Living & Working in Great Places

Beware of Split Shifts

This is something I've run into in the past with both Xanterra and DNC. It's such a critical issue, it should be considered as a deal-breaker when you are considering working for one of these companies.

In an environment such as a national park, split shifts are, to put it simply, abusive. If you work, for example, 4-on, 4-off, 4-on, for a 12-hour split shift, where do you go and what can you do for those intervening four hours? The answer: nothing, and nowhere. You can eat a loooong lunch, or maybe read a book, but you don't have enough time to hike, or go fishing, or take a ride to town. Especially since you're still wearing your uniform.

The worst part is that after your twelve-hour work day (for that's what it is; it's just that four of those hours are unpaid), you will have no energy left to do anything but stagger back to your shack and collapse. If you are lucky enough to have two days off, that will be your only free time, some of which you will have to devote to doing laundry or shopping for groceries, since your split-shift workweek didn't allow you any time to do that before or after work.

Split shifts provide a small bit of added scheduling convenience for the employer at a HUGE expense of time and inconvenience to the employee. It is my--and many others'--position that split scheduling, aside from being reprehensible and abusive, is actually illegal, as it lengthens the actual workday beyond legal limits.

I STRONGLY urge EVERYONE to demand from their prospective employers a guarantee that they will NOT be assigned split shifts, except in case of emergency, and then only temporarily. If the park concessioners cannot find anyone who will tolerate this abusive practice, then they will eventually have to stop doing it.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Dominic on October 25, 2009 at 4:03am: I am glad I did not get caught in the middle of this. I am just here to share my expierence. There is no right or wrong answers here. Share what you believe and remember it is just a "belief" not a fact everyone else must conform to. Please be respectful of everyones right to think what they want without others judging them. You don't have to agree just share your insight and move on.

In my 19 year career nobody has ever held a gun to my head and "forced" me to work a split shift. As with any job I discuss the schedule in regards to what hours I can work before accepting a job. At amy time of I am not happy with the situation I am free to seek employment with one of the thousands of other companies.

Working in yellowstone I actually enjoyed having the best time of day free to do as I wish. I can not stand doing boring busy work for little money when the business is slow. I would much rather cut my
loses and just have that time to use as I wish. I never was told to sit outside unpaid until the pace picks up. I knew ahead of time what hour I was scheduled to return to work. As a server it is very benificial for me to get a full 8 hour shift in which consist of only working the busy mealtimes. I make a much better average income per hour and have the slow times when I would not make money free!

If your somebody that needs a regular 9-5 schedule then hospitality work may not be for you. The seasonal work lifestyle is very unconventional and that's why many people enjoy it. The pay is not the best the living conditions are less then perfect but the perks are priceless. I do it for the adventure and unique experience I will never forget.

It is a privledge to get paid to live in the awesome places I do. I am lucky if I am selected for any of these coveted positions. Don't forget to check your ego at the door. Don't expect a company to change there way of doing business to fit your needs. Nobody is stopping you from finding th right job that work for you. I wouldn't buy a red car knowing that I don't like the color then blame the car company for selling me that color choice.

Permalink Reply by Kevin Lewis on October 25, 2009 at 12:06pm: As I've said before, restaurant server positions might be one of the few jobs where it makes sense to work split shifts. However: there is a huge difference between what they tell you ("you MAY be ASKED to work SOME split shifts") and the actuality ("you WILL be REQUIRED to work CONSTANT split shifts'). I would have no problem if they were upfront about it, early in the process--as in, at the time you were hired, before you ever got there.

Also, split shifts are imposed on many jobs, not just ones connected with restaurants. A server may actually enjoy working those eight hours where he will earn the most money, but that wouldn't be true for any non-tipped position. Yet, many non-tipped employees are forced to work split shifts--the benefit of that goes to the employer only.

It's dangerous to think of yourself as "privileged" for working in the parks. That means that you will be willing to accept any kind of maltreatment, any kind of bad working conditions, just for that "privilege". Don't forget, you are already being paid the absolute minimum wage allowed by law--they would pay you less if they could. They provide housing---but they deduct money from your paycheck for it. And if you extrapolate the housing deduction among the several people who are living with you, you'll find that collectively, you're paying $800-1000/month for a cabin. In other words, they ain't doing you any favors.

The "privilege" that actually exists is that the concessionaires have been granted exclusive, long-term monopolies to operate within the parks. Because the parks are attractive places to live and work, those companies don't have to offer decent pay, decent housing, or decent working conditions. As a result, they make money hand over fist. The combination of selling services to captive audiences--where else can you go, if you're in the middle of the park?--and paying employees wages that are the lowest in the country means that profits are sky-high. Next time, ask yourself--they charged that guy $8.50 for a ham sandwich, and they're paying me $6.75 an hour to sell it to him---who is actually "privileged" here? Is it really me?

I'm glad you enjoy working in the parks, and I'm not discounting the value of being able to live and work in these beautiful places. I've worked in Glacier, Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Grand Canyon, and I know exactly what you mean. My personal conclusion was that the pittance I made, the routine abuse I suffered, and the awful living conditions (granted, much of the awfulness was due to my roommates more than the conditions themselves) simply weren't worth it. I spent ten of the next twelve summers simply traveling around the US and experiencing the parks. It didn't cost me much more than working in the parks (camping is cheap), and I had all day, every day, to myself. Certainly, working in the parks may be a way to experience them without losing money--but I kept meeting people who were sadly disappointed that their work schedules didn't allow them to escape and enjoy their surroundings. They might as well have been working in downtown Cleveland for all the difference it made.