What is a 'Reasonable' amount of time...

Thanks to all that have replied with advice!! I work Wed - Sun, on the following basis - Weds 8- 10am (If boss is out if not then till 11)
Thurs 8 -10am as have 2nd groom for an hour
Fri- as weds, some days its 10, others its 11
Sat 8-11
Sun 8-11
The fields are quite a way from the stables, I can get to the furthest field and back to the yard in 8-9 mins, the closest takes about 4 mins there and back. I have 7 to put out. The muck heap is about 300yards from the stables.

Honestly, I love my job and the horses, (even tho they can be trying at times!!) but I just find it very hard to put up with the snide comments, raised eyebrows and tutting, as well as the Wholier Than Thou attitude.

Yes my boss has worked long hard hours, yes she now has a very very nice colt, yes she has had a back op and isnt up to the work she used to do, but when she turns to me, when I have a streaming cold, Im on antibiotics for a bilateral ear inf (Im 3quarters deaf in both ears), have a trapped sciatica from lambing all night, and have been up all night, and says that NO ONE is in more pain or is more tired than her.....! You know what I mean!! If I knew how to use the smileys Id be putting some in here!

Its not so much the work, as the implication that Im somehow not good enough....
 
Can you not find something else then? It's only a few hours pay a day. Maybe you could go freelance if you drive and charge £5 stable or something, i know that some people do this and go to 2/3 yards a morning.
 
Perhaps your Boss could "show" you how she would like it done and to what standard then you would get a true indication of how long is reasonable! If she wants it done more quickly she could always help.

As a young keen whippersnapper age 15 working at a yard with a fire breathing but brilliant yard owner I would reckon I would have been allowed 1 to 1/2 hours tops. I should add I was a little 8 stone weakling but I could carry 4 water buckets at once, 4 36lb hay-nets at once and at least one muck sack in each hand as was the expectation - oh yes that was unpaid. If you couldn't do it you weren't "employed" and given a free ride as a reward.

I appreciate you are doing your best - if you can speed up without dropping standards good for you. Hope that helps. Good luck.
 
Move on and find another boss who is a bit more realistic. If you have just been doing what's needed to get the work done without complaining then she should just let you get on with it. Personally day in day out I think it would take 3-4hrs to do. Factors like how far the fields are, the muck heap and the hay and the water supply all make a huge difference! I do one where everything is close to hand and it takes me about 40mins to do every thing needed at this place - when it was icey and I had to go down to the house to get water - suddenly it was taking an hour!!
 
Feeling very down, Ive had a good day in terms of work ass my boss appears to have the same virus as I do, so we trundled along together, so now Im feeling very mean and as though Im doing my boss an injustice!
Im wondering if I should give up all together....humpf...ignore me!!
 
if you have been up all night lambing and also have a bad back then you wont be fresh keen and active! if i pay someone by the hour i expect them to work for the hours! sorry and yes i do know that when you are tired it takes much longer! i would expect you to have done within 2.5 hours! but if coming in tired then yes it will take you 3,5 hours! but this isnt your boss's problem! you cant burn the candle at both ends! Take stock, do the sums and see what you can adjust!
 
I work on a full livery yard. My boss is injuried at the moment so the other groom and I are doing 16 stabled horses (+ our own, but they are DIY) and 3 horses in the field between the two of us. This is actually our quiet time, we had 26 over the winter!
We start at 8am, fed all 16, full muck out and sweep by 9-9.15am. Quick tea and toast and start exercising (including turning out) at 9.30am. We have 3 youngsters that we are backing at the moment so we need both of us to do them. At 12-12.15 we hay, skip out and sweep. Lunch is 1-2pm. Then we groom, add bedding, clean tack, do odd jobs (sweep walker, tidy haybarn, muckheap etc) till 3.45-4 then catch in, skip out, hay, sweep and feed to be done by 5pm.

Yes we are bl**dy knackered and I do have the odd temper tantrum but I choose to do this job and I really do enjoy it.
 
Think I should sack my groom, he takes nearly 3 hours every day to do my 2 horses and half the time I end up finishing them myself when I get home from work, ooops just remembered I can't sack him as my groom is my hubby and he don't get paid LOL :-))

OK to be serious I think thats totally unreasonable for the amount you have to do, tell her to shove it and get yourself a job where you are appreciated, its not till your gone that an employer realises what they have got - my job was totally different to yours but I was in a hideous situation and was there for 22 years (yes 22 years !!) they never thought i'd leave but in November I did and its been the best thing I ever did, complete change in job and has made a complete change in me, i'm a totally different person, never realised just how much my unhappiness at work was affecting me personally, go for it, your worth more, good luck.
 
ofcourseyoucan said:
if you have been up all night lambing and also have a bad back then you wont be fresh keen and active! if i pay someone by the hour i expect them to work for the hours! sorry and yes i do know that when you are tired it takes much longer! i would expect you to have done within 2.5 hours! but if coming in tired then yes it will take you 3,5 hours! but this isnt your boss's problem! you cant burn the candle at both ends! Take stock, do the sums and see what you can adjust!
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Would just like to say that I dont think anyone within the horse industry, coming out of a winter like we have just had, is going to be "fresh, keen and active"! However I do take on board that when paying for work, people want it done... I dont want to make out that Im a poor defenceless groom being beaten to mucking out 100 stables a day, Im simlpy asking the opinion of others as to if I am being asked to do too much.
Today, feeling like death, I put out half the yard and mucked out 4 in an hour and 20mins, so its not that Im not working my backside off, as I am!

Irish Cob - crikey, you must be exhausted!
 
i feed muck out chuck out 9 in under 2 hours (yes full muck out on shavings) and put nets in for the night. automatic waters!and tidy and sweep round and stack muck heap! my handy man hays 18 outside bring 8 in for feeding and chucks out again in 1 and a half hours and refills waters in fields! my point was you are lambing at night so not fully rested! and yes it has been a very long hard winter! but as an employe if you felt like death why didnt you phone in sick? (tho fairplay to you and i always reward my staff if they front up to do the basics when ill) but if you really are feeling hard done by you have 2 choices! 1 leave or 2 talk to your boss explaining your feelings! bosses are humans too! and lambing is coming to an end. as for youor back go see a chiropractor and an acupuncturist and get it sorted and stable and pain free! all the best! and the best months are coming up!"
 
I timed myself today, I had 7 horses to change rugs and battle with to put fly masks on and turn out and 6 horses to fully muck out as well as haynets in and feeds and waters first thing. It took me about 2 hours to do that much because some of them are sods to take out and they all hate the fly masks. Oh and I fork the muck heap.

I do all feed prep in the afternoon as well as haynets, any sweeping, feeding the field ornaments, checking the ones living out and puttng on all the fly masks that they have managed to pull off! I clean tack, wash rugs and do any old job in the spare time I get.

I do think your boss is being a bit of a pain. I work an 8 hour day on average and most of the time there are students in to muck out so I dont even have to do that! I admit I have a fabulous grooms job at the mo!

Oh... and I do sit in the car and have a cig before I start!
 
My initial calculation after reading your first post was 2hr 45 minutes. Though obviously this will vary dependent on how far away the fields are, how dirty horses beds are and how immaculately YO wants them done. Are there any ways you can think of to save time? I also work as a groom and am expected to do a lot in a short period (there are two of us to look after a yard of 24 stabled full liveries!) Things like always carrying something with you whenever you go across the yard, so that you don't have to waste time going back for it later. Try and find the most efficient order in which to do things. Could you lead the horses to the fields in pairs rather than individually in order to save time? At one yard I worked there was a long enclosed track leading to the field, we used to turn the horses out through the track gateway and they would walk themselves down to the field, then you just needed to go and shut them in later, saved loads of time. Try to fill water buckets whilst doing other jobs, eg, sweeping/making feeds at the same time. When I am really in a hurry (and no one else is around!) rather than walking between jobs I run around the yard, from the fields etc as this saves lots of time, though only for crazy people with lots of energy like me! Hope you can sort something out, your boss sounds a bit mean, I have worked for a few like her so no what you're going through!
 
Booboos said:
To be honest I am shocked at the times people are quoting! I can't see how anyone can work that hard (8 horses in 2 hours!!!), day in day out and not be totally knackered. It takes me 1.5 hours to do 3.5 horses (0.5 is a mini), and I don't change rugs, I don't put on boots and I have pellets in a litter bedding system. I pay my groom 3 hours to muck out 1 and ride one!

Your boss sounds like an utterly ungrateful woman! Find another job and quit!
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Completely agree Booboos, i've got 6 to do at the moment with one on boxrest and exercising the other 4 (one's retired) and generally looking after them it's nearly killing me. I think you could do it in 2 hours if you were literally slinging them in and out, giving them a quick bucket of chop and only taking 2 mins to sort out their bed etc but if you're doing it properly, cleaning everything and paying attention to each individual animal in your care it's going to take you a lot longer than that. I think Rosehip's doing it in very good time and if i were her boss i'd be grateful for someone who shows the willingness to turn up to work early to ensure all the jobs get done.
 
Hi, thanks for all your replies!!Ive been off line for a few days as have been house and dog sitting for a stranded friend!
I am now starting work at 8am instead of 7.30, any jobs that arent done at the end are left, and so far there havent been any complaints! Its definately easier now that the neds are naked for the most part - if the wind is up I rug but usually they are fine naked. - as this cuts about 30 mins off my time!
I always drag my ass into work no matter how bad I feel, usually this is appreciated and everything is great, but sometimes I get rolling eyes, snide comments and general 'bad feeling'.
The way I have been spoken to sometimes beggers belief and no one deserves to be spoken to like that, just beacause Im a sh*t shoveller doesnt mean that I deserve to be treated like sh*t. Yes I could get anotherr job, I could stop moaning and cut my losses, but I love the horses even tho there are some buggers in them, and for the most part I love my job...everyone has a bad day and a moan about their job sometimes, and I could tell my boss where to stick her opinions and expectations, but jobs arent that eassy to come by, and, usually, everything is fine.
Its like I walk on eggshells to see when the next time Im going to feel insignificant and useless is going to be.
I think I may just be ranting in a slightly random way now1 sorry!!
 
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