Once again I work tonite, Christmas Eve into Christmas Day. Which I do most years because either I need the money or I’m forced to. At this job though I dont mind it much. I get holiday pay and its usually an easy night.
So what about you?
Both because it was required and because I volunteered depending on which year and job we’re talking about. I never minded it really and some years I really liked it. Having no kids, a chance to escape family drama and all was sometimes quite a blessing.
I’ve told this story here before.
Christmas Day, 1981 I think it was (+ or - a year).
I was a student assistant at an outdoor laboratory doing research with dolphins. Everybody else was gone. Most of the student assistants and volunteers were away for the week, back at home. Even the top staff, who lived locally, weren’t around. Even the three other people (one associate director and two grad students) who lived at the lab weren’t there. I lived there too.
It was pouring rain all day. I was there all day. So I got to feed the dolphins, morning and afternoon. That’s time-consuming. First, have to thaw the fish, which takes a couple hours. Then, each dolphin (there were two of them – photo) gets about forty fish, hand-fed to them one fish at a time. I was out there with nothing on but swimming trunks and sandals in the rain.
In Hawaii, even on Christmas Day, even in the pouring rain, it’s not too cold. It was comfortably cool.
Hated it. Used to work on the phones for a large online brokerage firm.
While the stock market may be closed, there’s a bunch of end of year retirement stuff that’s a huge pain, such as required distributions from IRAs. I really don’t need a 30 minute harangue from senior citizens about why they don’t want to take their distribution as well as their opinions about Obama.
We’d also get drunken uncles who’d call in about junior’s college fund and why it wasn’t growing like some hedge fund that’s leveraged to the hilt.
To make the party complete, usually the systems would be thrown off by the half day in the stock market, so you’d have to double check every account to make sure nothing was thrown off by a clearly erroneous quote.
Oh, and if anything went down on the website, there’s not a crack technical team standing by to fix it. Plus, it just got frustrating. You’d want to tell the customer to just go and bounce their grandchildren on their knees, not spend Christmas checking the yield on the Rock Valley Sewer district municipal bonds.
For the people in my family December 24th was either a short day at work or a non-working day. The festive mood was enhanced by lots of carolers dropping by and firecrackers going off all day long. We visited the Christmas Fair downtown and watched the Christmas show organized at the Christmas Fair on TV when we arrived home. We could have watched it there but we preferred to be comfortable in our cozy home. After a little bit of family drama, we opened our presents right after midnight. I don’t believe in Santa, god, visiting aliens, or multiverses, but I had a good time and wished that everyone should live in peace and affluence. If I were god for a day, that’s the area on which I would focus to make some changes. Otherwise, some people may have to go back to work on Friday, but many will skip it. The New Year’s Eve party is getting near and in Romania that’s the loudest and most fun party of the year.
I loved it at my last job because there was no traffic, no management, usually no problems to deal with, and it got me away from horrible family obligations.
I’m working it right now wearing highly stylish antlers. I made a deal with my relief night auditor: I’d work Christmas Eve and Day if she worked New Year’s Eve.
That’s usually the deal i made. Same with Thanksgiving if I got Hween off.
I worked every Christmas during my 5 years in the Air Force. I was single so my working provided those who were married the opportunity to be with their family. Never bothered me and I was happy to do it.
I have never observed Christmas in my entire life, so it’s just another day. Except I get time and 1/2 for working holidays. Plus I get an additional 8 hours that I can take in pay or comp time (paid time off at another time). I Always take the comp time. So for working my regular shift on Xmaseve/day and NYE/day I get my regular pay plus an additional $640 on my check plus an additional 4 days paid off to take some other time.
Unless those holidays land on my off days and I volunteer to work them. Then everything doubles! Regular pay plus an exttra $1280 and 8 additional days off paid. It’s a sweet, sweet deal!
Bring on the holidays!
While I worked in a hospital I did of course work Christmas. I was a baker, in food service. But my family gathered later in the day, and I worked early shift, so I could get holiday pay and still have the family. I worked Christmas a little more often than others, as I would trade it to get out of working Easter, and alltogether more important day. Never did work Easter in eight years.
My job requires me to work Monday through Friday, so unless Christmas or New Years Day falls on the weekend and nobody calls off “sick” and we are not short-handed(common problem) I work that day.
Thanksgiving and all those Monday holidays-totally out of the question. I hate missing all those family gettogethers…but the good news is that I am retiring at the end of the year. I am attending my first New Years Eve party in 19 years, and I plan to enjoy it to the max.
My answers:
Yes. A lot. Have over the past 35 years, on all 3 shifts
You might say “forced into it” but I didn’t see it that way. If Christmas falls on one of your regular days off, then you’ve got Christmas off. If not, you ( and everybody else ) works it. It is what it is.
Hated it at first when I was younger; felt I was missing out on a lot of fun and socialization…and I was. I’ve come to get used to it to the point I really don’t care any more. It’s just one day and I can have fun and socialize on other days. Plus, the commute traffic is lighter. Added bonus, the parking lot at work is such I can actually get a spot, since all the paper-pushers are off that day.
With that, I’m off to work in a couple of hours. Should be a lot of good stuff to eat as many bring stuff in.
A couple of other points. While public transit does run on Christmas, it’s definitely a heavily reduced schedule. Any SNAFU can really mess things up. There’s no Christmas cheer in waiting at a train station when the display board just says ‘Delayed’
I also hated the strong armed ‘volunteering’ Just tell me to work it, don’t make me volunteer by pulling the team player and best practice bullshit. And yes, I’m well aware of my annual review that you’re working on in December.
I occupied an otherwise-empty building and read Jessica Mitford’s “An American Way Of Death Revisited”.
I consider myself very fortunate. In a 48 year working life I’ve never had to work on Christmas Day and only once on New year’s Day. That was in 1973 at a full service gas station. And when I arrived at work about 720 am that morning there was some ass waiting for the station to open to get an oil change! I will remember that big stretched out loaded newer Olds wagon 455 with wood grain on the sides and thinking about the guy “don’t you have a life”??
If references to your lack of co-operation in “volunteering” for that is appearing on your job appraisal clearly that’s a “voluntold” situation. :rolleyes:
Working in academia, this is never an issue for me. I’m pretty much off for most of December. Mrs. Mortiss, however, works in retail. Her current employer closes on Christmas, but she always has to work on Thanksgiving.
I get paid major holidays off now as of this last October. Before that, every job I worked had be working on holidays (or having to find coverage if I absolutely did want one off). Most recently it was at one of the local area hospitals, in food service. I’m really happy to have my awesome new job, but I still feel for everyone continuing to work the holidays. I hope this year wasn’t too rough for you guys.
Hello fellow (former) hospital food service worker! I also tended to work Christmas (and Thanksgiving) a bit more than most, as New Year’s is when my family travels to see the extended family, which is a 4-day minimum trip (7 hr drive one-way). I’m incredibly relieved I got a new job just late this year, and no longer have to worry about getting those major holidays off!
