Tell the cook to make less mess.
Clean faster and go home earlier.

*Runs away like Linford*

I'd do it once for the "goodwill" 

Not twice though  

Go in your normal time on thursday, looking abit flustered and say you are so sorry you are late, you had car trouble, then your problems is solved !!!

Exactly, Growly.
I "get it" fine, duchess - you want to get out of doing something you do every week (and are paid for) because the day you'd normally do it on falls on a bank holiday.

I agree, your boss sounds a bit of a jobsworth (I know the type, believe me), but she's the boss. You can't claim extra pay for doing a job you're already being paid for, just because you disagree with her.

In my experience it's the ones who are completely co-operative who are eventually shat on. Duchess is selling her surplus Labour and deserves to be paid for it.

Oi, stop bringing politics into it

I don't think I've been shat on at work, but even if I have, I would much rather be known as someone who will always be prepared to do a bit extra and who can be relied on to make sure that something gets done when it needs to be than be known as a jobsworth.

Friday is her official paid holiday. Thursday she normally works 2 and a half hours and she`s being asked to work three..unpaid for the extra 1/2 hour. She deserves to be paid. Yes, goodwill and flexibilty is fine but it seems she`s being told she has to work for nothing.

I don't think I've been shat on at work, but even if I have, I would much rather be known as someone who will always be prepared to do a bit extra and who can be relied on to make sure that something gets done when it needs to be than be known.................................................................................................................................. That's more or less what non-unionised Principal Officer Mrs Joe said as she spent her evenings doing unpaid work. I well remember her asking for a morning off at short notice, her boss saying that she would have to put a holiday in, and the ensuing nastiness being sufficient to make her resign. Next situation, a consultancy one, as I tried to persuade her to join a union, her employer changed, and she was shat on again.

I don't agree - she is already being paid for this half-hour of cleaning, because she does it (and is paid for it) every week and recognises it as part of her job. The only difference this week is that she's not being asked to do it on a Friday.

On the same basis she is being paid to work every Friday, so  why not make her work all three hours extra on the Thursday?

I'm a trade union member, and have been for most of my working life.  But that doesn't mean I have to stick to my job description and be completely inflexible.  In over 30 years at work, I've always found that flexibility works both ways.

But Friday is her officially paid holiday - 3 hrs. Therefore, in reality, 1/2 is being decucted from her holiday by working the extra on Thurday, which he`s not being paid for.

Well you've been very lucky

I don't think I've been lucky at all.  I've always worked very hard, done whatever needed to be done, and have never been a clock watcher, and I think that I've been given the respect I have earned for that approach.  I've never tried to take advantage of an employer, and consequently no employer has ever taken advantage of me.  

I'm not naive enough to think that all employers treat their staff properly, and I realise that some private companies are appalling employers, but this thread is about the private sector.

I can see what you mean - but employers aren't forced to give you bank holidays off by law, they just have to either give you them or reward you later for working them. I will be working on Easter Monday, for example, and then getting time and a half pay and a day in lieu. I didn't have a choice, because work still has to be done.

The kitchen still has to be cleaned. If her boss had decided she needed staff to come in on Good Friday (then giving them the time off when it was more convenient for the business), this question wouldn't even arise. As it stands, Duchess is getting the time off and still complaining.

I don't see it.

~shrugs~ She is getting het up about having to do an extra half an hour, and that's only to cover a task she'd normally expect to do (and is paid to do) each week.

I think it's quite reasonable to be asked to do the extra half hour as they are closed on the Friday BUT I think she should be paid for it

Or maybe they should do what they did with 'Toid and I, make her go in on Good Friday, pay her 150% and a day off in lieu. Solved!

She already is being paid for it. She's just being asked to do it on Thursday, not Friday.

Well, it works for me! I could opt for not taking the day off at all, and get paid double-time.

See that's the bit I don't understand. She is also already being paid for working the Friday aswell. So on your argument why don't they ask her to work double the hours on Thursday?

It may interest you to know that at the changing of the clocks we used to get an hour overtime, but were still paid normally for the hour less shift.

I don`t see it either Toid. We`ll have to agree to disagree on this one.

So, we're agreed that she should be getting double-time for the half hour, instead of nothing?

Hi i'm back but only quickly my daughter is on the comp and she let me read your answers and reply.

Our kitchen is spotless, we clean all the time different people who have come in have commented on how clean it is, the cook is a clean freak as i think ive said before.  This cleaning is a little bit that we do extra on a friday, eg the toilet servery fridge etc.  they are already clean, spotless (there are only 4 of us there) so there is no issue of cleanliness let me make that clear.

We break up for two weeks but in that time we go in to do more cleaning on one day (tues) for 2hrs 30 mins which is plenty of time for 4 women to do all the cleaning needed.

Garage Joe, Blizzie, Scotty i think you are the only ones who understand where i'm coming from (if i've missed anyone out i'm sorry)

The people who think i'm complaining over nothing have said they get time and a half plus a day in leiu so i don't know where they are coming from, do you work for nothing at anytime i know this is only 30 mins but in my hours (13) that's a lot 30mins in a 40hr week for example is nothing but would you work for 4hrs for example for nothing??

This cook is a clean freak where i know a kitchen has to be clean (and ours is) she goes overboard imo.  when i questioned her about this her reply was "well it'll make up for the times you go early"  I finish at 1.45 we go at the most 1.40 and she tells us to go!  I said "I hate it when you hold that against us"  So no more will i go any earlier than 1.45   When i rang the manager he said the same so she obviously phoned him before i did!

As for only liking the answers that agree with me that's wrong cos none of you who don't agree haven't understood my problem.

Sorry for the rant!

Daughter is getting back on but said she will let me check from time to time and answer

Duchess there's more than one way to skin a cat....Think of it this way the 30 mins cleaning you do on Thursday may result in 30 mins less cleaning needing doing on Tues...Say no more about it to her but come Tuesday take your leisurely time during the time your there as you will be ahead.

I most definitely didn't say that. I don't get any enhanced rate for extra work I do.  I'm paid on a formula basis for my work, and if I do more hours than are included in my formula for a particular school, then I don't get paid ANYTHING for the extra.  I could probably get my work done within my formula hours most of the time, but I wouldn't be doing nearly as thorough or professional a job as I do by spending a few hours extra each week to do my very best for the schools who pay my wages.

you didn't but someone else did!  I wouldn't mind if i was just getting the 30 mins pay but i'm not.

Lee the cleaning we do on thursday wont make any difference to the cleaning on tuesday we would do other cleaning and then 'freshen up what we did on thurs'  it is pointless.  the kitchen is spotless she cleans all the time has us cleaning all the time as well as washing dishes, pans and serving the kids and putting tables out and away!!  All in 2hrs 30!!

going now night night thanks again for the replies xx

Duchess,
I hope you didn't think I was having a go when I posted, I was being facetious.

Night, duchess.

Take some stink bombs in with you, on Thursday.

I'm confused again... 

so it's ok for you to leave early if you've done the work but get paid for the full time. . and yeah I know it's only 5 mins here and there..., but in the long run we are only talking about 30 mins in the first place.. surely if you add up all your 5 mins unworked but paid for, they'd more that cover the 30 mins unpaid you've been asked to do.. wouldn't they?

As for whether the work is needed or not if the 'boss' thinks it is then as an employee surely you have to do the work if it's part of your contract.. No?

 I'd be happy to have a fastidious cook in a school kitchen tbh...

I'd be pretty pissed off, if my boss told me to leave five minutes early every now and then, just to add it all up and tag it on to another day, unpaid! 

hhaha  Blizzie you know that wasn't what I was getting at..

I wonder if Duchess will return. I am quite intrigued now. I want further information on who exactly she works for. Well not who exactly, but what sort of organisation, how many schools do they cover, how many employees, that sort of thing.

having to do unpaid work...however long it is for...is unresonable imo

on a friday she would normally get paid...she is expected to go and do that 30mins on the thursday instead but NOT get paid...that's how i read it.

i'd have a problem with slave labour too...

I'm baffled to be honest.

I don't work anymore (full time Mum) but before I had my child I was a housekeeper in a huge hotel. Some days we got home early , some days we had to work late. It all came down to whether or not we had our work finished.

My Mum is a nursery nurse and regularly has to go in 30 mins to an hour early for planning (deciding on activitys for the children) and she doesn't get paid for that but does it because of the other perks of the job IE school holidays.

I would just do it. Am I a pushover?

I think that there is BIG difference between 'volunteering' to do extra to get essential work completed / do a thorough job and being told that you 'have to' do an extra 30 mins on a day that you're contracted to do less hours than that. It also depends on your employer and if they are the type who will give and take both ways to accommodate individuals personal circumstances and specific work pressures. If the employer is rigid then I can understand why the employee would be rigid too, thus creating a silly a 'work to rule'/ 'clockwatching' environment and bad feeling to boot. Having said that, it does seem to me that we are on a slippery slope whereby employers increasingly expect staff to work significant extra hours to get a job done. We get paid for the hours we work, if the job really can't be done in the time allocated , then it shouldn't be expected that people work extra unpaid hours. It seems to me to be particularly unreasonable for low paid workers like school catering staff to be expected to do so.
As far as the original poster's situation is concerned, I can definitely see the point of why you are not happy and definitely think that you have a point, but, if it's just a one-off, I'd say, for your own sake/peace of mind, try not to sweat the small stuff, it's only half an hour, so really not worth getting into a stew about