When I hired for my retail shop, I was very clear that all employees would be expected to work extra hours in December and Christmas Eve would be mandatory. We did create a great store tradition around the 'Eve with music and food in the store, and no one was asked to work more than a 4 hour shift. The shifts started at 6 am with store set up and animal care so that even an employee who had to go 3 hrs away to Grandma’s could make their Christmas Eve contribution. Of course, I got to work the 6 am to 6 pm shift. It was fun for the decade and a half that I did it – but I don’t miss it at all this year. This year I get to decorate my house, not my store!
This is just the predecessor to the conversation after graduation when your kid has been working for a few months and the out-raged phone call comes in:
“I get up early, go to work, come home, cook, clean, pay bills and go to bed all week long. And then, they ask me to come in on a weekend!!! Can you believe that anyone has to live this way!!!”
After our friends (who got the call) picked themselves up off the floor because they were laughing so hard, they explained that it’s called ‘being a grown-up.’ They suggested that he get married and add a few kids to the equation, a house and car that needs maintenance, and maybe a dog.
Our kids are indeed very fortunate that their rude awakening comes so late in life. But it comes, always.
Back to the OP’s son. Love your title.
Our son grew up with on call realities- a secular Christmas with presents after Dad came home from making rounds, having on call partners’ families for Thanksgiving… Decades ago I was there (anesthesiologist) for a midnight C-section- can’t remember if the newborn was a tax deduction or first of the year baby.
For me it meant a nice hospital cafeteria turkey dinner while on call Thanksgiving as a resident one year. Being single and OOS it was nice- also my resident one year on the “off service” rotation I was on (ie not my field) traded to get Christmas instead of the day after. That was nice because the nursing staff gave us goodies and almost no patients were admitted- they all came the next day when we were immune for admissions. They also gave 5 days off at either Christmas or New Years. Usually one thinks of Monday to Friday plus the weekend- wrong. That included the holiday and weekend days.
We were surprised to hear that our son in software development takes weekend calls- less than once per month??? He is phone call/computer available to troubleshoot for problems that can’t wait I guess. There are many, many jobs that are not a standard 5 day, 9-5, 40 hour workweek.
I actually like working near the holiday. Working for the government, we didn’t have to work the actual holiday, but did have to work the day after Thanksgiving and all days but Dec 25th. I loved it because so many people took vacation. I got to wear jeans, turn the music up, take a long lunch, maybe sneak out early. Very few calls, very few problems but when there were, happy to help.
My birthday is a holiday and I don’t work that day. Did once when I was 15, didn’t like it, and have never work it since.
@romanigypsyeyes : I am especially incensed with stores being open on Thanksgiving. This is our “national” holiday. Stores should be closed and people should be with their family. Retail is not essential. Anything you need to buy can wait till Friday and the following year you’ll remember to plan ahead or make a list. Nobody will die if someone forgot the cranberries. Doctors, nurses, firefighters are in a different situation. There’s a difference between “essential job” and retail.
In my family, we also say “thank you for working on a holiday” or “thank you for working on Sunday” to people who work in stores on days whn, if they had a choice, they may well have preferred being with their family. It also emphasizes how lucky we are not to have to work on those days. (By principle, we don’t shop on Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, High Holidays, and most Sundays. Sundays were picked as “family day”.)
I apologize for the dumb question, but I’ve never worked in a job where I had to “come in on weekends” (I’ve “worked weekends” from home plenty). How does the employer respond if you say “I can’t”?
Saturdays are absolutely off limits for me, and Sunday mornings too.
^Typical response would be “not a team player”, and that’s a quick avenue to no promotion.
Mine have asked me repeatedly if I have to work Christmas Eve. Like it’s a travesty! Really, I work in an office, and I’ll leave by 4. But to the family, it’s all “why are they even open?”
I’ve always worked it. And Black Friday. Quiet/short days in the office.
“How does the employer respond if you say “I can’t”? Saturdays are absolutely off limits for me, and Sunday mornings too.”
You don’t become an MD if you don’t want to work weekends and holidays. That simple. No one even asks because it’s assumed you will be available. When S was a volunteer EMT, weekends and holiday were part of the deal because emergencies don’t respect days off. Spouse’s job involved lots of international contact - when it’s a weekend or holiday here, it isn’t over there, so if you want to get the job done and stay employed, you are available at least for the urgent calls.
There are many jobs were working on weekends isn’t a choice. Others where you do it until you have accumulated enough seniority to dump those days on someone lower in seniority. In the age of the iPhone, it feels like work-related emails come in at all hours of the day or night and it takes self-discipine to say ‘this can wait.’ If having Saturdays and Sunday morning off is your priority, then you need to choose a career where that’s an option.
There are a lot of careers where you can’t set your own hours, so avoid those if you don’t want to work weekends. Many people don’t mind working holidays or Sundays because they might get paid more, they dnot have familes (or don’t like them!), want other time off for vacations, etc. Some companies are closed on Sundays like Hobby Lobby or Chik-fil-a. Work there. Work at a bank (but you’ll likely have to work the day after thanksgiving) that have very set hours. A few states still have Blue Laws and things are closed on sundays. Sell cars.
If you have a religious reason for not working on Saturdays, you may have more limits to your career or choice of employers. I know people who used Jewish daycare and had to pick their kids up by 3 on Fridays, which wouldn’t have worked for my employer even thought i had some flexibility. Joe Lieberman, when running for president, said he’d work on the Sabbath if necessary
People have to make personal choices, but employers really don’t.
^I already have a career and while I bring work home, work on the train/plane/whatever, I don’t have to come in on weekends (and couldn’t). It was just curiosity on my part.
I sure hope holiday work pay is treated like overtime (I mean: just like when staffers do overtime and get overtime pay);, it wouldn’t seem “fair” to consider that “regular” hours when for everyone else they’re not. I don’t include Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve in those - on those days, it’s perfectly understandable to have people work long hours in retail. It’s the same distinction as between Thansgiving and Black Friday.
However, a requirement -not “to work” but “to come into work” - on days when for some faiths it’s against fundamental requirements (except to save people’s lives) sounds like a discrimination suit waiting to happen.
Re: Retail being open holidays…
I find it interesting that people get upset about this, but I never seem to hear about people being upset about movie theaters, amusement parks, restaurants and other entertainment locations open on holidays. They are certainly not essential. Heck, even stuff like gas stations are open while a tad more essential (if your tank is empty!), is still not really so with just an ounce of planning (gas up the night before!).
Well, some families go to restaurants and/or to the movies to celebrate. (Also, Chinese restaurant on Christmas day is an American Jewish tradition. :p) Amusement park tickets can be a Christmas present.
So, while they’re not essential, they fall under he same umbrella of stores being open on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve, although “holiday entertainment” and “holiday shopping” are two different activities.
I don’t know for others, but the reason stores being open on Thanksgiving makes me upset is that it’s as if consumerism was taking over family time and family ties as well as the symbolic “national realm”. As if “selling/buying stuff” became more important than anything else and sought to replace what made us a national community.
Around here most restaurants are closed on Christmas. The ones that are open mostly have limited hours.
I work at a university so for the past 13 years or so I have had the week between Christmas and New Year’s off. When S1 graduated from school, got a job as a financial analyst, and got married, I asked how long they were coming to visit around Christmas. He said, “all week.” I said, “Are you sure you have enough vacation time for that?” He said, “Nobody works that week.” Uhhhhh, you might want to check on that…Surprise! In the real world, you work or use vacation time.
Yes, and I’ll admit, we are one of those families…but it still requires others to work while we are celebrating. However, your second point
is well taken. But then again, one might argue that the entertainment venues are in the business of “selling/buying stuff” too.
Personally, I sort of agree, but I would feel hypocritical to criticize the shops but continue to eat out or go to the movies on the holidays. So I keep my mouth shut.
I do find it hypocritical to find fault in a store being open and refusing to patronize it on thanksgiving but then going to a restaurant or the movies. Do you think the 16 year old working for Regal cinema is less deserving of time with his family than the 17 year old at Target? Should a store owner who has no religious beliefs, who might not even celebrate thanksgiving or christmas, not open and give up that potential business?
I don’t have a problem with stores being open when their customers want them open. That’s how stores make their money, by being available when the customers want them open. In Utah for years very little was open on Sundays because there were no customers. Now there are customers, so they are open.
If December 25th means nothing to you, is no different than any other day, why shouldn’t you go out to eat, go to the movies, eat Chinese food (even though the owners and workers of the Chinese restaurant may be Christians), go to the supermarket? Why shouldn’t non-observers shop on Saturdays or sundays? Why can’t we buy liquor on Sundays if we have no religious objections and someone is willing to sell it? You don’t have to if you don’t want to, but why shouldn’t others get to shop or eat or watch movies because you don’t want to? I don’t shop on thanksgiving or black Friday because I don’t want to, but if others do I don’t care.
As far as an employer not honoring the religious practices, they do have to make accommodations if reasonable, but can also not employ the person if the accommodations cannot be made reasonably. A business that requires all employees to work every other Saturday doesn’t have to hire someone who can’t work Saturdays. A chef who can’t touch pork may not get a job at a BBQ joint.
I still miss Germany where we were off from Christmas Eve till the 12th day of Christmas (January 6th). As an architect, I often meet clients on evenings and weekends, and as a procrastinator I often work weekends because of not working hard enough during the week. As a self-employed person, it’s nice making my own hours.
Well said in post #36!
I particularly dislike the closed on Sunday because the owners have declared it their family day. Going out to eat for fast food on Sunday can be the family thing. As can working on crafts- or getting materials needed for that school project due Monday. Okay with me to not patronize your business and support you.
It is hard when everything shuts down on some days. I think Christmas being a federal holiday had to do with a large percentage of people wanting that day off years ago. With our more multicultural society today there are many more who don’t celebrate on that day. But- it is nice to have mandated days off and celebrations including secular events all can enjoy. btw- without the secularization of religious holidays they would be far less noticeable.
Some expect colleges to be off the whole week of Thanksgiving- not usual for public U’s. Every year OOS parents need to realize they have to book tickets later- skipping exams the Wednesday before T-day is not wise. And those tend to be the bigger exams that happen logically with the school calendar (postponing to the Monday after would be worse).
And- expecting to make a holiDAY into a four day weekend… btw- all federal holidays are not state holidays. Presidents’ day, MLK day and others vary in their impact on schools and businesses in different states. I was used to many just meaning no mail and possibly banks being closed.
I wish there were secular charitable giving options instead of those pushing their religious agenda. It would be wonderful if the churches could sponsor giving food/shelter/ clothing… without tying it into their faith. It would truly be more Christ like to do good things without invoking a brand of religion. Any church could be behind the scenes- actually more humble that way. Imagine atheists next to holy rollers dishing out meals!
Final thought- I wonder how many of those country club church goers spend on true charity after spending huge sums on comfort in their social clubs?
Advice for seniors looking for a career position: Do not make it a requirement during an interview that they must have at least a week off at Christmas. You likely will not get an offer.