is this normal for agency work 
,if your told on your interview your start time will be 2am ,you go to bed at 6/7 to get up for 12.30 surely they shouldnt be changing it in the middle of the night[8.30 pm ish] by zb text ,a 2 hr window 
,we want you in at midnight 
],would these agency bods like a text at 2 am telling them to get there asses to the office at 7 am ,not 9 a.m 
,i think not,so why do they think its ok for us .
youll be doing sat-thurs every week,ok,you turn up on sat to be told by the office bods your not down to work ,yes i am,i was told by agency i was working ,fair enough they found a job.
what a zb shanbolic way to carry on.
if your told you doing 2 am starts,tues-thurs how hard is that to organize
for me agency some time change start time 2-3 time everyday 
Andrejs:
for me agency some time change start time 2-3 time everyday
but in the middle of the night if you go a bed at 6 pm and get up at midnight surely you dont get a text/or expect a text somewhere in the middle of those times,your meant to be sleeping,not getting up to change the alarm clock over + if you go a bed at 6 pm thinking youll need to get up at midnight[6 hrs sleep] to start for 2 am,if they change it to midnight start youll need to be up at 10 pm,only getting 4 hrs sleep ,fair enough ring you in your working day,or if there really desperate ring you at home before you go to bed,but zb hell,they shouldnt be contacting you to change your start times once youve gone to bed,surely
Tell agency phone will be on silent until you wake up
ROG:
Tell agency phone will be on silent until you wake up
.my time start normaly about 1800-2200.back from work morning time .and i go sleep,and all the time turn oh silent in my phone.when wake up i answer.
you not hard enough for that job
When I was in DHL, if they wanted you to change shift they had to tell you before 5pm and you had the option then to accept or stick to the original time, then it was up to them to swap available drivers around.
it all comes back to you having no rights so they can treat you like crap
When I read stories like this, it makes me glad I don’t have to resort to agency work. Dozy by name, dozy by nature. It sure does ■■■■ to be you. 
I’m confused. Why should they need to tell a driver when to start?
Load is at “A”, it needs to be at “B” by ■■.■■ am. The driver then uses his own judgement to get the job done.
It only happens because people accept it.
As others have said, if I was in work at 2am and going to bed around 7pm ish (not likely) then the phone would be on silent anyway, especially in these days of cold calls selling you PPI refunds or other such crap.
If the agency managed to get me, I’d tell them to ■■■■ off, I will still do the 2am if they want me to, but I’m not going to change it to midnight at this time. Their choice.
Accept being treated like crap and you’ll get treated like crap.
Contraflow:
When I read stories like this, it makes me glad I don’t have to resort to agency work.
Same here! I don’t know how you guys can contend with all that crap.
As has been said, that’s agency work so get used to it.
Just phone the agency when you wake up or around 1am and say ‘sorry, only just got your text, shall head in now - oh sorry, were you asleep’ 
You’ve done your bit, make sure that the customer is aware that you were not told of the time change until too late, and hopefully they will see what a helpful chap you are trying to be.
Oh, and the bit about promised start times really has to be taken with a pinch of salt, especially if you are the ‘new guy’ - you will have to go through all the crap until you have been there for a while after which you can still easily blot your copybook. Also expect to have to ‘do us a favour mate’ with no hope of a return favour.
Welcome to the world of agency work - glad I’m out of it too.
Personally I switch off my mobile when I go to bed 
, so tough if things change whilst I am asleep!
used to get that all the time , get use to it , the other thng was you’d finish about 4am and they’d be ringing you at 8, 9 10 with a start time.then change it about 12 or 1pm, they got ■■■■■ cause the phone was never answered so when I finished I would ring the 24hr on call number to tell em I had finished , yep 4 am they soon got the gist of it so just had 1 txt around 12 , your on agency your disposable get use to it
I think some agencys try it on some dont give a ■■■■ whether you have had any sleep, ive been fortunate enough not to have had long term agency work over the yrs…but one springs to mind…i had been made redundant …the depot closed down, so i signed up with this agency which at that time was perhaps the biggest in the area at the time 1980’s, anyway they set me on night trunk and said we can give you at least 4 to 5 nights a week, so thought great…i was going into this same company for about a month no problems, then one night turned up and the foreman said your not on tonight…i said yes i am they rang me today before i went to bed to confirm i was ok for tonight…so here i am, you better ring them, so rang there 24 hour so called help line or if you get any problems and was told dont be afraid to ring us if you get any problems, so this is about if i remember around 1…am , i recognised the voice told him the problem i was booked for this time at this company…i got a load of abuse and told dont wake me up with that he put the phone down, so i buggered off home went to bed, next day i called into there offices and asked to see this jerk who by the way was one of the partners…owners of the agency, one of his pretty pa’s said oh he will be here shortly you can wait and ill get you a coffee , so sat there this prick turns up in his Porche…no money in agency work is there ? …he came in i confronted him about his attitude he started to wag his finger at me…i had him up against the wall and told him not to ring me anymore pay me what they owed plus a wasted night and day…, so no i dont take the crap why should you, eye for an eye…treat you like shise then expect it back, but i have had a good agency they looked after me never any ■■■■ ups money allways on time …regular work , but theres more crap out there than good.
Unfortunately it’s part of the joys of agency work in today’s climate
I would just explain to them (in the politest possible terms) that your phone will be on silent after 1900 and any calls made after that point will be replied too when you wake to start shift.
Its simple really, you need to rest properly before a shift, and that means NO distractions!
B…
To be fair the customer has probably come on with something extra and the agency are desperately trying to find someone prepared to cover it.
You have to be pretty tough to do agency work as this swapping about happens a lot, doesn’t apply so much to their trusted long termers who might have been with them several years and up to a point thats understandable and fair enough, but generally they’ll run through their lists of blokes booked to start as close to the new shift start time as possible.
You don’t have to play ball but don’t expect any favours or to climb the ‘well in’ ladder anywhere unless you’re prepared to help out a bit, if you want regular hours and proper fixed shifts find a full time job its the only way to guarantee anything.
In my stints an agency i always left the phone in the kitchen at night so wouldn’t have responded to a text or phone call anyway (didn’t need the money desperately), once you’ve answered the call or read the text you’re in the frame and they’ll pressure you to help, they soon suss out who responds in the middle of the night and who doesn’t.
One agency i never actually did a shift for only ever called me late at night or in the small hours, pretty obvious i was only an also ran in their eyes so no loss for them or me.
waynedl:
It only happens because people accept it.As others have said, if I was in work at 2am and going to bed around 7pm ish (not likely) then the phone would be on silent anyway, especially in these days of cold calls selling you PPI refunds or other such crap.
If the agency managed to get me, I’d tell them to [zb] off, I will still do the 2am if they want me to, but I’m not going to change it to midnight at this time. Their choice.
Accept being treated like crap and you’ll get treated like crap.
This^^^^^^^^^^