Once again the attitude persists that having a minimum wage job is some sort of character flaw and anyone that is working one surely deserves whatever bad stuff they get. How many of you would be bitching if your office job made you work Christmas? Honestly? You are going to tell me if your company decided to make you work on Christmas at the risk of losing your job because they thought they could make a few more dollars that you would be totally completely cool with it? No pit thread? And if your son or daughter’s job did that…cool? I honestly don’t think so.
I used to quit my job around the holidays and hope to get rehired for the new year. Bosses did not give a choice if you work or not. Since I lived four hours from my family, working would mean missing all of christmas. Not cool. Especially not for a job that A. wasn’t paying me enough to make a living and B. offered me no oppertunity for advancement. Being a store clerk is not at all equivelent to being a nurse. One, you are investing in a career. The other you are praying to get out of that career.
Minimum wage or not, the rent is due. It’s a crappy way to make a living and we don’t always have the option to hop right out and “find another job”. We are talking “lose house” and “tell kids it’s ramen for the next few weeks”. Those arn’t options.
Companies should make a commitment to their workers, minimum wage or not, and that should include giving them the option to spend the holidays with their families. Consumers should support companies that treat ALL of their workers well.
So some people feel like tiny infant baby Jesus wants them to go see “Murdernator 3” on his tiny infant birthday, what’s wrong with the less faithful making a buck and helping them out?
Do you realize there are people who have to work many holidays, as well as wee hours on weekends, so that you can surf your porn during working hours as God intended? Do you consider yourself an asshole for using the internet, pumping gas, buying a gallon of milk on Christmas? I’m guessing probably not.
I work for a company that provides internet service… on many holidays, and 3am to 10am Sunday mornings, I’m clocking overtime while the faithful enjoy love and family togetherness. My co-worker and I joke that if I weren’t an atheist and she weren’t a Jew, nothing would ever get done around here. I don’t feel particularly victimized and I don’t really appreciate your Christian communist central planning for holidays.
I did work on Christmas holiday (part time) this year, and have in the past. For two reasons:
When I took the job, one of the conditions of employment was get the fucking job done on time and under budget, and if it’s absolutely necessary, that means working 36 straight hours with no sleep (done that), working through holidays (done that), and missing scheduled vacation (done that). No ass-raping fatcat capitalist forced me to take the job, just like no one forced the OP to take his job.
I’m a professional, and I have professional pride in my work. If I think that working over Christmas holiday is in line with showing professionalism and commitment to my job and those who depend on me, then that’s what I do. No one asked me to work on Christmas holiday; I knew it had to be done so I did it.
Forgive me if that sounds like one of the most financially stupid, self-destructive, unprofessional things I’ve read on this message board.
And yet, you say you used to quit your job and hope to get rehired “around the holidays.” I…see.
I lused to LOVE working Christmas Even and Christmas Day when I was young and working in the service industry! I made either time-a-half or double-time for the easiest work of the year. All the customers were in a great mood and there weren’t very many of them. There was no beter time to be working. There was still plenty of time to hang out with the family later too.
Your BBQ pit thread is one of the silliest I think I seen here.
I was a student, I was living at home – there was nothing “predatory” about the business owner’s choice at all. There was no desperate need by me or my co-workers that we felt we had to work then. None of that shit. I wanted the extra cash so I could enjoy it. Easiest work I’ve ever done.
A sign-up sheet went up a month before the holidays for anyone who wanted to volunteer for a skeleton crew to work those days. Anyone who knew they’d be in town and wanted the extra cash could work those days and we were amply rewarded for doing so.
I think employers should work with employees to allow days-off for their holiday of choice, giving preference to those who volunteer to work during peak holidays, like Christmas.
But I don’t think its fair to employers to accomodate everyone on the same holiday, unless the employer made promises to everyone that they’d get that day off. Maybe the pursuit of money is a bad thing in itself, but usually people working minimum-wage jobs need it more than anyone else, and I think employers should be able to generate wealth from all the vacationing consumers filled with the yule-tide spirit. That’s just smart business practice. As long as workers get some vacation time (unpaid or not), I don’t see a problem with a boss requiring them to work on a certain day.
As Seven wisely pointed out, not just “essential” employees are expected to work. We would all be pissed if internet service was not available, or there was no TV to watch. The airport still has to be open, and if you’re waiting for a plane, don’t you expect someone to sell you a cup of coffee or clean the public toliet? We’re spoiled brats, the lot of us, but my point is that we ALL are. If people who go to the movies on Christmas are assholes, so is the OP. So are you.
Holidays mean different things to different people. Christmas is a fun time and I would be sad if I had to miss it, but I also know that there a myriad of ways of making any day Christmas. If a day is really sacred to an individual and missing it WOULD be the end of the world for them, it would do them well to shop for jobs based on this criterion, or let employers know WAY ahead of time that it’s a day that cannot be missed. I know this is easier said than done, but it’s the only realistic advice I have.
My daughter works at a movie theater, and she worked Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. She’s 16; this is her first job. She was not thrilled to have to work on holidays, but we managed around it and she didn’t miss much. Because she is a young person, and new to the working world, her managers could easily have taken advantage of her - but when they asked her to work those days they did tell her she was going to get time and a half. I didn’t know she was entitled to holiday pay, and she never would have assumed so, so that was a nice little bonus for her. $9 may not be much to YOU, but it’s a lot of money to a kid whose average paycheck is $90 for two weeks. The theater was busy all those days, and she preferred that to standing around watching popcorn pop.
I have no CLUE why anyone would pit this. If you don’t want to go see a movie, don’t. If you do, go. Otherwise I can’t even figure how you think you have a dog in this fight.
Wait, I don’t get it. If it has nothing to do with religion, then what do you give a rat’s ass if my family gathers on December 25th or some other day?
In the last ten years, our big Christmas family day has probably been December 25 only about three times. Why? Nothing to do with work, we’re just all socially really busy with family and friends. There’s also travel. Mom was abroad Christmas before last, so I did other things on December 25th. This year it was just me and mom on the 25th because the rest of the family was scattered all over the place. We got a glimpse of my fiancee on Christmas Eve.
Our big family day this year was December 29th complete with turkey and gift exchange. If you don’t give a shit about the religious part, then why do you give a shit about the date? It didn’t matter to me if I worked the 25th or not.
My work closes on Christmas Day and Thanksgiving. But I work the days surrounding the holidays, and have done for 6 years now. I was told when I interviewed that between Thanksgiving and New Years you simply cannot request off. My family lives several states away. I have not seen them for the holidays in seven years. I don’t particularly want to, so that works out. I celebrate with my SO, and the year he worked Christmas Eve until 2am Christmas Day, we had a very early Christmas and spent the rest of the day sleeping. I have no complaints.
I really hope the same place you quit NEVER rehired you for quitting when you’re needed the most. And, while I’m not making a career out of working retail, I’m also not praying to get out of it.
If you didn’t keep quitting and starting over, you might be making more than minimum wage.
As I said, my store closes on the actual holidays themselves, and we have short hours on Christmas Eve. We also try to make sure if you’re working Christmas Eve, you have off the day after. I was told upfront I couldn’t take time off, and that was all right with me. I don’t see a problem here.
I am the daughter of a projectionist. It is not a minimum wage job.
My dad worked almost every holiday, we would just pick a different day to celebrate. It didn’t matter to us. We had different special traditions, like a special day with our mom and a different special day with everyone. Sometimes we would go to the theater with my dad and that was special family time too.
If people want family time they will have it no matter what, if they don’t they’re not going to have it even if they stay home.
Last Thanksgiving I had to drive out of town because my mother was dying right then and we couldn’t wait. Thank goodness we could buy gasoline but we almost didn’t have anything to eat because all the restaurants closed early. We drove around in Detroit until midnight and finally found a diner. Many people were there, they seemed like regulars, everyone was having a great time. Some people don’t have families and I’m happy that there is a place fo them to be with others.
For what it’s worth–20 years or so ago, my husband worked towing cars. On holidays, I’d do “ride-alongs.” We’d make coffee, have donuts, a couple slinky toys for the kids. It was usually bitter cold and snowy, so we brought blankets and hand warmers. When we “rescued” stranded motorists, we were regarded as heroes. People appreciated us. We seldom ended up alone over Christmas–either people invited us to join them or we ended up with some stranded family camped at our house. I miss those days of working holidays. I guess it’s all in your attitude. If the OP had to work towing cars on a holiday, I expect he’d be pissed off and the stranded motorists would be pissed off and it would suck. But for us, Christmas working was one of the best days of the year.
Just when I thought that someone couldn’t possibly be more retarded than the OP, this pops up. I thought that once you spent some time living out of the country, you’d actually finally get some common sense but I am sadly disappointed.
I don’t give a shit about Christmas or any other holiday. I’ve worked on Christmas plenty of times. If my birthday falls on a weekday, I work. I don’t expect the rest of the world to stop.
I’ve worked plenty of minimum wage jobs in my past. It sucked but I sure as hell didn’t act like an entitled ass at that time. I knew that I had to put in my dues. No one handed me anything. I got a degree in something valuable, got a good job, invested wisely, grew my wealth and now I’ll go to a movie and eat out on Christmas if I goddamn well please.
This last Chistmas, I ate Thai food at a family run restaurant. They don’t celebrate Christmas either. Then I saw The Good Shepard. Fun times.
WTF? Go ahead and criticize Christians, and scoff at the notion of Jesus as a deity, but you’ve just made a pretty extreme assumption about a man who, at worst, fooled a lot of people with parlor tricks and then taught them about peace and forgiveness. I think the Christians who volunteer and donate to causes which help people are doing so in the spirit of “that dude a long time ago who saved that prostitute from getting stoned to death.” So, basically, slamming Jesus because of the half-assery of many who claim to follow him isn’t exactly being fair.
To me, Christmas is the legacy of St. Nicholas. Even though he is a Catholic saint, people of any belief or background should be able to recognize that he has made his mark on the world by being a positive example. A rather substantial mark at that, albeit bastardized by commercialism. Still, the message is about giving, and that we are improved people if we are generous.
As far as everyone having the day off on December 25th, I found it pretty frustrating that I almost ran out of gas that day because it was hard to find a gas station that was open. That was my day to drive back home, so I could work on Tuesday. My boss should have factored that in, and gave us all and extra vacation for Tuesday, so that we could spend all of Christmas day together with my family. Actually, considering how obnoxious my sister’s asshole husband is, I’d have made the drive on Monday anyway.
So the ruination of holidays isn’t so much customers or employers. That honor still goes to fucked up family members whose assholery demands that family visits be annual, rather than monthly or weekly.
As usual, you appear to not be thinking at all. Or reading, for that matter, else you’d have noticed the dozen or so posters who have said they didn’t mind (or even preferred) to work holidays.
Now, I’ve been lucky in that I’ve never had to work a holiday. And if this last Christmas, my boss had said to me, “We’re going to need you to come in on Christmas to work on your project,” yeah, I’d be pissed. I’d bitch about it. I might even pit it. But I wouldn’t call my boss an asshole for making me come in, and I certainly wouldn’t call the customers who buy our products (and provide my paycheck) assholes. Sometimes you have to do something you don’t want to do because it’s fucking necessary, and it’s nobody’s “fault.” You suck it up and do what you have to do. You don’t run around whining because the entire rest of the planet isn’t conforming itself to let you do what you want. Jesus, how fucking selfish are you people, anyway?
Contrary to your earlier accusation, I don’t think working minimum wage is a character flaw, and no one in this thread has suggested anything like that. But you know what? Sometimes working minimum wage is a symptom of some other character flaw, and I think you’ve just become “Exhibit A.” Someone who takes a minimum wage job and works their ass off at it will eventually get a non-minimum wage job. Someone who takes a minimum wage job and half asses it, runs away whenever it becomes inconvenient (and pays no mind to how they might be screwing over their boss or their co-workers) and then bitches about how unfair they’re being treated? That person is never going to work anything but minimum wage jobs, because nobody is going to offer more money for such a shitty employee.
And if you’re that poor, you should be begging to work holidays, particularly if it counts as overtime. Shit, if I were in any danger at all of losing my home and not being able to feed my kids, the last fucking thing I’d do is whine about being given the opportunity to earn more fucking money.
Your sense of self-entitlement is staggering. If working on Christmas is such an unbearable imposition on you, then you should ask about working on holidays when they hire you. If they say you’re going to be expected to work on Christmas, don’t take the job. If you can’t afford not to take the job, well, too fucking bad for you. Not everybody gets a job that’s exactly what they want. Welcome to real life. Grow up and do your job.
Fuck “needed the most” in its dirty toilet-hole. There’s no “need” for any retail establishment to be open on those days other than for continuing the wheel of consumerism and panicked purchasing on the one day that people should (but cannot make themselves, because they’re big babies) actually take a break from it.
I once interviewed at a restaurant (when I was in college, in a college town where every single person staffing the restuarant was a student) and everything went smoothly until I got to the point where the manager mentioned that they had a policy that you can never ever take more than two days off in a row - if you did, you would be fired, and could re-apply for the job when you got back. I did everything in my power to keep from punching him in the face right there, and instead swept the application and documents onto the floor, told him to go fuck himself, and left.
Well, speaking as one who not only agrees with the argument (at least in some cases), but actually requests to work on Christmas and Thanksgiving to get that time-and-a-half, prepare to duck when passing my tree lest ye be used for target practice.
I fail to see the logic of the OP. I know many people (Xtians included) who go to the movies on Christmas. The freaking theater is going to be open anyway, for Og’s sake–it’s not like forcing slaves to move rocks from one place to another just for cruelty’s sake. And if the point of your OP wasn’t religious, what is it? Because it’s a legal holiday? Got news for you, VCO3: people work legal holidays all the time! Some (like myself) even do it willingly!
What about July 4? Does it make one unpatriotic to shop, go to the movies, or go out to eat on Independence Day? Do we dishonor the memory of our brave war dead if we go to the local supermarket on Memorial Day?
I’m sure that, in your mind, your heart is in the right place. Unfortunately, the tone of your OP makes it appear that your eyes are looking straight up at it.
Wow. With such impulse control and personal relations skills, it’s a wonder that employers aren’t beating down your door for someone who would surely be such an exemplary employee.
Do you watch television on any holidays, even (especially) just the news? Do you call in for tech support when you’re too dumb to figure out the new gizmo you just got?
Here’s one: Do you read a newspaper on the day AFTER any major holidays? With the intelligence you’ve displayed, I realize how unlikely it is that you read a newspaper at all, but does your family? I’ve worked Fourth of July, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve, and over the course of my career, I expect to work those and all the other major holidays at least several times over. It’s the job. I don’t need you to save me from it.