Too Late To Make It Too Late

(We have just ‘gone live’ with our new product, so our team is having to sort out work hours for the next couple of weeks while we get used to dealing with customers calling in. Until now, hours have been pretty chill — as long as you work your standard eight sometime between regular work hours, it doesn’t really matter when you start and finish your work day. Now, we’re having to be a bit more structured, just until we get some more employees. This conversation happened at the first meeting to discuss the hours.)

Team Lead: “Okay, guys, are there any times that you can’t work?”

Coworker #1: “I’d prefer the early starts.”

Me: “I need to finish at about 4:30 on [Day #1], [Day #2], and [Day #3], as I have a class that I need to get to. That said, I’m happy to work until 5:30 on the other two days, no issue.”

Coworker #2: “Oh, man, I’m not bothered at all; put me wherever. It’s really not a problem. I’m totally cool.”

Team Lead: “Excellent, so [Coworker #1], you can be on earlies, [My Name], if you can do the lates on those two days when you don’t have a class, and [Coworker #2], if you can do the lates on the days that [My Name] can’t, we should be away.”

Coworker #2: “Okay… Well, um, will [Coworker #1] and I be switching around on a weekly basis so that I can finish early some days as well? Because that’s not really, you know… I mean, me working the lates all the time.”

Me: “But you said you didn’t mind! And one of my days to work the late is Friday, your big party night, so what’s the problem?”

Coworker #2: “Oh, nothing. I really don’t care. It’s just… yeah, will we be on a rotation or something?”

(This carries on for about five minutes: Coworker #2 insisting he doesn’t care, but at the same time making it blatantly obvious that he doesn’t want to do the ‘late’ shift, which is not that late.)

Coworker #1: “Oh, for f*** sake, [Coworker #2]. We can switch it out. Relax. Stop worrying about it. We’ll sort things out. Jesus.”

(He then walked out. He’s generally a pretty chill guy, but this was clearly too much.)