I just finished working today (Dec. 24), and what did my wond’ring eyes see but every supervisor at my company on vacation today (and I would bet money on not seeing them until after New Year’s Day). All the peons had to be there, but none of the higher-level staff. I guess it’s good to be King. :rolleyes:
(This is bad enough, but they have the nerve to tell us how everyone is equal and will be treated the same at company meetings. Oh, really. Some are just more equal than others, I guess.)
Time to get another job.
Dickens would be turning in his grave at such oppression.
And people used to wonder why I hated my new boss. I remember the memos we used to receive from her. Rather than:
"XYZ date will be a very busy day, and we would appreciate it if all staff could make themselves available to work this day…"
like our previous supervisor always wrote, we got…
"XYZ date will be a very busy day, and ALL staff WILL be working. NO EXCEPTIONS."
In other words, any plans we had were cancelled on our behalf, and anyone who kicked up a stink was subtly threatened with a load of hassle from the area manager. Meanwhile, a quick glance at the roster revealed that all the supervisors and managers had booked time off on said dates. Nice.
That’s why I liked my old boss. She used to muck in with the rest of the staff, and rostered herself in on very busy days in order to set a good example to everyone else. That’s how she got our respect, and needless to say we were pretty sad to see her leave.
I wish I was allowed to work on Christmas! 
Unpaid mandatory holidays suck.
But your scene is truly bad. It’s all too common. How can managers expect employees to be committed to working at the company, when they themselves aren’t?
If you find a manager who loves to come in all the time and work hard, send him my way. I’ve worked for one too many person who comes in 10 to 2, with a 1.5-hr lunch, all year round.
Wait, what? Is it so intolerable to work at a place where people in positions with more responsibility enjoy more benefits? Color me 
.
Work hard and perhaps you’ll be a king one day.
Well, no. Not for me at least. But if one is gonna bitch about such minutia, one would probably be happier in a different job.
So, just how is she supposed to react? Smile and nod? Just figure that if she just “worked hard”, she could be there too? No comlaints? No questioning? Just acceptace? I think you ask too much of her and people like her. As for “working harder”, nevermind that only few of all the workers could ever be managers. And if she were to quit, most jobs seem to operate in the same way.
Masonite:
“How can managers expect employees to be committed to working at the company, when they themselves aren’t?”
That’s what I’d like to know. I don’t see what’s so minute about being angered at having to work while those who should also be working get vacation. If a manager gets paid more, I can see that, but I see no reason to just “smile and nod” when they get far more than just extra money. All this is no doubt at the expense of the worker.
Posted by Jurhael: “All this is no doubt at the expense of the worker.”
Ah, yes, the oppressed worker. Fortunately, in America the worker has the opportunity to improve him/herself and one day have Christmas Eve off while a new wave of the oppressed are learning the business.
It’s called “The Way It Works.”
Well, if it were me I would look for a place where the supervisors were committed to the well-being of the enterprise to work at least a half shift each on the holidays without being begged. A business that is deserted by management on the busiest day of the year is a shitty business to invest one’s career in, or one’s money in.
The restaurant I work for has three owners…one of them is “acting general manager” and is away right now for the whole Christmas holidays. Leaving his other managers–all of TWO–working unpaid overtime. (“Salary” is mispelled. It should really read “slavery.”)
The other two owners did all they could to convince the two managers to open on Christmas Day…their enticement was “time and a half!”
Er…excuse me, but time and a half for most of the staff, myself included, is THREE bucks an hour, instead of the usual two. And neither of these monkeys was gonna be around for any of it. They were gonna be at home, snug with their families, celebrating the holidays, still “making money!”
:rollseyes:
There’s a difference between being King and being a DICK.
For the record, the other managers basically laughed their asses off at the very idea of making all of us show up on Christmas, so we all get to stay home.
Anyone in a position of power has a responsibility to remember he’s human every once in a while.
I don’t think one has to be wanting to quit, or to feel grievously wronged in order to notice an inequity.
I don’t think featherlou is complaining that this is the ultimate injustice, she’s just noticing it, is all. It is hypocrisy, and an inequity. Unless the supervisors make it clear up front that different standards apply to them, because they are special and exempt from working holidays.
As for me, I’m off ALL WEEK!!! This is because I put in for some of my annual vacation. I never would have gotten the holiday off as like, a holiday. I never get to use those. But whatever—I got the WHOLE WEEK OFF!!!
But I know that not all jobs are like this. At an old job I had, the jerkoff boss cancelled vacation time at the last minute, after a coworker had bought her plane tickets and everything. She was beside herself, she was really looking forward to her vacation. And it wasn’t as if it were some life or death job—just a retail store.
Yose got it - this isn’t the ultimate injustice. It’s just one more little thing that makes working for a living the pain in the ass that it is. I know very well how the world works, and I do my best to operate within the system that I don’t particularly care for, but sometimes things that are this glaringly obvious get my goat.
As for supervisors deserving extras because they work harder, this is just a crock. No one at my office works any harder than anyone else at any level. They just do different jobs.
At my company, several of my fellow Christmas Eve workers were shocked the CEO was working Christmas Eve. Ya know, the man can be a jerk, but he’s almost always in his office the day before the holidays. Makes it just a tad easier when the Big Boys pitch in. Doesn’t require all of them, just one or two.
God save us from power-mad supervisors who enjoy yanking the vacation rug out from under employees, though. Got a few horror stories about them, just like every other wage slave.
Back when I worked in a call center, I volunteered to work on most holidays, including Christmas. Loved that double-time pay. Most of the holidays were on a voluntary basis, and the spaces were usually taken before they had to draft anyone. Supervisors and managers included. The abuse we took from customers really sucked, but the perks were great, and we had great supervisors.
Ava
You volunteered to telephone harass people on Christmas? That’s really low.
Call Center does not equate to telemarketer, Muffin. Maybe she was tech support, or customer service? I know I apreciated that there was someone working at my Cable company’s call center today when the sound went out on several channels.
No, they called me. Call Center as in ‘customer relations’. I worked for a credit card company assisting them with their accounts, and as we were 24 hours, 365 days a year, someone had to work for people to call in. Way to make an assumption there.
Ava
And just to add to that, I would never take a telemarketing job simply because I couldn’t handle it, but I suffered serious abuse at my position, as did nearly everyone else that I worked with. I was reduced to tears several times in my year at that job and believe me, I wanted to do everything in my power to help people with their accounts, and I tried. For my troubles, I was rewarded with names like ‘bitch’, ‘cunt’ and lovely little sentences like ‘you’ve ruined Christmas, you stupid twat!’.
Ava