When I worked in customer service, I’d usually volunteer for Christmas. I don’t celebrate it, so it was no skin off my nose, and for being such a team player they would usually give me Thanksgiving off. I can’t remember if we got extra compensation. Possibly comp time.
As a cashier in a grocery store, yes, definitely Thanksgiving. We were fortunately closed on Christmas, but I recall Thanksgiving as being quite busy in the mornings. By 1:00 PM or 2:00 PM everything had slowed down because all the would-be customers were at home eating their meals. You still got the occasional gentleman sent out to fetch that forgotten whipped cream or some other crucial ingredient.
We didn’t have any particular benefits, except that they tended to have a nice stash of food in the break room. I kinda miss those moments with my co-workers; fun stories and lots of laughs. Most of us were in pretty good moods then because, although we were busy as hell in the mornings, we all knew the store would close early at 6:00 PM.
I haven’t, but my daughter did when she worked in a vet clinic. The animals who are being boarded need to eat, get fresh water, and get their cages cleaned. No extra pay or benefits. Of course as a minimum-wage part-time worker she didn’t get benefits anyway.
I did Christmas a few years ago, and New Year’s day the year before- I was an assistant for a disabled lady, who obviously didn’t get a day off from being disabled.
Both were full weekend sleepover shifts, but I got triple pay for the actual holiday -all 24 hours, so that really added up.
Christmas kind of sucked, as that’s normally the only time of year I see some of my cousins, but my boss was lovely, and I basically just joined her family celebrations, then had mine a few days late. It wasn’t quite the same, and it did make it pretty awkward for my family too, but clearly someone had to work that shift, and I couldn’t argue with the money.
I don’t give a crap about working New Years, I never do anything anyway.
I’m a physician so I’ve worked plenty of holidays. Ideally I’d like to have the day off but usually working holidays isn’t all that bad. My experience has been that often our workload is lighter on the actual day of the holiday because people don’t want to come to the hospital on Thanksgiving or Christmas…although you can get slammed if you get a few of those “Haven’t seen grandma for a while, but she sure looked sick at Thanksgiving dinner so we better bring her in” admissions. Often the day after a holiday is horrible because everyone who was waiting until Thanksgiving or Christmas was over to come in shows up then.
This year I’m covering the pager on Thanksgiving and Black Friday in exchange for not having to work any other holidays. Hoping it stays calm.
When I was working at the horse ranch, I worked Thanksgiving. I worked Monday, Tuesdays and Thursdays. I didn’t bother to ask to trade. Someone has to work. Horses have to be turned out and fed and exercised. Suburban Plankton did the cooking that year and we just ate a bit later than usual. I did not get extra pay. It was fine. It was a small ranch and the owner was a friend.
When I worked in the news department at a radio station I had to work Thanksgiving mornings (half day only), but not Christmas. I think I got double time for working on Thanksgiving. So basically paid for the whole day but only worked 4 hrs or so.
Other than that, I have not worked a job that was open on Christmas or Thanksgiving.
Heh. One year my manager was a Muslim (yes, this IS relevant), and he decided that EVERYONE needed to work on Christmas day, on one shift or another. He said that we’d be busy enough that we’d need the extra people working. Oh, we needed extra staff, but we didn’t need everyone to come in. He was just being an asshole, really. For instance, one of the workers was a devout Catholic, and she wanted her Sundays off. I was willing to work on Sundays if I could have Saturdays off, and she was willing to work the Saturdays. Guess when he always scheduled us? That’s right, I was always scheduled for Saturday, and she was always supposed to work on Sundays.
I work in a hotel, so holidays are our busy times. I work Thanksgiving because I don’t care about that holiday. Christmas, however, is sacred as it’s the only time I get to see my whole family. I worked out a deal with one of the assistant managers where he works Christmas every year* and I give him a Moravian Sugar Cake as a bribe (my host sister lives near one of the Moravian Sugar Cake dealers in New Salem). Said manager has already made anticipatory noises about this year’s cake.
I have worked Christmas, and let me tell you, driving three and a half hours after a 7-11 am shift only to turn around and drive three and a half hours back to catch a 3-11 pm shift the next day is all kinds of not fun. This is the origin of the bribe.
However, we do only have to work a half-day and get holiday pay (which is then eaten up in taxes) so there’s that.
*He works all day Christmas anyway since his family does the Christmas Eve thing. Says it’s his gift to us. He doesn’t work Thanksgiving, though.
Oh hellz yes. Restaurant life: all holidays, all the time! Xmas, New Years, TG, Halloween, 4th of July, whatever. If it’s your shift, you’re working it. I never have minded working holidays, though. I generally don’t care about big family doo-dahs, and I can certwinly attest to the mad tips legend. I received big $$ working front of the house, and I recall a couple of nice little paper bindles in the 80’s too. Those were the days! Now I’m an office drone and get all the biggies off with pay. Lots of folks take time off between Xmas and New Years, I love to be at work then - the whole building is silent and I get so much done!
I work offshore on a research vessel, 28 days on 28 days off. Last year, Christmas fell during my time on the boat… and it will again this year too. 
But I got Thanksgiving off last year and I will get it off again this year too, so yay! 
Yep.
Pet sitting doesn’t have holidays and usually Thanksgiving and Christmas are when I make the most money. I don’t charge extra for the holidays but in exchange my visits are short and to the point.
My call center job needs coverage so they usually offer a pretty generous bonus if you work extra hours, enough to make it worthwhile.
When I delivered newspapers I HATED Thanksgiving. That was the day ‘turkey papers’ went out and the paper would rip us off so badly that I always lost money. The papers always weighed between 5 and 6 pounds each and I had to deliver 500-550 of them. Too much weight for one trip. They paid us less for them then we got for the regular papers.
Christmas we had to work but usually wasn’t so bad. The paper was light and lots of customers would leave tips and goodies out for us. At least we got to keep those tips. The paper kept the ones send in with the bills.
Back when I was in broadcasting I worked every holiday for four years straight. Didn’t get overtime or comp time, either – that’s how it goes with a 24/7 business. The closest thing we got to a break was only having to work our air shifts instead of the usual 8 hours.
It was the week between Christmas and New Year’s that was the pits.
As the old saying goes, there ain’t no holidays in the oil patch, so when I was working on drilling rigs, if your rotation fell on a holiday, you worked it. There was an informal arrangement where if you worked Christmas, you’d get New Year’s off, and vice versa. No extra compensation.
Before that, I worked for a railroad, another 24-7 operation, and had my share of holiday duty there as well. That was a unionized job and holidays paid double time and a half.
In any event, it never bugged me that much.
When I was a waitress (in a coffee shop) I worked Thanksgiving. Working the morning was fine - we were slammed, but the tips were phenomenal. Working Thanksgiving afternoon/evening sucked, though. It was dead, and the few people who did come in tended to be in lousy moods.
Working any part of Thanksgiving did get me out of food preparation duties, though!
I’ve worked many, many Christmases. Not this year, though. Apart from missing spending the day with my own family, I quite enjoy it. We gate pass as many kids as we can and we get to play Santa to those who can’t go home, even for a couple of hours.
Yes, we get penalty rates for working Christmas (and other public holidays as well).
I worked in restaurants when I was younger, and hotels later, so yes, plenty of holiday shifts, mostly without bonus pay. (Clients were often quite nice, though, so tips were good, or hotel regulars would send gifts for the staff.)
When I was in management, I always asked first for volunteers to work the holidays. Usually, people would step up so that parents of small children would be home to play Santa, or so that a student employee could drive home for turkey and pie. More than once, I’d schedule myself for a long shift if I had no big plans. When I absolutely had to have folks in who would have preferred to be off, I tried to make it as painless as possible - like coming in at 4am to relieve the auditor so that she could be home when the kids woke up Christmas morning, or having second shift come in at 4 or 5 pm instead of 3. And holidays were slow for the hotels where I worked, so housekeepers were mostly off, except for a very minimal staff to clean stayover rooms. There were enough clean rooms that the rest could wait an extra day after Thanksgiving or Christmas.
My husband is in law enforcement, so he works whatever he’s scheduled. This year, that includes Thanksgiving and Christmas. The big kids will be at their dad’s for Christmas, but the little girls don’t know which day is the 25th, so Santa will arrive a couple of days late at our house. And I’ll bring him some nice leftovers from Thanksgiving at my mom’s.
I pulled a couple Christmas Eve/Christmas day shifts in EMS years ago. Ya know, if you people would only schedule your medical emergencies, we could shut down for the day. :rolleyes:
As for now, if [del]I[/del] we don’t work, you don’t have a Parade to watch on Thanksgiving, but that’s fun work.
+1
Although I get both Xmas and New Year this year 
Another healthcare worker checking in. The hospital lab needs to be staffed at all times, so there was always a skeleton crew working the holidays. The rotations were fair, and folks were happy to switch holiday assignments if they needed to be with their families. Many of the younger, childless folks preferred to have New Years Eve and New Years Day off so they could attend parties, while those with young children wanted to be home Christmas morning.
I worked Thanksgiving twice, and was given 2.5x pay for it plus another day off in the bank. Everyone working Thanksgiving got a free “turkey dinner” from the cafeteria - a nice gesture, even if quality was on par with a frozen dinner. I somehow escaped ever working Christmas, through no deliberate attempts of my own. The year I was scheduled for Christmas (evening shift), I moved to the blood bank and was put on their rotation. The rotation slot I was assigned was the one that had just done the previous Christmas. Win! I’ve done several Christmas Eves, though, getting home at 1am Christmas morning. That wasn’t so bad. At first it wasn’t considered a “holiday pay” shift, but they changed that the second year I worked there.
Working them was no big deal, honestly. As a holiday approached, the number of patient discharges always seemed to go up significantly, and elective surgeries were generally not scheduled during a holiday week. All we really had to worry about were the emergency room and critical care unit.
My new job is more research and manufacturing, so we’re closed on weekends and holidays. I don’t miss it, but picking up 2.5x pay for working Memorial Day or some other holiday that doesn’t really matter… that was nice.
I have worked overseas on rotational assignments ( 28 / 28 ) so every other year I would miss the holidays. Got paid of course and they had a nice dinner for everyone, so it wasn’t too bad. I was in a band so after dinner we would set up and play down on the beach or some other venue.