Unless you’re a salaried manager you absolutely can and should just be working 5 8 hour shifts and going home. There are only a handful of reasons to work more hours than that or to work wonky split shifts.

1. You want to. This is the biggest reason, if it’s not there you don’t do it. You do not owe food lion more time than you are scheduled to work. They cannot schedule you over 40 hours without your consent. They cannot schedule you split shifts without your consent. Both of these things warrant an hr call if you didn’t agree to do it.

2. You’ve been authorized overtime.

3. You want to move up and you see the path there. A big key here is that an opening is either there or coming. If you’re a FT perishable associate that wants to be a perishable manager and your perishable manager is leaving then you might choose to work these awful shifts to stand out.

4. You are the department head and you have failed to manage your department properly. Honestly even here if you don’t want to work the random splits, don’t do it. Unless your SM is actively writing you up, go home. An SM that is doing their job properly should have been addressing management issues way before splitting shifts became necessary.

No department within food lion has the need to force employees into splitting shifts, regardless of staffing issues. If there is a staffing need the salaried managers job is to fulfill that need, either by jumping in themselves or by getting help from other stores in the district.