The Roster That Doesn't Fit
Mia is a full-time community services trainee. This week she has: 20 hours of placement at an aged care residence across three shifts; 7 hours of scheduled classes; a 1,500-word assignment due Friday; and a paid weekend shift at a supermarket. Her placement supervisor asks her to stay back two hours on Wednesday to cover a staff absence, and again on Thursday. Mia has already agreed to help a friend move house on Saturday. She is sleeping about five hours a night and has had two headaches this week. Her assignment is half finished.
1. Apply a prioritisation process to Mia's week. What should she do about the extra shifts?
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Step 1 - List and categorise. Fixed commitments: placement (20 h), classes (7 h), assignment due Friday, paid weekend shift. Flexible or negotiable: the extra two hours on Wednesday and Thursday, helping the friend move. Non-negotiable for wellbeing: sleep and recovery.
Step 2 - Assess urgency and importance. The assignment deadline is fixed and non-negotiable. Placement attendance is a course requirement. The extra shifts are important to the workplace but not Mia's responsibility to absorb indefinitely. Helping a friend is low urgency and can be renegotiated.
Step 3 - Estimate capacity honestly. 27 hours of placement and class plus travel, plus a weekend shift, plus assignment writing, leaves little margin. Two extra hours twice is four hours she does not have without cutting sleep or assignment time. Cutting sleep to five hours is already showing effects (headaches, fatigue), which raises safety risk on placement.
Step 4 - Negotiate. Mia can say yes to one extra shift if she can protect assignment time, or offer a shorter period, or ask whether another staff member can cover. She should be honest that she has an assignment due and that fatigue affects her ability to work safely. She should speak to her placement coordinator if the requests are becoming routine.
Step 5 - Protect wellbeing. Renegotiate the moving-house commitment, schedule assignment blocks in her calendar, and set a bedtime. If she cannot meet the deadline, she should apply for an extension early rather than miss it silently. The judgement being tested is that saying yes to everything is not professionalism; sustainable performance requires honest capacity planning.
2. What are the risks if Mia simply agrees to everything, and what professional behaviours should she demonstrate?
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Risks:
- Safety - fatigue increases error rates, particularly with medication, manual handling, and documentation, and Mia is responsible for vulnerable clients.
- Academic - late or poor-quality work, or missing classes, can jeopardise her qualification.
- Health - chronic sleep restriction and stress can lead to burnout, illness, and absenteeism.
- Relationship with the workplace - agreeing then cancelling, or performing poorly, damages trust more than an honest 'I can do one hour' up front.
- Boundary erosion - if she always says yes, extra shifts become an expectation rather than a request.
Professional behaviours:
- Communicate early - tell the supervisor as soon as the request is made, not the night before.
- Be specific - 'I can stay one hour on Wednesday but not Thursday, because I have an assignment due Friday' is more useful than a vague refusal.
- Offer alternatives - suggest another staff member, a task she can complete earlier, or a swap.
- Know the rules - check whether her placement hours and any paid work are governed by limits, and whether her RTO requires her to report excessive hours.
- Use supports - placement coordinator, student services, and if needed an extension process.
- Model self-care - demonstrating realistic planning is part of professional conduct in a sector with high burnout rates.