I'm curious about how part time jobs typically handle scheduling
I am in high school and I got my first job several months ago, but the way scheduling is handled honestly kind of bugs me. I have friends that all work at Chick-Fil-A that tell me they have an app with a calendar that they can set availability months in advance, which sounds preferable to the system at my job. At my job, there is no calendar or any way to set availability in advance other than texting the managers each time. I can acknowledge that a lot of my problems with this system are my own thing and most other people can handle better than I can, but it creates an issue for me where I stress about the correct time to text, because I sort of feel ridiculous texting too early, but of course I don't want to tell them too late.
The managers also routinely make it known to use that they reserve the right to turn down time off, which I honestly find unreasonable because they employ mostly high schoolers. If I am going out of town with my family, I cannot tell my family "turns out we can't leave next month because my manager wants me on that Wednesday."
I know I sound kind of whiny and this post hasn't been well written, but I am just wondering if it is common not to have a calendar or any other way to make your availability known without having to speak directly to the manager every time? Like I said, I know part of it is just me adjusting to more responsibility, but I feel like there is a better way for our system to work.