Flexible Workplace Solutions for Low-Wage Hourly Workers

But the neighbor is occasionally late, making Robert late for work. During the
past three weeks, Robert was late twice and also took several personal days
off to take his mother to the doctor, for which Robert’s supervisor gave him a
“warning.” Employees who receive three warnings are usually terminated. This
situation is quite stressful for Robert; he is worried that he could lose his job.
If Robert could adjust his start time to 8:30 he would likely be able to get his
kids off to school and get to work on time. Unlike workers in many salaried
positions, deviation from an employer-determined start time may result in
threatened or actual job loss for many workers in low-wage hourly jobs. 67
(This example is from fi eld research on fl exibility and low-wage work
conducted by Dr. Jennifer E. Swanberg.)
Unpredictable Scheduling Practices. Workers in jobs with nonstandard schedules in many
industries such as health care, retail, and hospitality may have routinely unpredictable schedules,
receiving very little notice of their weekly work schedules. The requirement to work overtime with
little or no notice or to work extra hours is another type of unpredictability that impacts both standard
and nonstandard hours workers.
Karen is a part-time package delivery person with a one-year-old. She is
generally assigned four days of work a week, for one of two different daytime
shifts. The particular days that she works change from week to week. She gets
notice of the shifts and days she will work only a week ahead of time. Each
week, after she receives notice of her work schedule, she calls friends and
family to arrange her child care for the coming week. In the past year, she has
been “written up” at work by her supervisor several times — at least once for
missing work and a couple of times for being fi fteen minutes late — all due to
child care problems. Her supervisor is sympathetic to her situation, but he is
required to report these infractions. Karen would love to work full-time, with a
predictable set schedule. She has been in her “temporary” position for over one
year; she believes she is being overlooked for full-time employment because of
her child. Having more notice of her schedule would allow Karen to line up her
child care much further in advance, decreasing the likelihood of being unable to
fi nd child care at the last minute. Having more stable child care would allow her
to get to work on time and reduce the chance of disciplinary action against her
for being absent from or late to work.
(This example is from a research study, the Work & Family Transitions Project,
at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. Principal Investigator: Dr. Maureen
Perry-Jenkins.)
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