Worker Baffled After Getting In Trouble For Arriving On Time In New Job

A security guard was left baffled after they arrived on time for their first day in a new job and wound up getting told off.

The anonymous worker was scheduled to work at a new store at 10am and they arrived at the shop right on time.

Writing on Reddit, they recalled: "I get there at exactly 10am, and ask to place my belongings in the backroom. I was in the room for a few minutes max, and then came back out to man the door.

"However, in that time I guess many customers had already come in and one of the sales staff had to play security.

"On my lunch break, the manager of the store approached me and asked if I could come to [the store] a little bit earlier next time so that by the time I put all my belongings down I can be in front of the store at 10am."

Pixabay

But things escalated from here, with the employee insisting they would continue to show up for their shift when it starts.

They wrote: "I told her no, that if I'm rostered to start at 10am then I will show up at 10am, and that if they want me to come earlier then the store would have to arrange that with the security company. I'm not getting paid to come earlier so I really don't see why I'm required to.

"She got huffy with me and said that the sales staff aren't trained to be security, and with the popularity of the store every morning there will be people lining up waiting to go inside, and that I needed to be here earlier because of that.

"She said that it really wasn't hard to come a few minutes earlier, and that it wasn't fair to come 'just on time'. I know it's not hard to come a little earlier, but I feel it's more about the principle - if you want someone to come earlier then make that clear through the hours.

"I told her such and she just sighed and walked away. We didn't talk for the rest of the day."

So that gig got off to a great start.

EyeEm/Alamy Stock Photo

But the point of this post in the Am I The A*****e? subreddit was to establish who was out of line in this situation - and the general consensus was that the security guard was.

One Reddit user replied: "At EVERY job I have had, if you are scheduled to start work at 10 that means that at 10 on the dot you are on the floor available to work.

"If you're in the back putting away your belongings then you aren't working. You weren't working at 10, you started somewhere around 10.05."

Another said: "As far as I know if they say your shift starts at 10, you have to start to work at ten. Putting your belongings somewhere else etc is not work time.

"You can't be there at 10 and take your time to make some coffee etc too. If you know that you will take 5 minutes to do things like that, you come earlier so that you can start your actual work when your shift starts."

However, another painted a picture of a store this security guard may be better suited to.

They wrote: "I'm a retail manager and I'm in charge of scheduling. The store opens at 9.00. The sales staff are expected to be at work no later than 8.45 and they get paid when they arrive.

"By the time the doors open, everybody is ready to begin and has been on the clock for 15 minutes minimum. It's not hard to do that."

Topics: Interesting, Job, Community, Reddit

Jake Massey

Jake Massey is a journalist at LADbible. He graduated from Newcastle University, where he learnt a bit about media and a lot about living without heating. After spending a few years in Australia and New Zealand, Jake secured a role at an obscure radio station in Norwich, inadvertently becoming a real-life Alan Partridge in the process. From there, Jake became a reporter at the Eastern Daily Press. Jake enjoys playing football, listening to music and writing about himself in the third person.

@jakesmassey