Work Schedules & Breaks

Work Schedules

Work schedules are set prior to the semester and are based on overall employee availability, student demand, course needs, and the TLC department needs. You may be assigned to work at Oceanside, San Elijo, the Community Learning Center, and/or Online (Zoom); your work schedule may be by appointment, in classroom settings, for group tutoring, drop-in tutoring, test review sessions, SI sessions (for ASIC), or a combination of any or all of these.

It is expected that you will keep your assigned work schedule until the end of the semester. If your availability changes in a way that conflicts with your work schedule, or if you are having difficulty keeping your work schedule, talk to a member of the Leadership Team immediately. Likewise, if departmental needs change, we may talk with you about making adjustments to your schedule.

Finals week: Your regular work schedule will continue through finals week; we may reach out to you to provide additional coverage during finals week if you are able to do so.

Summer: TLC employs a reduced staff for Summer term. The Leadership Team will assign summer staffing based on course offerings and department needs.

If you are assigned to work with WeTC or Embedded Tutoring, you will have additional procedures to follow from the Leads in those areas:

Navigating SARS

You are responsible for knowing your work schedule using SARS Anywhere Learning Centers and for emailing TLC@miracosta.edu if there are discrepancies or issues with your work schedule - don't be afraid to ask questions, we are here to help! Your schedule is made available in SARS approximately one week before the semester begins; you will access SARS from the Employee Hub in Canvas.

There are three tab options:

THE GRID - your work schedule over multiple dates

MY GRID - your detailed work schedule, one date at a time

Drop-in - used to track drop-in and appointment interactions, including starting and stopping timers for each session.

When viewing your work schedule:
Confirm the date, then scroll up and down
to view all times throughout the day.

To close the dropdown menu, move the cursor out of the pane and click on another area for your selections to take effect.

Reading Your Schedule

Schedule Codes

Each cell on THE GRID or MY GRID represents a specific date and time and contains a schedule code to indicate what your work assignment is for that time. The MY GRID tab provides a description of each schedule code.

If you have questions about anything on your schedule, please ask a member of the Leadership Team.

Gray-colored Codes - you are not working at that time

Location-Subject Codes - you are working as a drop-in tutor

Appointment Codes - yellow codes are available for an appointment but you are not booked yet or the appointment cancelled; white codes show that you are booked and have an appointment - you will see information about the student and course (remember to keep this information confidential)

*ORDROP: you are guaranteed to work, either booked appointments or drop-ins (if appointments cancel or if no appointments were booked); these appointments can be booked up until the appointment start time

Other Codes - indicate that you are working group learning sessions, embedded tutoring, etc.

Work Site Location

Each schedule code includes the work site you are assigned for that time.

Time Blocks

The cells, or blocks of time on THE GRID and MY GRID are in 15 minute increments.

Additional Information About Appointments

Appointments are scheduled interactions that are logged in SARS the same way drop-in sessions are logged. As with drop-in sessions, tutors or writing consultants check-in with the Coach on Duty before and after appointments.

It is your responsibility to start and end your appointments on time; set a timer on your phone, if needed. Tutors are paid 30 minutes for each appointment, however the student's actual appointment length is 25 minutes and you can encourage them to use drop-in tutoring to get additional help.
Notify the Coach on Duty if your appointment is a No Show (the student does not arrive by 10 minutes past the scheduled appointment start time) or ends earlier than scheduled - you will work drop-ins for the remainder of the time that was booked for that appointment.
Students are welcome to bring their study partners to their appointment and sometimes they may schedule back-to-back appointments. The student who scheduled the appointment must attend and gets to direct the questions for that session. The Coach on Duty will assign the additional students to you in SARS so they can be logged, you will need to end the session timers for all students assigned to you when the appointment ends.

SARS Tips

Refresh your browser to make sure you are looking at the most updated information (browser refresh arrow or F5 key).
- Clear your browser cache if information is not loading correctly; logging out and then logging back in may also be necessary.
- SARS works best with Firefox or Chrome browsers.
Confirm the date you've selected when reading your work schedule; you can use the '<<Previous' and 'Next>>' options at the bottom of the screen to navigate to other dates.
Always click 'X' or 'Close' to close alert windows - do not delete alerts.
Do NOT use the 'Restore' button. If you see 'Restore' as an option on the Drop-in tab, select 'Close' instead and ask for assistance from a Learning Coach.
If you would like to receive notifications from SARS of upcoming booked appointments, you can set those up by following these directions. (Note: These appointment notifications are helpful reminders, but you must still check SARS for your work schedule.)

Absences and Other Changes To Your Schedule

Any changes to the start or end of your scheduled shift time require advanced approval from a member of the Leadership Team. All changes to shifts will be documented in SARS and you will need to include a Workday comment when entering your time worked. As part of our process, we may reach out to you via work email or text to seek coverage for specific shifts.

At least 7 days notice is required to request a shift off.

The sooner you submit, the better! You can request a future shift off using the "Request A Day Off" link in the Employee HUB in Canvas.

If your request is approved, your schedule in SARS will be updated to the gray code: TIMEOFF. If we are unable to fulfill your request, you will be expected to work as scheduled.

If you have an emergency, are running late, or become ill, we understand you may be giving shorter notice of your absence. Do one of the following as early as possible:

email TLC@miracosta.edu

text or call 760.297.6747 and leave a voicemail if necessary.

Once we receive your message, SARS will be updated to show that you are OUT. (If you feel better, you can check-in to see if your shift has been covered; if it has not you may be able to work your shift as normal.) If your absence spans two weeks, we will ask for your expected return date and your shifts may be reassigned until your expected return.

If your absence qualifies for HF (paid sick leave) and you have an accrued HF balance in Workday that you are eligible to use, you can enter time as HF in Workday for your time marked as TIMEOFF or OUT in SARS (less any meal break time).

Picking Up An Additional Shift

You can view available shifts on the Employee Hub page in Canvas. If you are interested in covering an available shift, submit the 'Apply to Work an Available Shift' form. If you are assigned to work the shift, you will receive an email confirmation to your work email and the shift will be added to your schedule in SARS. If the change is pending and you would like an update on the status, you can email TLC@miracosta.edu.

Less frequently, there may be times that we reach out to you through work email or text to seek coverage for specific shifts. If you accept, the shift will be added to your schedule in SARS.

Work Breaks

Breaks are a legal requirement for employees to refresh and maintain ability to perform the job at a high level. Breaks may not be used to shorten the shift at either end and also cannot legally be combined.

Break Time: State and Federal laws about employment are the guide for breaks. The number and types of breaks are determined by the hours worked daily across MCC shifts, including work in other departments (see table below). You are responsible for informing the Leadership Team of your MCC work schedule outside of TLC that may affect required break times.

There are two types of breaks:

10-minute break: paid rest period, its projected-time in SARS as BREAK. You will not be paid for any break time taken in excess of the 10 minutes and you must remove that time from your time worked that you enter into Workday.
30-minute break: unpaid meal, its projected-time in SARS as LUNCH.

If you need to use the restroom, get a drink, or eat something and a full rest period is not warranted, please notify a Leadership team member that you will step away for a couple of minutes. (See the "Working Your Shift" page of this manual site for more details about brief snack breaks.) Breaks for On Campus shifts are taken outside of the public space of the Centers -- you can leave your tablet at the COD station and remove your lanyard and nametag to show that you are not available for questions. For Online shift breaks, you will stay logged-in to the Zoom session, but change your name in Zoom to include your return time and move to the Staff BREAK breakout room for breaks.

Any time you leave from and return to the Center, communicate with a Learning Coach.

Break Time
(Classified Employee Manual & AP 7270 [MiraCosta Administrative Procedure])

SL = Shift Length

SL < 4 hours: no break

4 hours ≤ SL ≤ 5.5 hours: one (1) ten-minute paid break

5.5 hours < SL < 8 hours: one (1) ten-minute paid break and one (1) thirty-minute unpaid meal break.
When entering your time worked into Workday, you will enter two separate time blocks
for shifts that require a thirty-minute unpaid meal break.

NOTE: It is mandatory for Student Workers to take a meal break for a shift longer than 5.5 hours. Apprentices scheduled to work 6 (six) hours or less in a shift may agree to waive the meal break, documented with an email. [Labor Code Section 512]

SL = 8 hours: two (2) ten-minute paid breaks and one (1) mandatory thirty-minute unpaid meal break.
When entering your time worked into Workday, you will enter two separate time blocks
for shifts that require a 30-minute unpaid break.

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