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.
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.
Replies are closed for this discussion.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by aggie71 on -
I may regret this...but here is my take on split shifts. To begin with, if you work for DNC in Yellowstone you will most likely be working a split shift. That is all they offer....and they are not going to change it anytime soon. Hopefully you will alternate shifts (like I did) from week to week. That's the fairest way to do it for everyone involved. As for the time off in the middle of the day....I agree there is not a lot you can do with it. I usually read and took a short nap. I didn't particularly like split shifts but it was not a "deal breaker" for me. Just go into it knowing that is the nature of the job you are accepting to do for 3-4 months. If you just hate split shifts, let someone else accept those jobs and look elsewhere. Before accepting a job be sure you know what you are getting into. That will be 2 cents please :-)
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Permalink Reply by Kevin Lewis on -
What I find frightening is the tone of many of the responses on this thread, which indicates that many people think that there's nothing wrong with being forced to work split shifts. I guess that 100 years ago, no one would have thought there was anything wrong with not being able to go to the bathroom without permission, with working seven days a week, and with being beaten if you damaged company property.
The reason this practice persists is that employees ALLOW it to persist. However, it's worth noting that the concessioners have trouble keeping full staffs as the summer wears on, because even those who thought split shifts were jest hunky dory begin to have second thoughts.
I've yet to have anyone answer my question of why split shifts are even necessary--and by "necessary", I don't mean, "convenient for the employer", but rather, "impossible to run a business without them".
Oh, and here's your two cents, but I've deducted for housing, meal plan, and medical (as well as a room cleaning and uniform deposit), so you owe me $348.98.
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Permalink Reply by Kevin Lewis on
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I give up everybody!!! Split shifts are actually mondo fantastic! They are good for your health, help you keep a clear and happy mind, and cure unsightly blemishes!
The ideal split shift would be one hour on, one hour off, one hour on, one hour off, etc., resulting in a sixteen hour work day. You can then sleep in your car, or upright in your clothes locker, and emerge ready for another workday, without the bother of going home! Everyone should ask their supervisor for such a schedule.
Actually, I just realized that the ultimate split shift would be one hour on, two hours off, one hour on, two hours off, etc. etc., round the clock--the employee would never have to clock out, much less go home, and could be worked until he dropped dead, at which time he could be replaced with a fresh work unit. AND, I guarantee that after such a system was put in place, employers would be telling everyone that doing that was ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY to running their business.
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Permalink Reply by Maynkor Xuan XIV on -
Reality check incoming.........I find it hard to believe that the practice of split shifts, as so terribly horrible as they seem to be (according to you), is continuing to be used by employers despite how "reprehensible and abusive" it is. I would think that an unfair and illegal employment technique would have a hard time continuing to be implemented for years and years if it was truly that bad for any amount of workers. And labeling split shifts as abusive, to say the least, is, well.....stupid. I think you need to reacquaint yourself with some well recognized definitions of the word abuse, and curious the fact that most everyone here disagreed with you and your position on the matter, I'm wondering if we've all got it wrong and you are just an enlightened thinker, intellectually superior than most people with a meager understanding of the horrors of split shifts, or whether the majorities opinion is correct over the opinion of an outspoken minority. But it is a well know truth that you can't be right on an internet thread, everyone else never knows what the H they're talking about and they're all fools. And I can make a long and fun filled list of things you can do with 4 hours of off time, I could even drive 230+ miles, or run 20! And if you feel that strongly about it, and internet rants don't make you feel better, than turn it up a notch, make a anti split shift t-shirt, or a vlog. I'm out : P
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Permalink Reply by Kevin Lewis on
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I've already said that this (perfectly legal) practice persists in the national park environment because many people are willing to accept just about any kind of crappy job conditions just for the "prilvilege" of working there. Plus, the remote and isolated nature of most such jobs means that employees are more invested in the process, have gone to more trouble and expense to get there, and thus are "captive audiences". That the companies take advantage of this to impose awful working conditions is indeed abusive, whether or not you happen to see it that way.
And if you think that the majority opinion in a given discussion is always right, then...well, I can't help you.
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Permalink Reply by Coly Hope on -
I have a great idea! If you don't like working split shifts than work somewhere that doesn't have split shifts.
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Permalink Reply by Kevin Lewis on
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Is that the most profound thought you've come up with this week?
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Permalink Reply by Tracyjo on -
You know split shifts are not as great as some may think. I worked an obsolete shift, very rare shift, a triple shift, for Xanterra once. I worked a 6 am to 2 pm host shift 5pm-12:30am dish pit shift 6 am-2 pm hostess shift 5 pm- 12:30am dish pit shift. Then I often worked a 6 am- 2 pm and 4-11 shift 4 or 5 times a week during the holiday season just a mere two weeks after that. It is brutal. As nice as the money is it sucks trying to move after those shifts. Then they wonder why people get burn out and try to fire them because of that burn out.
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Permalink Reply by Kevin Lewis on
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And I'm sure that if you had complained, you would have been told that "it's normal" or "you were told you might have to work split shifts" or "we couldn't possibly make our scheduling work without doing this". You probably would have threatened with firing, as well.
I know there have been several apologists for the concessionaires on this thread, and even some of the (more brainwashed) employees have said that split shifts are no big deal, but the simple truth is that they're stressful and fatiguing. I simply don't feel that you can pay someone minimum wage AND impose conditions like these on your workers. And for what it's worth, from a simple MORAL standpoint, aka human decency, if I had been your supervisor, I would NEVER have asked you to work those shifts. If the business would collapse and die without split shifts (a repeated assertion, that, as I have shown, is asinine), then maybe the business should modify its practices, not torture the employees to make up for the inabilities of management.
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Permalink Reply by Rick Peterson on -
She wasn't working split shifts, she was working a double shift each day of 8 hours then another 8 hours doing 2 different jobs. There is nothing split about it.
My favorite part of your whole post is, "If the business would collapse and die without split shifts (a repeated assertion, that, as I have shown, is asinine)" Have you read the other posts, nobody is agreeing with you. You've shown it to yourself.
And again your are disparaging groups of people. Before it was the "docile" internationals, and now it is the "brain washed" employees. Get over yourself. Your only argument has been that you know of other places that don't have split shifts. That says absolutely nothing to the necessity for split shifts at other places.
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Permalink Reply by Kevin Lewis on
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I didn't say "split shifts", I said "those shifts". I realize the distinction (duh). You should READ my posts before responding to them. In any case, those shifts she was forced to work were a variation of the same abusive practice---forcing an employee to work extended hours. I suppose you think that forcing her to work those hours was reasonable and justified?
I know that your viewpoint is that of one who is on the employer's, rather than the employees' side. So what else should we expect you to say? The fact that less than 50 percent of DNC & Xanterra seasonal hires wind up staying on for the full season (their figures, not mine) speaks volumes all by itself--they treat their employees like dirt. But of COURSE someone on the corporate end is going to profess that such treatment is necessary and normal.
And when an abused employee professes that he's actually being treated fairly, it's usually a case of cognitive dissonance. I traveled thousands of miles to work for nothing and get treated like crap to boot? No, it couldn't be. I must actually be getting treated OK.
You've yet to show me a single, solitary, infinitesimal reason why split shifts are VITAL AND NECESSARY. You've shown why they make a restaurant manager's life easier, but that ain't exactly the same thing. But don't bother to reply to that--your mind is set in granite--or perhaps, you are experiencing that same cognitive dissonance: I force my employees to work split shifts. Wow--some of them must hate it! But I'm a wonderful guy and a terrific manager! Therefore, everybody must actually LOOOOOOOOOVE split shifts!
I actually don't think you even belong on threads like this, since you're an employer, not an employee. However, your contributions would be much more worthwhile if you were a tad more empathic, and didn't act like the factory overseer with a coiled whip in his hand.
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