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Been offered full time position - unsure? what are my rights?

  • 30-04-2015 02:10PM
    #1
    LegacyUser
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 166,005 ✭✭✭✭LegacyUser


    Hi all, going unreg for this...

    Yesterday after 4mnts of starting my new job, my employer has offered me a full time position, only if l can guarantee him I'll stay til next oct.

    The thing is l dont know what I'll be doing next year. I work in a bar/resturant and have feck all of a social life. I get on with 99% of the people there, management are lovely, always a good atmoshpere about, good wage and tips...plus l never dread a day going in.

    There my positives. My negatives is I wont be travelling this time next year (which l dont know will i even have to do as I might have to do it on my own). I put on a good act at work to make people happy when really I just wanna punch them in the face (the rude and awkward ones!!). Plus I find it hard to do any hobbies, like I only get 2 weekdays off and its just hard to try and commit to anything.

    Maybe I need to realise this is just the real working world?

    Basically what has me divided about this is that my boss siad he doesnt want to offer me this position, and for my to turn around in feb/march saying I'm leaving. He wants my word that I will stay til at least Oct.....Can he really do this? What are my rights in this? How should I handle this? Should I ask for things on my terms eg finish early on a fri or sat evening....must make up my mind by Saturday...

    I'm just in a heap over this :(


Comments

  • #2
    Andy Pitiful Warden
    Posts: 13,104 ✭✭✭✭ Andy Pitiful Warden


    Can he ask you to stay until October next? Of course he can, it's not exactly unreasonable either. Staff turnover can be a huge problem for employers.

    Your rights are that you can leave the job whenever you like, if you take it. You're not indentured. You don't have the right to early Fridays or Saturdays, but again you can ask for them, like he's asking you to give your word you'll stay for a certain period.

    You seem to enjoy the job so just take it. Deal with whatever other issues down the line.


  • #3
    Mrs OBumble
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 26,834 ✭✭✭✭Mrs OBumble


    unsure- wrote: »
    Maybe I need to realise this is just the real working world?

    Yeah - pretty much.

    Shift work is hard on hobbies if you're in to team sports - most people modify their hobbies, and build their circle of friends among other shift workers.

    The boss asking you to promise until after next summer is a bit rich IMHO. He intends to employ you, but doesn't have a crystal ball to predict 18 months into the future that he'll still be in business.

    I think you should accept it on the basis that you currently intend to be around ('cos you haven't 100% decided on travelling). If hings change, then they change.

    The only possible consequence is that he gets annoyed if you leave earlier and won't give you a reference. But you need to weight this up - if you don't take this work, what else might you work at to make money for travel etc.

    That said - also think about your long term career: do you still want to be pulling pints (or possibly running your own pub or restaurant) when you're 50? Or do you want to get a job now that might allow you to get into some other industry?

    Whatever you choose, though, you will have to deal with difficult customers (and maybe co-workers), feeling tired after a week's work, etc.


  • #4
    seamus
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 68,173 ✭✭✭✭seamus


    Yeah, as said above, this is how things work.

    Can he ask you informally to stay till October? Of course. Do you have to? No.

    I actually did this once before. I left a supermarket job when I was doing my leaving. Afterwards I went back to the supervisor who told me there were no jobs going and that she didn't trust me not to turn around and leave in a few months (she was a family friend so it was an amiable conversation). I promised I wouldn't, so she pleaded my case to the store manager and did me a huge favour to get me hired.

    Lo and behold, 4 months of travelling from college back to work in the supermarket I turned around and told her I just couldn't do it any more. She was a little miffed, but like any reasonable person she understood that things don't always work out as planned, and later took the piss out of me about it.

    Any road, October 2016 is a long way away. I would tend to advise being honest about it - "I'm considering going travelling, so I don't want to promise October and screw you over, but I can give you till next May".

    Although if it's a case that if you don't take this position you have no job, then I would just take it.

    It's only an informal agreement, you'll feel a bit crappy breaking it, but it has no real repurcussions. In the unlikely event that he asks you to sign something, then get yourself some favourable terms into the bargain - better pay, every 3rd weekend off, etc etc.


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