Apple is changing its practices for scheduling retail employees. Going forward, part-time Apple Store employees will be expected to work a minimum of 24 hours per week, and weekends are being redefined for full-time employees that could potentially eliminate having Saturday or Sunday off.
Apple stores have seen increased traffic in recent years, with some locations seeing traffic grow exponentially. More traffic means more questions, more sales, more repairs, and more training in an increasingly crowded space. As a response, ifoAppleStore.com reported that Apple’s scheduling of employees is going to be changing as of April 15th.
Source: Apple
Currently, part-time employees must commit to being available for 16 hours during a 40-hour window set by management. The new practices will expect a commitment of 24 hours as a minimum. This could be welcome by some part-time employees, but others may find it unmanageable to work around other commitments they may have including other jobs, education, or family responsibilities.
Full-time workers, on the other hand, have been expected to be available any time the store is open, up to 40 hours per week. They have been required to work one weekend day, either Saturday or Sunday, which gave them the other day off.
Under the new guidelines, weekends have been redefined to be Friday-Sunday and full-time employees must work two of those three days. This means that an employee could potentially have Friday off, but work both Saturday and Sunday. Increased traffic in the stores on Fridays appears to be behind this shift. Time-off requests will be accommodated when possible, but require three weeks notice.
These changes reportedly affect Family Room Specialists, Red Zone Specialists, Creatives, and Geniuses. ifoApple.com’s sources say that Apple is conscious that this may lead to resignations.