One downside of my per diem job

[disneysteve]

I got an email today that the new location for our urgent care centers that they were hoping to open in November has been delayed (which surprised exactly zero of us). However, a few weeks ago they started signing up people to work there. Now that it isn't opening, the full time and part time employees need to be reassigned because they are guaranteed a certain number of hours each week. Per diem employees like myself are not. So a bunch of us had shifts taken away and given to the FT/PT folks. I lost almost $1,000 of income that I was scheduled to earn next month. Oh well. Easy come, easy go, I suppose. I'm glad I'm not depending on that money for anything critical.

[rennigade]

I never heard of a per diem job but my employer offers a per diem rate when we travel. I never submit receipts and always elect for the per diem for breakfast/lunch/dinner. I usually make around $100 for a 3 day trip.

[disneysteve]

I never heard of a per diem job

It's not unusual in the medical field.

In my case, I work for a network of urgent care centers. FT providers get 36 hours. PT providers get 24 hours. Per diem providers pick up the remainder of the shifts based on availability. So every month, a schedule gets posted via an online scheduling service and I'm free to sign up for as few or as many shifts as I'd like. Generally, I've been doing 1 or 2 evening shifts (5-9pm) per week and 1 weekend shift (9a-5p) per month. I'm not required to do any minimum number of hours but I'm also not guaranteed any minimum number of hours.

[rennigade]

Thats pretty cool. Im not sure how stressful the work is but it would be tempting to pick up as many hours as possible. Basically you can collect as much or as little money as you want whenever you want...assuming hours are there to take.

[disneysteve]

it would be tempting to pick up as many hours as possible. Basically you can collect as much or as little money as you want whenever you want...assuming hours are there to take.

Pretty much. It's my own ATM, limited only by how much I want to work. Keep in mind that I do have a full time job though, so this is on top of my regular 40 hours. A few weeks ago I did 16 hours there and that was too much though it turned out I was developing a sinus infection so that probably made me feel more run down than the hours would have otherwise. Still I'm trying to keep it to no more than 12 hours/week max.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

What a nice way to transition to part-time/early retirement.

[disneysteve]

What a nice way to transition to part-time/early retirement.

Yep. My wife is already pushing me to transition faster. The new job is less stressful, more flexible, and pays much better. For various reasons, I'm just not ready to jump in full force yet.

As of Oct. 1, I did reduce my hours at the office slightly. I cut 90 minutes off of my Tuesday schedule which frees me up to take Tuesday evening shifts at urgent care. I'm going to see how things go the next couple of months and then maybe sit down with my boss to work out some further cuts to my hours. I'm thinking about maybe starting 30-60 minutes later in the morning so I don't have to wake up as early. That would especially be nice when I've worked urgent care the night before.

I just don't know how much he'll be okay with me cutting back before he decides it's too much and he needs to replace me.

[FLA]

we treated our per diems very poorly at my job. The one the boss liked best got all the hours and then when unexpected per diems were needed (staff called in sick), she would call the others and beg them to work. They'd come in on an hour's notice and she would've decided she only needed them for half a day after promising a full 8 hrs. They all quit except for the favored one. The medical field gets away with a lot of non-sense.

[disneysteve]

we treated our per diems very poorly at my job. The one the boss liked best got all the hours and then when unexpected per diems were needed (staff called in sick), she would call the others and beg them to work. They'd come in on an hour's notice and she would've decided she only needed them for half a day after promising a full 8 hrs. They all quit except for the favored one.

That's extremely different than my situation fortunately.

The per diems are a significant chunk of the staff. Most evening shifts and a lot of weekend shifts are filled by per diems as the FT and PT people are more typically working the 8-hour weekday shifts (some do a 12-hr shift but I think most don't). We are treated very well, and paid very well.

There's no favoritism in scheduling because we pick our own shifts via an online scheduling system. It's first come, first served. We get an email when the new schedule is available and we can go it and sign up for shifts whenever we want to.