Rant - Former coworkers can't get the day off!

They scheduled one of the girls a double too. One girl said she's calling out if she can't get her shift covered. I'd do the same for my close friends. These are the people who are in my life the most.

Alright, rant done. I feel a little better.

There's a girl at my work that is having the same sort of problem - getting married on a Saturday and has technically invited everyone, but no one is allowed to take time off for the wedding.

Her alternative was that if no one could make it to the wedding, just show up to the reception since it was after the store closed

It's actually one of the reasons I chose to get married on a Sunday instead of a Saturday. Usually the amount of servers we need on a Saturday is double the amount vs a Sunday. It was going to be Thursday evening at the beginning (so no one would have issues coming), but my family friend photographer was out of town for that day.

My wedding runs from 3-8pm.

FH is having the same issue. He only invited one person from work because the store owner will only give 1-2 people the day off at the same time...

I had the same issue. It made me sad when I thought my best friend wouldn't be able to make it. Luckily she is very up front and told management she wouldn't be there and wasn't missing my wedding. They are now planning accordingly to cover her shift.

That's so sad for all concerned. I work in 24hour environment, so I have given my closest friends a heads up to book the day off, it's 261 days till our wedding, not that I'm counting...

I hope they get their shifts covered x

That really does suck that management couldn't accommodate the requests that far out in advance. But the first couple sentences of your post almost kinda imply that you think that it was intentional? You were a model employee, so management should have given other people the day off? I don't think the two are related at all.

I know it sucks...but to give you perspective from the other POV (I managed restaurants for a long time), there are a lot of factors that go into doing that schedule. And honestly, the FOH staff are big spoiled babies when it comes to their schedule...and your managers have to not only try to accommodate your friend's time off but other employees as well.

You may not think that 6 people asking for the same day off is a big deal, but those 6 servers could make up an entire nights staff in many places...I always tried my best to accommodate every request off, but sometimes it couldn't happen. Especially if we were short staffed...and the employee themselves would have a lot to do with my decision, if it was an employee that would cover extra shifts when needed, stay late/work doubles when we slammed, help out during the shift and go above during that time would always be more likely to get the time off request than someone who just showed up, didn't help during the shift and always asked to be cut early.

YOU may have been a "model employee" but your friends may not have

Janeen - "But the first couple sentences of your post almost kinda imply that you think that it was intentional?"

When certain people want time off to go on a Vegas trip, they get the weekend off no matter what. A wedding is more important than their monthly Vegas trip. Favoritism was definitely a problem there.

Maltese - I understand their POV, but the people who normally have the day off should have been asked if they can fill in. I was never an employee who asked for many days off, for 4 years straight I had 14 shifts a week available (every day and every night). I worked almost every holiday and every weekend. The place has about 42-45 servers, not 10. They're not short staffed right now. My friends performance shouldn't be a factor right now, as it's my wedding (2 of them are model employees as well). They have people willing to work doubles that day, but they're denying them picking up the shifts that need to be filled. They're not trying to accommodate, which is what is upsetting me. When other servers got married, even on busy weekends, this wasn't an issue. It's favoritism and has been an issue there for years.

I wont lie...As a restaurant manager, I DID have my favorites; They got optimal scheduling (shifts and sections) and would be given first consideration if there were multiple requests for the same weekend off and those people were the ones that went "above and beyond" for me. I could always count on them and they knew how to run a section. Those that couldn't and didn't showed me that they didn't care to help out and I wasn't going to help them out either.

Why does it matter what the reason was for when people requested off and were approved for a Vegas trip? There are TONS of factors that allowed people to get that weekend of...the time of year, reservations on the books, events going on around the area, amount of staff available to work that weekend...if nothing was going on then they were more likely to get the time off.

Besides, a request is a REQUEST. It can be approved or denied. Just because ANY employee says "I would like to June 14th off" does not mean its going to happen

Yes. Your friends performance SHOULD be a factor. YOUR SCHEDULE and work habits have nothing to do with theirs. Obviously your friends aren't liked and are doing something wrong.

Why would you expect a restaurant to prioritize a former employee's wedding over their own business needs? That makes zero sense.

The problem is the people who are favorited aren't the best workers (they're known for showing up late, calling off, skipping out on side work, etc). They're skinny, pretty, and flirt with management. This is well known, this has been an issue for years. I've always been liked, but not favored. It's the business. I spoke to management months ago about getting a few people the day off and they said they would make it happen. 4/6 working isn't "making it happen."

Stephanie - Because I've done a million favors for them without getting anything in return, I expect one favor to be paid back. Doubles, working 10 hours without a single break, working on my sisters wedding day, skipping class for work, covering shifts last minute for calls outs, coming in when sick (not contagious), etc. They've done it with other people, that's why I expect it too.

Unfortunately business is not typically run on favors. :-/

But you are not an employee there. Even if you were, they don't owe you any favors. If I had an employee say "hey I need the day off for Former Employee's wedding. Remember how much overtime that employee worked? You really owe it to her to give me the day off" I would not even be able to maintain a straight face. A business is not your friend. Ever.

Popping in to say....SHOCKER! Waitresses flirt?!?! OMG, have you alerted the media to this recent discovery? -_-

I know that it sucks that they can't get work off especially since it sounds like management is clearly a typical restaurant manager and gives favors to the kiss asses and not the hard workers, but you REALLY can't expect these kind of favors from your former employer, no matter what your performance was. Really the only favor you can expect is a recommendation and a good reference.

And honestly, this isn't even a favor to you. It's a favor to your wedding guests. So anything about your wedding has zero to do with them getting off of work. It's between your guests and THEIR employer.

"Also the people who say they can't work Sundays might be doing it because of religious beliefs."

They're not.

So the lady who works for the venue that I'm getting married at worked for the same company I did. I found out today that she got fired by the same manager I worked under. Small world :p Today she asked me who the manager is (that isn't letting my friends have the day off) and she said "Oh yeah, he favors really skinny girls with huge breasts." This was without telling her anything I ranted on here about. I thought that was funny.

Actually, when you're told "I owe you one later!" for doing a favor, yes, you're expecting to get that back. I expect people to stick to their words. Shocking to expect integrity, I know.