firm "no".

Arn't there plenty of professions or fields where should be no weekends or night work? Or even like a certain job?
Lets face it some people despite the weekend especially my best friend but would it make sense to give up something like promotions pay or make trade offs to not work the weekends or nights?

Greninja

Darkewolfe wrote: »

If it's retail, be completely honest and also recognize that most retail places just won't hire someone who won't work weekends.

If it's an office job, I'd suggest saying, "I believe strongly in work life balance. I'm willing to put in a rare weekend for really important projects, but I wouldn't want a position that regularly requires weekends."

not at all
Who the hell wants to make a career in retail or fast food not me

We are looking at something like Admin Assistant or like IT Help Desk for my friend just basically an office job of any kind.

The Crowing One

NO.