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I’ve been working in a retail job for just over a month and realized it and the company are not for me. On Wednesday I therefore gave my notice, orally first to my manager and in writing to the company’s director that same evening. (Two days later, I forwarded that email to my manager, who had taken the day in between off, prefacing it with “As we had discussed on Wednesday.”) My notice period is one week.

I am due to go on holiday on 10th July. My manager asked me if I was happy to work beyond my notice period until then. I said, “Yes but with reduced hours.” (I did include this in the email.)

According to the rota he had made well before I gave my notice, I was supposed to be off work on Monday and Tuesday, and at work on Wednesday, my last “notice” day.

Yesterday, I told him I needed the Friday and Saturday afternoon off (post-notice). Because I had made it clear I could only do reduced hours, I assumed it was not an issue. However, what he has done (without being clear—I found out by looking at the rota on the shop’s computer—he didn’t email it to us directly) is making me work on my day off on Tuesday, giving me Friday off, and still making me work a full 40 hours in the Sunday-Saturday company week. This despite the fact that I clearly said I was going to do reduced hours.

What is my recourse? It’s not my problem if the company is short-staffed, and I feel made fun of, after I clearly said I was not going to work full-time and he said “OK.”

I am tempted to email him saying “Circumstances have changed and I can’t work after Wednesday.” And I’ll simply work through my notice period which ends on Wednesday.

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  • Now he says that he did show me when he was changing the rota and put me down for Tuesday, but honest to God I can’t remember seeing it. I wouldn’t have agreed. Only thing I saw was him canceling me for the Friday and making me leave half an hour earlier on the Thursday. In any event I’ve told him my last day will be Wednesday.
    – NYCvisitor2228968
    Jul 3, 2022 at 12:49
  • Please accept PagMax's answer by clicking the checkmark next to it, since you are indeed following his advice.
    – A. I. Breveleri
    Jul 3, 2022 at 17:18
  • What do you have in written form, in terms of the agreement to work after the end of your notice?
    – njzk2
    Jul 3, 2022 at 17:55
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    I am following his advice and explained in the email that “As I said when I gave you my notice on Wednesday 29 June, as a courtesy I was happy to work reduced hours between the end of my notice period on Wednesday 6 July and the end of the week on Saturday 9 July. However, with this updated rota, I’m now supposed to work a full-time week through Saturday 9 July, including after the end of my notice period. Unfortunately, with this change making me work a full day on Tuesday 5 July, I now cannot work beyond the end of my notice period on Wednesday 6 July.”
    – NYCvisitor2228968
    Jul 3, 2022 at 18:36
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    What's your recourse? Not showing up seems a pretty good option. What are they gonna do?
    – Hobbamok
    Jul 4, 2022 at 8:58

3 Answers 3

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I am tempted to email him saying “Circumstances have changed and I can’t work after Wednesday.”

Do not resist your temptation on this one!

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Your recourse is leaving. You've served your notice, you are obliged to do precisely nothing beyond the point your notice period expires.

Unfortunately, they have absolutely no obligation to you either at this point so they don't have to honour any sort of agreement to only have you working reduced hours.

I'd tell them exactly where to stick their rota, treating someone who's offered to stay a bit longer to do them a favour like that is unacceptable. Companies/managers need to learn that they can't just disrespect people like this.

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    I genuinely do not understand how these managers are operating. I mean they are not billionaires treating their staff like crap just because they can. They are low-level managers with no upside to treating people with such disrespect and arrogance. Yes, it's slightly inconveniencing them but guess what unless they convey to their mid-tier managers that they cannot find people to work at that pay they will no longer be able to keep the shop open. What's more they are working against their own agendas. If salaries for staff go higher, theirs will as well.
    – J. Doe.
    Jul 4, 2022 at 10:14
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    I put low-level managers who act like this in the same box as Facebook Group/Subreddit admins. If you think of them in similar terms, it makes a bit more sense
    – ScottishTapWater
    Jul 4, 2022 at 10:20
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    @J.Doe. It's usually not just ill will but they achieve some goal with it, such as avoiding missing a KPI goal, which would typically result in them having to justify the problem (never a winning move) or losing some bonus (also not what they want).
    – toolforger
    Jul 4, 2022 at 13:22
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    Funnily enough, not only have they lost an employee, but also a customer. I used to shop regularly there before I was hired, and was planning to continue doing so. Now I’ll avoid it like the plague.
    – NYCvisitor2228968
    Jul 5, 2022 at 9:12
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You call that manager and tell them that as agreed you will be working with reduced hours. That's it. If he's going to put you on a rota, then you work with reduced hours. If he gets annoyed, you tell him that you have given notice so he only makes himself look like a fool. ("Looking like a fool" is something that kind of people are very afraid of). So what is he going to do? Fire you? He can't. If he tries, you walk to HR and spend all the time needed there. They can force you to leave the store, but they can't make you leave without the pay that you are owed.

(Sorry, I missed that these extra hours were actually after your notice period when you volunteered to work some extra money to do him a favour. Your "manager" is ridiculous. Read your update as well, he got what he deserved).

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