Originally posted March 2009:
I once reached out to a fellow colleague in retail at the time to see how things were going with hiring. She commented that she was having a real tough time filling some full-time positions.
I threw a hypothetical at her, and stated “I am available 24 hours a day 6 days a week, will you hire me?”
She asked me what day I was unavailable, to which I replied “Sunday.”
She said she couldn’t hire me.
This made me realize one of the major problems facing retail then and now; sometimes being so inflexible with someone who is so flexible leads to labor shortages and losing someone worth hiring.
Don’t be so inflexible with your staff (or so inflexible as a potential employee) that you can’t find a way to make something like this work!