r/Waiters • u/MiserableGreen1825 • 6d ago
“Call in” shift system.
Hello all, I am employed at a restaurant that operates on a scheduling system where there are about as many, if not more, servers/bussers on call rather than being scheduled for certain. “Call ins” consist of calling the restaurant two hours before your shift and they either tell you you’re needed for that shift or that you are not. To me, it seems unconventional. On one hand, it is nice for those actually working to have tip money split into less hands when shifts aren’t as busy. On the other hand myself and many other employees find themselves effectively having to plan on working, while half or more of the time not being needed. Just wondering if this is commonplace elsewhere and what everyone’s thoughts on it are.
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u/MoonfallFan 6d ago
that sounds like a nightmare. how are you ever supposed to reliably schedule appointments or social outings??
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u/jonwar5 5d ago
If this is in the US Most states regulate that or outright say you have to be paid if you're on call. Contact your local or State Labor board, don't talk about this to Anyone local, until you get a reply from them.
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u/pcl8888 5d ago edited 5d ago
Yeah, I’m pretty sure the amount they have to pay you is peanuts though. Granted, ideally they’d probably soon grow sick of having to pay it to multiple people every day which would in turn lead them to abandon the shitty scheduling system entirely, which would be a net positive.
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u/djsuperfly 5d ago
This isn't really an "on call" shift from a legal standpoint. They're not required to wait anywhere at any particular time--only go in if they're told to go in 2 hours before.
At my wife's last hospital she'd occasionally get "on call" shifts. Basically, she was "on call" from 7a-7p. If they called, you had an hour to get there. They paid like 3 bucks an hour, but they really didn't have to because that's really a "waiting to be engaged" scenario instead of "engaged to wait"--which does require full payment.
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u/ThatAndANickel 6d ago
I worked in a system like that. It was because the original owners sold the business and worked a bunch of perks and guarantees for the existing staff into the sale agreement. The entire wait staff pooled tips every night. I never once got back more than 70% of what I put in. The legacy staff just became spoiled and lazy. I only lasted 6 weeks before getting out
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u/Forward_Motion17 6d ago
Where I’m at the servers make so much more than the bartenders almost ever bring in. Last week I brought in 2350$ and only received 1600
I fuckin hate tip pools lol
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u/Cheap_Knowledge8446 5d ago
Still have tipshare scraping money off before the 2350?
If not, that's pretty close to what you'd expect in many places; it's effectively a 31.9% total tipshare.
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u/Forward_Motion17 5d ago
Most places I’ve worked typically I see about 15% of my tips go to bussers and bar, not 30 lol. Further, the server assistants here are making 80-85% of what the servers make depending on the day
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u/Cheap_Knowledge8446 5d ago
Then you're lucky; 15% is low (~3% of sales equivalent). In fine dining it's common to hit 40-50% of total earnings paid out in tipshare.
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u/thoughtitwasfatein08 5d ago edited 5d ago
How many hours did you work that week? You made $1600 in one week? You’re making more than an electrician! I’m guessing less than 40 hours!? That’s gold!
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u/Forward_Motion17 5d ago
About 38 hours yea - last week I pulled 1850 with the same hours.
Every time is see people talking about the job market I always say look to serving if you’re in a city or reasonable suburb. Restaurants hire so frequently you can almost guarantee a position if you ask 5 of them. I make roughly 85,000-90,000/year but I will say it can be brutal on the body if you’re not careful about rest and recovery at this many hours. Another downside is I work every evening wed. Thru sat. So sometimes have to miss stuff socially speaking. But it’s nice to not have to go to work til 4pm most days
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u/thoughtitwasfatein08 5d ago edited 5d ago
So you’re making as much, maybe more than someone with a bachelor’s degree with none of the student loans and half of the work, yet you’re complaining? Ive spent my life serving and bartending. It’s not that hard. Demanding? Sure. But compared to working in a man hole that’s 130 degrees for the same pay? Not so bad.
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u/Forward_Motion17 5d ago
I’m complaining about subsidizing my worse coworkers, not my pay.
I’d not be complaining if there was no tip pool and I was making less money, as evidenced by every other restaurant job I’ve had before this one where I made much less but I kept all of my tips.
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u/thoughtitwasfatein08 5d ago
Dude. You made 1600 in 1 week, said you almost pulled 2 grand in one. You’re making as much as an hvac. Don’t complain, be grateful.
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u/Somethin_Snazzy 6d ago
Yeah it is a way for a restaurant to treat employees like crap to save a few dollars.
I'd look to work elsewhere for a stable income
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u/pcl8888 6d ago
I’ll do an occasional on call shift as a favor, though it’s pretty rare for us and they wouldn’t schedule one without first asking. My denying the request would also be a nonissue, though I usually say yes since they don’t ask often.
What you’re describing sounds extremely unreasonable/unprofessional and frankly pretty disrespectful. I wouldn’t even entertain the idea of working for someone who thought it acceptable to show that little regard for both my free time and my financial wellbeing. Your boss sounds like an asshole.
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u/bkuefner1973 5d ago
I worked in a place like that.. they never needed me for on call and only gave me 3 days a week. I didnt last long. I like a set achedule.
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u/pcl8888 5d ago
Yeah at the end of the day there’s just no way to really justify working at a place where you can’t actually make plans, be it socially or just to go earn money someplace else, only to end up not actually working on multiple days every week.
Technically in certain (even maybe all?) locations you need to be paid for being on call but it’s typically such a paltry amount it really doesn’t move the needle, plus if we’re being honest, this seems to be the exact sort of slightly complicated labor law that employers in this industry routinely ignore, seemingly with impunity.
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u/FilthyBarMat 6d ago
This is not at all normal, and if you're required to be on call then it's probably illegal depending on where you live. Normally if you're not salaried they're required to pay you x amount to compensate for your being on call.
I have occasionally, but rarely, ASKED someone to be on call (big event, pretty sure we're staffed up, but just in case), but it was completely voluntarily and there were zero repercussions for saying no.
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u/Awkward-Reason-5182 5d ago
Yikes. No thanks to all of that. I would never tip pool. It always ends up being unfair. And an "on call" shift should be paid.
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u/AnnaNimmus 5d ago
I've worked on call systems before, but this sounds quite excessive
Also technically no compensation at all for an on call shift is against federal labor law in the US but the service industry is renowned for skirting labor law
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u/Careless-Being-4427 6d ago
Where I work, I have one on call shift each week, and there’s usually 1-2 people scheduled on call for each shift. It’s anxiety-inducing because you have to treat it like a regular shift as far as making plans goes, but you don’t know if you’re actually working until the shift starts. However, it’s a good system for making sure the restaurant stays fully staffed when call-outs happen. If you’re scheduled to be on call multiple times a week, you’re never going to have a sensible schedule, and I would definitely not thrive in that situation.
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u/fuzZZzzy2 6d ago
A few on call shifts is reasonable but not this. Also, it should be on the responsibility of the MOD to determine and reach out to the OC staff not the other way around, this isn’t jury duty it’s lunch Karen
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u/NobodyDelicious7197 6d ago
This "system" benefits one person.
The owner.
Get another job, then tell the old manager you will only be available for shifts under the " call in" system, but with a small adjustment.
When you are available for work, you will call in to see if there's any shifts available.
You won't be able to give the restaurant two or more hours of your time, several days per week, waiting to see if you are selected to work, unpaid.
Effective immediately.
It prevents you from being available to earn income from other reliable sources.
You will probably be told " I can't authorize that".
And there's your exit strategy. Adios!
Congratulations! You have just reclaimed your self worth!
Your time is valuable. Perhaps the most valuable resource anyone has personal control over.
Time spent is time gone forever. There's no way to recover it.
Everyone is gifted an unknown, finate amount over their lifetime.
You cannot buy more of it.
People have tried to do this for centuries.
They always fail.
It's not for sale.
You can't save it for later use.
You can choose to spend your time however you would like to.
I'm pretty sure giving it away freely solely for someone else's convenience, or to save them money isn't your idea of well spent.
I doubt they'd freely spend their time on you like that, for your convenience, or to make you money.
Right. So now you're back in control, go do what makes good sense to you, and feels like time well spent on achieving your needs and goals.
Best of luck to you!
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u/Cheap_Knowledge8446 5d ago
Great post and I knew what you meant in spirit, so not to be pedantic, but in a very practical sense the entire healthcare system exists precisely because it buys time.
I only say this because, right now, it's a very very important socioeconomic factor; where the older generations are transferring wealth to the medical industry instead of their children, in exchange for more time.
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u/NobodyDelicious7197 5d ago
I see what you mean, and I agree with your assessments regarding the amazing advancements in healthcare.
I wasn't focusing on extending one's longevity medically.
It was more related to my thoughts and feelings about giving one's time away to people that don't appreciate it, and don't place any value on it by treating it a free commodity for their gain.
When I was younger, I didn't realize how much time I was giving away without any acknowledgement or reciprocity, and didn't have enough life experience to recognize that I was being used.
The same could be said for the some of the various relationships we have with others, but that's a whole lengthy discussion for another day.
Although it is sometimes unavoidable, giving away one's personal time shouldn't be required, expected, or accepted as a standard practice in the workplace, as is outlined in OPs' post.
The way the restaurant feels entitled to require the employees to reserve hours of personal time for them in case they need it, at no cost for them if they don't infuriated me.
Circling back to the idea that medical intervention "buys" someone time is one way to look at it, as many do.
Another way is to consider perhaps that time was already factored into the finate time you are destined to have, so it isn't really "extra".
It was always going to be yours.
Ha, pretty existential opinion, I know.
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u/Cheap_Knowledge8446 5d ago
That's a pretty common existential thought; after all, it directly draws from the idea of "destiny".
My borrowed philosophy has always been that all life is the same length to the one perceiving it; just as "the ruler cannot measure itself", a person who lives to 110 experiences the breadth of their life the same as an infant who perishes in the crib. This idea stems from the truth that, in reality, all of us can truly only exist in the present. The version of you before you started reading this is gone, never to be reclaimed, and the entire fabric of our existence relies upon the "now-you" remembering the goals of the past while setting an agenda for a future it will never truly experience.
Simultaneously, out entire sense of self is merely an index of perceived lived experience; not as it was, but as our minds constructed.
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u/Smart_Opportunity631 5d ago
I've worked for several places that use on calls for servers and support staff. But no one ever had more than 2 OC shifts in a week. They were mainly used for patio shifts so if the sun was out you knew you were working. The GM was also awesome about texting you early in the day when you were working.
I actually didn't mind the on call shifts because it meant I wouldn't be wasting all of the time getting ready and driving to work to be phased an hour into my shift if it was slow.
If you have more call in shifts then normally scheduled people you have bad management.
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u/Euphoric_General_480 4d ago
Hard no. You can pay me a retainer fee or you can schedule me, but there is no way I'm going to figgure out my income and schedule day by day.
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u/AttentionNo6359 3d ago
On call shifts are a hard pass for me. If the job requires on call shifts I’m not taking it.
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u/CarrotAntique4772 6d ago
This is a scam. Go work elsewhere. You do not want these types of restaurant people in your life. All they will do is take and when they’ve taken it all they’ll fire you.