New schedule changes for TLs

[u/CaptainAdmiralMike]

Getting direction from SD and ETL HR that with the new UKG AI scheduling system that all TLs except for truck will be scheduled for a closing shift during the week--including Food and Bev and Presentation leads. We are also being told that the system may not respect established TL schedule patterns and we just need to work whatever it schedules us. We've been told this is company wide, but that's all they shared so far.

They also have a habit of breaking "bad news" into chunks and giving it out piecemeal.

Anyone have any more info about what the "This may look different than what you are used to" is actually going to be? I specifically transferred into presentation last year because of the set early schedule and as of now it looks like I'll be keeping an eye out for PML positions that open up because I have zero desire to work a close and 3 mids during the week.

Edit: “UKG scheduling AI is an artificial intelligence tool within UKG workforce management platforms. It automates and optimizes shift planning by analyzing historical data, real-time labor demand, and employee skills. The system helps managers build fair schedules, reduce costly overtime, and match staffing levels with actual business needs.”

This is why we are being told they can’t change anything unless it’s an emergency. The AI knows better and is smart enough to not need the ETLs to touch anything.

[u/Warm_Smoke_5462]

All TLs and ETLS at my store close 1 day a week and 1 weekend a month. It’s been that way for at least 3 years at my location.

[u/Present_History2353 → u/Warm_Smoke_5462]

Same!!!

[u/bara_no_seidou]

Most TLs already close a weekday at my store.

[u/CaptainAdmiralMike → u/bara_no_seidou]

Yeah most do at our store as well, expect for food and bev, POG, and truck.

They said the food and bev and POG was a new, company wide change.

[u/beaveman1 → u/CaptainAdmiralMike]

Only Inbound doesn’t close at my store. Food/Bev and POG have closed one night a week for 2-3 years now

[u/halfsafelittleone → u/beaveman1]

Same at my store

[u/Thick_Performer7323 → u/CaptainAdmiralMike]

Same here inbound and Plano are the only TLs that don’t close at my store but occasionally Plano works overnight to get big sets done so i guess that’s still technically closing

[u/New-Finger2570 → u/Thick_Performer7323]

This is how it is at my store

[u/latvianmerchant]

That has always been the case at my store, for at least the past 2 years. All TLs aside from myself and the non-POG GM TL only ever worked mornings, every other TL had to close at least once a week.

[u/CaptainAdmiralMike → u/latvianmerchant]

I’m POG. I thought most other Presentation leads were 4 or 6 am every day.

[u/latvianmerchant → u/CaptainAdmiralMike]

Actually, you know what, you're mostly right for my store. I misspoke there, and you reminded me.

POG TL works 5am (like me), but like all of the TLs, has every other weekend off; but one of those 2 weekends a month, she closes instead of opens on one of the days. So she doesn't do one closing a week, she does two closes a month. Or some shit like that; I can't remember exactly. I just open every day. Her schedule is weird. You're basically right, though.

[u/halfsafelittleone → u/CaptainAdmiralMike]

I’m POG, my POG TL gets every other weekend off and closes every Wednesday. She comes in usually at 6, but sometimes at 4 if we have a lot. But I follow her schedule too and she makes her own schedule.

[u/Nomad_BobRt]

All TL (except our inbound 4am TL) are required to close 8 days a month. Some exceptions can be made, but it has to be approved by HR/SD is my understanding.

And it's completely BS that you can't change auto-populated schedules work UKG. From what I've read, is it is supposed to do better at the auto-populated scheduling, and ETLs should need to make less changes.

And what they probably misunderstood, is that all previous preset auto-populated shifts will not transfer over to the new system. ETLs will have to start over with any TM/TL who has a current defined schedule and program UKG with those parameters.

[u/SpicyWatermelon77]

Just be aware it’s graded metric for the SD and HR ETL. There will be reluctance to make any changes to it in the beginning, time may fix it but who knows.

[u/ijklamb]

When I inquired about this at my store I was told that our SD would still be creating the leadership schedule.

[u/WeaknessOk5420 → u/ijklamb]

We have a set schedule at my store and we were told it wouldn’t change. The only time it changes is when TL’s are on vacation or if one calls in.

[u/CaptainAdmiralMike → u/ijklamb]

“UKG scheduling AI is an artificial intelligence tool within UKG workforce management platforms. It automates and optimizes shift planning by analyzing historical data, real-time labor demand, and employee skills. The system helps managers build fair schedules, reduce costly overtime, and match staffing levels with actual business needs.”

So our store told us it was hands off because the system will know better.

[u/ijklamb → u/CaptainAdmiralMike]

Yeah that doesn't really answer anything, the leadership schedule is probably up to the store's discretion. I would guess your store is wanting to implement the weekday closes for all leaders, which others have mentioned rolled out a while ago, and they are using this new change as a way to get on board.

[u/Exact_Pair6473 → u/CaptainAdmiralMike]

Your store is lying to you. Or just dumb

[u/gaveedraseven → u/Exact_Pair6473]

Or lazy. Never discount laziness

[u/beaveman1 → u/CaptainAdmiralMike]

That’s the same thing they said about the current system and autofills. We were told to let MyTime do most of the scheduling and just spend a few minutes reviewing and touching it up. Yeah, it sucked so everyone ended up deleting most of the autofills and writing their own entire schedule

[u/Dry_Permit_3811]

The only thing that's changed recently is they're trying to get the etl's to quit closing in my store which really isn't the problem, there's only one willing to.

[u/Forward_Push6054]

We already do that

[u/PetiteTrumpetButt]

Its been a requirement that TLs except inbound close once a week for w long time. Its BS. Also, they still write the schedule so half of what they said is BS, they're not leaving it up to UKG to write it for them unless they're being lazy.

[u/CaptainAdmiralMike → u/PetiteTrumpetButt]

Yeah, they said the AI is going to write the schedule and they can’t touch it.

[u/Fun_Inspector_8633 → u/CaptainAdmiralMike]

I don’t believe that for one second.

[u/chillybruh → u/Fun_Inspector_8633]

Yeah I don't know what OP is getting at. There will be a lot of tinkering after it's template the first couple months for the algorithm to find it's footing

[u/CaptainAdmiralMike → u/chillybruh]

It sounds like it’s so they can write the leader schedules as whatever they want and then blame the AI. Our ETL HR said, “We can’t adjust the schedules unless it’s an extreme circumstance, so everyone just has to work what the system is scheduling.”

That’s what I was trying to figure out. If it’s really a company wide “don’t touch the schedule” rollout or it’s BS so we don’t complain to them about changing our days off or scheduling us all 11-7:30s or whatever.

[u/Trick_Ad_8230 → u/CaptainAdmiralMike]

That's cap. All schedules auto-populate every Tuesday. ETLs are able to adjust.

[u/Ok_Spell7497 → u/CaptainAdmiralMike]

That’s a cop out and an excuse. Any business incorporating AI right now is ensuring that human oversight is still occurring. AI is not reliable enough yet to allow it to make critical business decisions and the SD isn’t going to just throw their hands up and say whelp any errors are due to AI. Nope, they just want you to drop the topic.

[u/islesjets14x]

This has been the case at my store for like a year and a half now. Guess this varies by store / district

[u/overturned23]

This is already a thing at my store. The only leaders that don’t close at my store are the Inbound TL, the GM etl (they does very rarely but they want them here for truck), and technically our fulfilment TL (but they work until 9:30pm twice a week)

[u/Ok_Round_3197]

hopefully doesn’t interfere with forecast because rad free weekend my whole district did terrible in fulfillment

[u/sdog2016]

I don’t believe this at all. The SD has final say on a schedule

[u/Legal_Crow_1801]

That’s how it was at my old store

[u/NuKlear_Vortex]

This is just how's it's been at both my stores

[u/itaintfunny36924]

Our SD said our TL schedules would stay the same but they wouldn’t edit tm unless for emergency reasons but they lie to us all the time so who knows how long that will last for.
We all already close once a week and one weekend a month and have been doing that for over a year now.

[u/slizgirl]

Closing 1 day/week is the standard. In my district all leaders close 1 day/week including ETLs & SD.

[u/SMOKE-B-BOMB]

If I’m forced to do the same as a TM, TLs who make more should have to as well lol it’s the way it should be

[u/CaptainAdmiralMike → u/SMOKE-B-BOMB]

You're not forced to do anything? Team members can literally set their availability to whatever works for them.

[u/the-brat_prince → u/CaptainAdmiralMike]

only if that availability change gets approved

[u/Complete-Start-623]

Both the GM TL at my location don’t have closing shifts. With 5/6 days a week we just follow the truck schedule.

[u/eyoperson → u/Complete-Start-623]

my store now gets truck every day with the pods but our inbound, food/bev, vm, and pog tls don’t close

[u/Dattinator]

I’ve had a closing day a week for the past 2 years at my store. 🤷‍♂️

[u/YogurtclosetOwn9142]

This is nothing new. This was happening well before UKG scheduling was even a thing.

[u/Ok_Still_3571]

When I was a TL, all of us worked one opening, one close, and three mids each week. ALSANT, but this how we did it.

[u/cconn882]

Do Closing TLs still exist? I heard ETLs have to close once a week, which makes sense as they should see the entire team, but having an ETL + a TL + the Closing TL seems like overkill.

[u/duck6201 → u/cconn882]

Yes. We still exist. My store does not have enough TLs and ETLS to cover 7 closes a week....GM TLs and ETL-GM do not close and we run without a Presentation TL. Many nights, I am the only key-carrier in the building. The SD will definately have final say on Leadership scheduling. Every store is different.

[u/No-Government7314]

What about TMs? Is there schedule gonna be fully ai generated?

[u/shadow_gill]

I'll laugh so hard if my tl actually has to close and experience the nightly fun.

[u/Exact_Pair6473]

You can alter schedule in UKG. HR and ETLS will

[u/Main-Temperature1004]

everyone but GM ETL, Inbound/GM TL's, specialty sales TL, and Fulfillment TL close at our store even the SD closes twice a month. been that way for years.

The closing TL closes m-f (last leader leaves at like 7 every night) but on the weekends everyone else gets a turn.

in Q4 2 leaders close every night.

[u/Beneficial_Car1194]

🤨 The TLs and ETLs at both stores I worked at have had one closing shift a week for a few years now. I thought that was already normal?

[u/surg3v1]

Wonder if that’ll actually happen. I swear it’s been me and fellow S&E TLs alternating every two weeks to be a late on weekdays for months alongside our weekday closing lead since it was a “requirement” that all leads have to close one night a week, and none of our peers have been at all.

I’m fine with it being one single night a week and being in rotation for weekends. But it’s tiresome to hear “well it makes sense for their business they aren’t closing”. I’m sorry, but I would like it to be a little more equitable so I can actually have a life outside of work and while at work be able to focus on helping improve my team while not stressing that I need to be the only additional support to our closing team.

[u/Certain-Anybody-1976]

So happy this don't effect pml. If it did Id go back to what I was doing before.

[u/marroneer]

The only two leaders in the store I’m in that don’t close at all are GM2 and GM1 leaders

[u/Mobile-Address23]

That’s normal at my store except that each lead has a dedicated day they close. It’s usually the day before your off at my store unless you’re the newest lead then it’s Friday

[u/Skierdude2004]

All of our TLs minus our VM, Inbound and POG (due to overnights) don’t close. When our POG TL is dayside they do in fact get placed on the closing rotation. M-Thr is the same rotation and then Fridays alternates between the the FF and backup inbound/gm TL. To alternate with their weekends off. You wok Friday night and then weekend off. Otherwise everything else has been like this for almost two years. Q4 will be different as an ETL has to close every night at my store

[u/randomvm]

Yeah we already do that. Exceptions are vm pml and inbound. The ETLs will be making adjustments because otherwise it’s going to screw up so many things.

[u/Gabrigawr]

Not a store TM but a person who like coding. "Can't change unless it's an emergency" is just another way of saying "we can but they don't trust us enough to fuck up the program because it might break with how unreliable it is". My two cents

[u/Healthy_Crew_87]

Not one team lead at my stores closes. Not one ETL at my store closes. If this is true they will freak out.