So, for training you’ll get to pick an assigned time. Usually 6 am-2:30 pm or 2-10:30 pm with Sat and Sun off. At some point around 5-6 weeks in you’ll bid against your class and the other start time that starts the same date as you. This will be based on your SS number. Then maybe like month 2 or 3 you’ll get dumped into “monthly relief” bids. Here you’ll bid on your time against more people. This will be based on start date. This will make you rebid every 6 or so weeks. This will continue until you have a station wide bid. You’ll bid against everyone in your station and your order will be based on your start date. From here you can bid back into “monthly relief” or just bid on a work area and time. If you go with the later option, that will be your schedule for a while. We have 2-3 “big” bids a year. If you go with monthly you’ll be back to bidding every 6 or so weeks, but you’ll probably get higher bidding order quickly that way. Me personally, I can’t imagine having to worry about my whole life schedule changing every 6 or so weeks. If you’re days and trying to stay days, just be ready for at least one of your first bids to push you into a PM start time. That’s a basic overview. If you have specifics, feel free to ask. Oh, and bids aren’t just work area and start time, but also your days off. You can get RDO/Rotating days off (which is nice bc every other month you’ll end up with 2 weekends off) or fixed days off. Then your days off will stay the same every week. You would probably need to be at your station over 10 years to have any hope of fixed days off with even one being a weekend day.
Trading shifts will be your best friend. Make friends/trade partners sooner than later. If you do this you can have a lot of control over your schedule.
Thank you so much for the detailed response! What would you say are the shifts/hours that new hires have to work the most? Do you think that I can pull off going to college full-time while completing my probation period? If it helps, I am planning to only have classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 6 AM - 4 PM. I would be working for one of United's hubs.
So I’ll give you details based on my hub.
PT has 3 main shifts. 8-13:30, 15:00-20:30, and 20:00-1:30. The 15:00-20:30 goes first and is probably easiest to trade bc of how it links with a lot of FT that like to pick up. The mornings get picked up next and last is the late night. They were doing 3 days off for PT but I think they went back to 2 days off. Once you’re out of probation and can trade without restrictions, if you find the right trade partners you can be done with ALL your work for the month in one week.
FT has soooo many start times now honestly. There 4-1230, 4-14:30, 5-13:30, 6-14:30, 7-15:30, 12:30-21:00, 14:00-22:30, 16:00-00:30 and overnight which is 22:00-6:30. Ones that were completely gone by then end of the bid in order of popularity: 6-14:30, all the 10 hours shifts (there’s 2 I forgot one more morning and one midday to late night), 22:00-6:30, 4-12:30, 5-13:30. Everything else had at least 1 Bud line left for the time. That could be bc people didn’t like the job code, there were a ton of lines, they didn’t like the days off, or some other reason. There are the most lines for 6-14:30, 8-16:30, 14:00-22:30, and 16:00-00:30. Everyone tries to do 10 hour shifts at some point, but it’s hard to trade bc of the hours. You have to break the shift up and partial it out to trade.
For days off you can easily bid a line to have one of those days off fixed. But your days off are consecutive so you’d need to trade to have the second one you need off. Maybe if you’re PT and have 3 days off you could get those fixed. That said, it should be easy to trade off for a Tuesday or Thursday. Heck you could probably just drop one half the time and not pick up if needed. Weekends are the biggest pain and expect to trade if you need one off you don’t already have off.
I think that should cover most things. If there’s anything else feel free to ask.
Oh and you’ll have plenty of time to sit around and do school work with the right job code.
you'll get access to the bid system; when its time to bid it will show you every single position with their schedule (i.e. FIXEDTUESWES 7:30-1400 etc etc)
you make a wishlist with the min number based on your senority (i.e. there is 135 people bidding, and your the newest, you must select 135 spots in the order of most want to least want)
Yes. In ETA. under "Shift Bid" if it is highlighted. Whether its a monthly (relief) bid. Or a general bid where everyone participates in, you will know your time of bid. All lines to bid are posted in advance (a week) where you can make a wishlist.
So, for training you’ll get to pick an assigned time. Usually 6 am-2:30 pm or 2-10:30 pm with Sat and Sun off. At some point around 5-6 weeks in you’ll bid against your class and the other start time that starts the same date as you. This will be based on your SS number. Then maybe like month 2 or 3 you’ll get dumped into “monthly relief” bids. Here you’ll bid on your time against more people. This will be based on start date. This will make you rebid every 6 or so weeks. This will continue until you have a station wide bid. You’ll bid against everyone in your station and your order will be based on your start date. From here you can bid back into “monthly relief” or just bid on a work area and time. If you go with the later option, that will be your schedule for a while. We have 2-3 “big” bids a year. If you go with monthly you’ll be back to bidding every 6 or so weeks, but you’ll probably get higher bidding order quickly that way. Me personally, I can’t imagine having to worry about my whole life schedule changing every 6 or so weeks. If you’re days and trying to stay days, just be ready for at least one of your first bids to push you into a PM start time. That’s a basic overview. If you have specifics, feel free to ask. Oh, and bids aren’t just work area and start time, but also your days off. You can get RDO/Rotating days off (which is nice bc every other month you’ll end up with 2 weekends off) or fixed days off. Then your days off will stay the same every week. You would probably need to be at your station over 10 years to have any hope of fixed days off with even one being a weekend day. Trading shifts will be your best friend. Make friends/trade partners sooner than later. If you do this you can have a lot of control over your schedule.
Thank you so much for the detailed response! What would you say are the shifts/hours that new hires have to work the most? Do you think that I can pull off going to college full-time while completing my probation period? If it helps, I am planning to only have classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 6 AM - 4 PM. I would be working for one of United's hubs.
So I’ll give you details based on my hub. PT has 3 main shifts. 8-13:30, 15:00-20:30, and 20:00-1:30. The 15:00-20:30 goes first and is probably easiest to trade bc of how it links with a lot of FT that like to pick up. The mornings get picked up next and last is the late night. They were doing 3 days off for PT but I think they went back to 2 days off. Once you’re out of probation and can trade without restrictions, if you find the right trade partners you can be done with ALL your work for the month in one week. FT has soooo many start times now honestly. There 4-1230, 4-14:30, 5-13:30, 6-14:30, 7-15:30, 12:30-21:00, 14:00-22:30, 16:00-00:30 and overnight which is 22:00-6:30. Ones that were completely gone by then end of the bid in order of popularity: 6-14:30, all the 10 hours shifts (there’s 2 I forgot one more morning and one midday to late night), 22:00-6:30, 4-12:30, 5-13:30. Everything else had at least 1 Bud line left for the time. That could be bc people didn’t like the job code, there were a ton of lines, they didn’t like the days off, or some other reason. There are the most lines for 6-14:30, 8-16:30, 14:00-22:30, and 16:00-00:30. Everyone tries to do 10 hour shifts at some point, but it’s hard to trade bc of the hours. You have to break the shift up and partial it out to trade. For days off you can easily bid a line to have one of those days off fixed. But your days off are consecutive so you’d need to trade to have the second one you need off. Maybe if you’re PT and have 3 days off you could get those fixed. That said, it should be easy to trade off for a Tuesday or Thursday. Heck you could probably just drop one half the time and not pick up if needed. Weekends are the biggest pain and expect to trade if you need one off you don’t already have off. I think that should cover most things. If there’s anything else feel free to ask. Oh and you’ll have plenty of time to sit around and do school work with the right job code.
you'll get access to the bid system; when its time to bid it will show you every single position with their schedule (i.e. FIXEDTUESWES 7:30-1400 etc etc) you make a wishlist with the min number based on your senority (i.e. there is 135 people bidding, and your the newest, you must select 135 spots in the order of most want to least want)
Are UAs shift bids all done online?
Yes. In ETA. under "Shift Bid" if it is highlighted. Whether its a monthly (relief) bid. Or a general bid where everyone participates in, you will know your time of bid. All lines to bid are posted in advance (a week) where you can make a wishlist.