Christmas Day is a national holiday here in the U.S (as it is in many other countries, I’m sure). That means that most people get a paid day off (or at least get overtime pay), regardless of whether they are actually Christian or not. Is it ethical for a non-Christian to take the day off and get paid for it, simply because it is a religious holiday celebrated by other people?
A related question is whether it is a violation of the Constitutionally mandated separation of church and state to have Christmas Day be a national holiday in the first place. Rosh Shoshana and Yom Kippur (the two Jewish “High Holidays”) are not national holidays, and those who wish to celebrate these days are typically forced to forego pay or else use a paid “personal” day. Is the fact that a “majority” of citizens are Christian a valid reason for this disparity?
Yes it is ethical. We Christian will share our holidays with anyone. Remember, we stole the date from one of the sun gods (I have forgotten which one). An employee does not have to be part of the reason for the holiday to receive it. We get the day the US President is inaugurated, because one of our buildings is on the parade route. People who didn’t vote for that particular person get the holiday just as people who did.
The US Navy has a very good way to deal with this for its Active Duty personnel. If someone wishes to request a day that is for a significant religious event, say Buddha’s birthday, then they may receive that day off without being charged leave or liberty; however, they will be required to be at their place of duty on Christmas.
It would be nice if we could all do as the Navy does. I dislike taking Christmas holiday because of the crowds, and because vacations are prohibitively expensive. But most places pretty much shut down on Christmas, so that you can’t work if you wanted to. My company has a mandatory Christmas vacation. Not only do you have to take the 2 Christmas days off, but you also have to reserve 3 days of vacation to take off the rest of the week. Wanna discuss the ethics of THAT?
Why WOULDN’T it be ethical? I’m an atheist, which pretty much means one paid day off is as good as another; since all my family and friends also happen to get Christmas off, it’s mighty convenient for me also to take it off, so that I can spend some time visiting with everyone.
At my place of employment and I’m sure many others, Christmas is CONTRACTUALLY a day off. So ethics doesn’t have much to do with it. Our collective bargaining unit negotiated that as a paid holiday.
You can be as ethical as you want, but you can’t come to work on Christmas. And you will get paid for it.
Well, I grew up in a town that had a large Jewish population, and Jewish children were excused from school on the aforementioned Jewish high holidays. I assume it would be unethical for somebody to claim to be Jewish just so they could get the days off. Why, then, is it OK for a non-Christian to take Christmas off as a paid holiday? Granted, they are not claiming to be Christian, but still…
I like the way the US Navy does things. I hadn’t heard of that before.
For the record, I was born Jewish, raised Christian, and now consider myself an atheist…
The Jewish children are excused from school becuase there’s this constitutional provision that the government not interfere with the free practice of religion.
The non-Christians get the paid holiday off because the day has been established as a federal holiday and the labor codes require that such a holiday be a paid one.
The issue of paid/unpaid holiday does not enter into the equation for the Active Duty Navy because that’s not how the “military compensation” system works–the military member draws a monthly salary (plus certain allowances) in stead of getting hourly wages.
There are two parts in the MILPERSMAN (sorry, folks, yet another pdf site) that address this issue:
There’s also the idea of permissive TAD in which the member has to make & pay for all travel to wherever he’s headed for the religious event; however, he’s not charged any leave or liberty days for it.
I am not sure that it is ethical to require people to take Christmas off as a paid holliday, but it makes buisness sence in mostly Christian countries, as little buisness gets done on a day where most people are on holiday. But it should be noted that Christmas has very little to do with Christianity these days.
“But still” nothing. It’s unethical to claim to be Jewish to get a day off because it’d be a false claim, and such a claim would breed mistrust and risk administrators’ deciding that nobody could take the high holidays off, since non-Jews were abusing the privilege.
Having Christmas available for almost everyone to take off doesn’t run into that problem at all. The two cases are completely different: Christmas is available for Christians and non-Christians alike as a holiday.
If I claimed to be Christian in order to get Good Friday off, that’d be closer to what you’re talking about. That would be skeezy. But that’s not what’s going on here.
I also grew up (and still live) in an area with a large Jewish population. The schools do close for the above mentioned holidays, for everyone, not just selected students. Since the children are ostensibly there for their own benefit, I don’t think the moral obligation is the same as showing up for work anyway.
I don’t understand why this would be an ethical problem. Every job offer I have ever gotten has, along with the salary, mentioned the number of holidays/sick days/vacation time. Ethically, as long as I recieve the amount of paid leave agreed upon, and don’t get paid for more than that number of days, what’s the beef?
But still what? You answered your own question. We are not claiming to be Christian. As far as I’m concerned, it’s a winter holiday that was originally pagan that was usurped by the Christians. Why should I have to be a Christian to participate in a holiday that they stole in the first place? You put up a tree, exchange presents, eat a lot, and drink a lot. If you guys want to talk about Jeebus, that’s great - whatever floats your boat. I’m still gonna take the day off and have some fun. I don’t consider that unethical in the least.
Oops, allow me to make a correction. Barry, you said you’re an atheist, so I shouldn’t have said “you guys” when referring to Christians. Sorry for the oversight.
Why is it unethical to claim to be Jewish? What does it even mean to be “Jewish.” What if I decide to convert to Judaism for just the high holy days, then revert back to agnosticism on monday? How are you going to prove I wasn’t Jewish during the holidays?
Wouldn’t the same reasoning apply for every other holiday? Like (I’m guessing here, not being American) Labor day or Thanksgiving or whatever holidays you have. Surely you don’t mean to suggest that you have to believe the exact story behind Thanksgiving to be allowed the day off?
I don’t see why a belief in the cause or reason behind is necessary for getting the day off. As was remarked repeatedly, it is simply a contractual obligation of the employer. If the employer wants to give holidays only to people who believe in the ‘cause’, that’s a whole different story (and probably runs in different problems as well).
Diogenes, I’m not gonna prove it, but I’m not gonna believe it, either. It’s skeezy to game the system like that, and risks that people who aren’t gaming the system will lose the benefits of a system that respects religious differences.
I do agree that folks should all gain about the same amount of time off, though; a better system would give everyone maybe a dozen days throughout the school year (I’m generous) to take off for whatever reason they need.
Nitpick: I believe that the time off in mid-December is officially known as a “Winter holiday.” The fact that it happens to arrive around December 25th – which is recognized as a holiday by some folks – is merely a coincidence.
As for the ethics of it, I don’t see a conflict here. If my boss decides to give everyone next week off because he’s a Morkian and next week is the Morkian Holy Week, should I complain because I’m not Morkian? The boss is allowed to dictate when his business is open or closed, after all; as long as he isn’t discriminating against folks on religious grounds (“All non-Morkians must keep coming to work as usual”), I don’t see a problem with it. For a real-world example, look at the fast-food franchise Chic-Fil-A, which closes all of its stores on Sundays.
I’m a government employee. I get Christmas off because my contract says I do. For the same reason my contract says I get New Year’s, M L King Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and Memorial Day.
I personally am not Christian. But I do like having the day off (along with Christmas Eve, which is also in the contract), to spend with my family.
Is it wrong? IMHO, no, because everyone where I work gets the day off, Christian or not, and we don’t have to use our own time for it. What I don’t think is quite fair is the fact that Christmas is the ONLY “religious” holiday we get time off for. I mean, Christianity isn’t the ONLY religion, y’know?
What’s the big deal? I don’t know of anywhere that lets Jews take Jewish holidays off without using a personal or vacation day. Why should anyone care whether I want to take my personal/vacation days on a Jewish holiday?
And conversely, if Christians aren’t required to use vacation days in order to get their religious holidays off, why should they get more paid days off than I do?
As for school: on some Jewish holidays when I was a kid, schools were closed (large Jewish population in my hometown), but not on others. Yes, I got an excused absence, and tests were never scheduled for those days, but believe me, I still had to do the homework and classwork. There were no free rides. And it’s not like I actually had the day off when I was a kid; generally, I was spending it in synagogue and/or making holiday preparations.
(I’m Jewish, although mostly nonobservant; I haven’t taken Jewish holidays off of work in years unless I have family visiting. Oddly enough, everyone assumes I do anyway. On Jewish holidays, I’m generally sitting at my desk when the office gets the daily e-mail listing who is out that day on vacation or at a client or whatever. I’m always on it, whether I requested the day off or not.)
Remember, we stole the date from one of the sun gods (I have forgotten which one). An employee does not have to be part of the reason for the holiday to receive it. We get the day the US President is inaugurated, because one of our buildings is on the parade route. People who didn’t vote for that particular person get the holiday just as people who did.