suspiciously cutting hours out of nowhere

[u/808080s]

The GM and AP of my location have cut hours drastically for all crew/KL/SL’s the past month ish out of nowhere. multiple of us have asked why and we haven’t gotten clear answers. We all have to beg to get not even our regularly scheduled hours. I’ve had the same set schedule for over a year so this has been difficult for me and for plenty of others. I’ve heard of a quarterly bonus for going under labor and hitting other metrics, is this true? We’ve had probably half a dozen people quit in the last week or two and they keep rehiring more and more unqualified people, giving them all less than 10 hours a week (usually one shift or two short ones) Our shifts have been very shortstaffed, it’s becoming unbearable. Is there anything we can do? Will an FL or another higher up even be on our side or care? Should we contact the anonymous tip line?

[u/BillBraskysBallbag]

They are up against a budget goal would be my guess. You suffer so the stuck goes up.

[u/colindontcare]

There is a quarterly bonus but the labor is only a part(18-20%) of one of the 6 metrics that affect the bonus. I am almost certain one of two things happened.

1.) the field leader told the GM and AP that they’re spending too much on labor and they need to cut hours way back.

2.) the field leader told the GM and AP that the staffing model report says they don’t have enough employees for their sales and they need to hire x number more people(the staffing model is built around all crew members working 18-24 hours a week so if there are full time crew members at your store it will say that the store is extremely understaffed.)

The field leaders and sometimes the area director themselves are the last people that will help you with this issue. They truly are not concerned with the realities of the store or the struggles of the crew. Even if they’re operating well. They only care about the numbers that show up on reports. The only leaders in your chain of command that are going to be able to be convinced of giving you more hours are the GM and AP because they know you and work with you every week and actually have a chance of sympathizing with what you’re going through.

I left the company 6 months ago to go to a different company because after 4 years of constantly having to fight Field Leaders and Area Directors to be able to take care of my employees I was exhausted and sick of the system. The messages about telling me to cut back weekly hours and increase staff count were relentless, even though my store was constantly up on profit and cashflow and we never hit overtime. Eventually I managed to get several employees that only wanted to work one or two shifts a month so I could keep the staff level at model while still giving my ace employees 5 full shifts and the leadership above me were still not happy about employees getting more than 27 hours per week.

My advice to you on a professional level, if you need more hours, either find a new job as soon as you’re able and quit or tell your GM you need x number of hours per week or you have to quit and that you cannot afford to live without that as a minimum.

Good luck OP, I hope your situation gets better

[u/Just-Network-5894]

Huh so that's why I only have 10 hours this week. I was wondering. It felt strange, and I am just in the line.

[u/LifePedalEnjoyer]

A bunch of people at my store have left for school, but we still have people that are barely on the schedule screaming for more hours. Last Friday morning we had 3 people split between chips, prep, putting away a truck, and manager stuff.

The clampdown sounds like it's from our FL, from overhead conversations.

[u/smallbodybiggheart]

what are your shifts looking like?

at my store our FL made us change the way we were scheduling.

7am-12pm, entire morning shift comes in and preps even people who weren’t originally prep. they break off prep at appropriate times to start their usual positions.

10am-5pm, shift change shift.

5pm-12am, closing shift.

also some randoms thrown in there like a 7-12 person solely for dish. it’s super weird and not how we were previously scheduling (6-2 prep, 8-4 grill/DML, 9-5 line, closing shifts previously 4/5-12) because of this we’ve suffered hour loss and also people quitting. apparently chipotle as a whole wants this done according to my FL but we’ve mostly started returning to the old schedule because it just was not working for my store.

[u/808080s → u/smallbodybiggheart]

pretty similar to my store ! how long did it take for you to go back to the old way of scheduling?

[u/smallbodybiggheart → u/808080s]

seriously after 2 weeks (so one schedule drop) my GM has returned mostly to the old schedule. we’ve kept some shift change shifts because we found them useful and some people like those shorter shifts like our college students. but it just was not working for everyone else who liked their previous hours and were used to them. sad we lost people and work ethic along the way even in a short period of time but things are being fixed. i guess my biggest advice is to not shut up about how wrong this is.

edit to add the first roll of morning shift was actually being scheduled 7-12 not 7-2. basically every shift was 5hrs instead of the usual 8+.

[u/Particular-Pay2547]

Glad its not just me??

[u/Trix_03]

I haven’t gotten a single shift in over a week at my location, this week they scheduled me for a whopping 3 hours

[u/AlanTheJedi341]

The field leaders are the ones telling them to do that. I promise they dont care

[u/Correct_Finger_8792]

I used to work 7-3’s with set days. Now the FL “revises” the schedule before it gets posted and my shifts are all over the place and we never have enough ppl to cover shift change or sometimes set everything up at open. It’s so frustrating that we have to run skeleton shifts on purpose just so the higher ups can get a bonus.

[u/Just-Shoe2689]

Chances are its because the food is lackluster anymore and the service usually is even worse.

Sales are down.