Tomorrow (i. e. Saturday) is, of course, Independence Day, a public holiday in the United States. I noticed that two American radio stations I listen to regularly are already on a holiday schedule today (i. e. Friday), the regular hosts have taken the day off.
If the holiday happens to fall on a Friday or a Monday, the situation is straightforward: the working men and women can enjoy a long weekend. But are there (unwritten) rules about granting additional leave from work (and keeping businesses closed) if the holiday falls on a Saturday or Sunday? What about Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays?
There aren’t any firm rules. The general trend for holidays like the 4th of July is to give employees the day off on the closest weekday if it falls on a weekend. That means for a Saturday holiday most people get the Friday before off while a Sunday holiday means that they get Monday right after it. Weekday holidays apply wherever they fall. None of this is absolute or legislated unless you work for the government. Most private employees have today off (Friday) because July 4th is tomorrow but there are also some that have Monday off instead.
For some of the less important holidays (Columbus day and such) Our County Government offices stay open, but we get what is called a floating holiday that you can take on that day or any time after the holiday. We just coordinate with staff to make sure there are enough people in the office.
I actually made plans assuming I’d be at work today. Then yesterday an employee gave me an odd look when I said, “see you tomorrow”. Woulda been embarrassing to be the only one there at 9 am.
My company gives us 80 hours of Floating Holiday time. Of that we are normally expected to use 48 hours on "core’ holidays such as New Years, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. However as Independence Day is on a weekend, we are free to use those 8 hours as we wish. Same goes when the other holidays are on a weekend. In practice most take off the Friday or, more usually, the Monday when the holiday is on a weekend. Over half of my coworkers took today off and I plan on leaving 4 hours early today after I clean up a few tasks.
For example, by state law in my state, holidays that fall on Sunday are moved to Monday. This means that state offices and businesses that are closed on legal holidays will be closed on Monday. Holidays that fall on Saturday are not moved to Friday, therefore my office is open today although I am a state employee. I do get a floating holiday to use whenever I want to. City offices in my city are closed My husband works for a private business, and they are closed today. I suspect this is because moving the holiday to Friday is a provision in the unionized worker’s contract.
My daughter works in a private business, and is at work today. The business is open half-days on Saturdays, and they’re closed tomorrow. It was not her weekend to work, so she is off just as she would have been if tomorrow were August 4, if you know what I mean.
She is off Wednesday’s and every other Saturday. If a holiday falls on one of her regular days off, she gets no comp time. It’s just the way the dates fall. She dislikes The tears Christmas and New Year’s are on Wednesday because it feels like she loses two holidays. She doesn’t really, of course, because she is working the days given in her contract, but it is one of hose things that’s annoying. I’m happy she wasn’t given Monday as her day off each week, but having three-day weekends every other week would make up for the irritation of Monday holidays, I guess.
Far from being unwritten, the rules of which you speak are usually written.
There are Federal holidays, and there are state holidays, and then businesses are free to decide what they want to do. The written rule for Federal holidays is that, if the day falls between Monday and Friday, offices are closed on that day. But if it falls on Saturday, offices are closed on Friday, and if it falls on Sunday, offices are closed Monday. Consequently, the Post Office is closed today (7-3-15) and there is no mail delivery today.
State holidays are usually modeled after the Federal ones, with some minor exceptions. For example, where the US Government celebrates Washington’s Birthday, the state of Oregon celebrates “Presidents Day” on the same day. And when the Federal government celebrates Columbus Day, the state of Oregon doesn’t celebrate anything on that day; state offices are open for business as usual even though the Federal offices are closed.
Many businesses will decide that since the banks are closed, there’s no mail delivery, and local state government offices are closed, they might as well give their own employees a day off too. But each business is free to make their own decision on that.
I thought the post office was open today, but closed tomorrow. I think that’s what the newspaper said. It’s too early for the mail to be here, but I guess I will know for sure in a couple of hours.
I believe the post office (which normally opens post offices and delivers mail on Saturday) doesn’t follow the same rule for Saturday holidays as Mon- Fri Federal offices. The reason those agencies close today is because they’re always closed on Saturday , while the post office can simply observe the holiday on Saturday.
Yes, mail is being delivered today; they’re not quite a federal agency. Kind of half and half.
I work for a state university. We don’t get any time off if July 4 is on a Saturday or Sunday. Of course, you can use your vacation time or floating holiday, but we are open for business as usual. Seems unfair until you realize we make up for it by being closed nearly two weeks at Christmas and New Years.
::Sigh:: I’ve almost done this once. I was in the car, and the lack of normal traffic reminded me: today is a holiday. Then I actually did arrive at work once, but I was working in a foreign office and had no idea that it was a minor holiday.
My husband worked for state universities for about forty years. He was in an area that didn’t get all holidays off, no matter what day they fell on, but I know the faculty and other staff enjoyed a slower pace when the kids were gone. There was still work, but it wasn’t as hectic, and there were summer hours where they started earlier, closed earlier, and got to leave at noon on Friday, so it wasn’t horrible.
I worked at a hospial (24/7 operation) that had no fixed paid holidays. There are, I think, 17(?) Federal holidays, and we just had 17 extra days of vacation to take whenever we wanted. Unit managers in non-medical units could, however, decide to close on those holidys, and those of us in those units would be forced to take those off, and involuntarily spend our leave to do so.
Seventeen? That would be nice. There are 10 Federal holidays (New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Washington’s Birthday, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day). I work for a financial institution, so the Federal holidays are what we get. If one falls on a Sunday, we get the Monday off; if one falls on a Saturday, we get a floating holiday (this is because some offices are open on Saturday, so would take the Saturday as the holiday).
Are you sure? I checked the tracking for a USPS package and it said to expect delivery 7/3/15. And I pulled mail from my home mailbox today (although I may have missed getting it yesterday).