To think you shouldn't have to work in the office on Christmas Eve?

If you have many colleagues who use PT to go to work, they will struggle as last bus is normally 6pm. Then if need a taxi its double rate and some places its triple rate. I am sure they want to finish early.

It’S a NoRmAl WoRkInG dAY

.. The world of work changed almost 5 years ago. One of the benefits of hybrid working is that you CAN work from anywhere now. I certainly took advantage of it when I lived 600 miles away from home. And for the record I actually don’t like wfh 🤣

I would have thought more people work from home during the Xmas period regardless of potential travel plans.

@potatocakesinprogress but you’re replying to me referencing the OPs office but whether it’s busy or not is irrelevant as she is not objecting to working.

Before having DC, travelling to see family was important to me so I used to book Christmas Eve off as annual leave as soon as I could. My work were really good about letting me do this.

I don’t think you should be travelling while ‘working from home’.

Wfh over the Christmas holidays is hugely abused by some. Generally my employer is relaxed about wfh in that everyone can do half the week wfh and it's not monitored too closely - except Christmas, they tracked it last year and it was shocking how lax people were with it, so thanks to some we now we have a policy of no wfh at all over the Christmas period, all have to be in the office unless on annual leave and since it's come in I've come across lots of others with similar rules

Christmas Eve is a normal working day. Yabu. Book the time off if you want it off.

Another Christmas Eve, I worked in a call centre. Everyone used public transport as no parking, unless you are a manager. We were expected to finish at normal time on Sundays 5pm. After 1pm, we had no calls coming in - as people were receiving guests, driving to family, getting pissed and got better things to do than to ring a call centre. There were 3-4 other call centres across the UK taking similar calls.

I drove in as the city car parks were free for 5-7 days before Christmas. Plus had to take my ex in early for his work. Stopped off at a hotel on the way and had breakfast buffet.

The head of the call centre where I worked contacted head office explaining that staff are worried missing the last bus or train as the last one was 2-3 hours earlier than normal. They agreed to do this and we left at 2:30pm and divert any calls to the other call centres which majority drove in or carshare.

We got paid the 2.5 hours too.

I was replying to you not the OP.

@potatocakesinprogress but the OP isn’t objecting to working on CE, she just wants to do it from home.

And did you previously work from home and did you need to travel for several hours to visit your family?

It depends on where the OP works....that's why I said it. I work in an office and 4pm will be busy for me.

All the managers working from home but making everyone else come in means that if I did come in, I would be pestering them every 5 minutes.
Would these slackers even know ifvyou weren’t physically in the office?

I worked at branch of a bank in 2003. At the time, there were about 7 other branches of other banks (Streetview shows just 2 now) down the same row of shops. They all closed at 12/12:30pm. We stayed til the normal closing time 4pm and not a single customer turned up. As they presumed we closed early like the others.

I do think the managers should be there if they expect the staff to be.

OMFG has your manager created 20 sock accounts to be a cunt to you on here? It's like a fucking monty python sketch, "back in my day you worked Christmas eve 48 hours for a lump o' coal and were glad of it". Fuck me.

Yes your manager is a bastard if he works from home regularly so he can have long weekends at his holiday home, it's really fucking shitty behaviour that he won't allow a wfh day on Xmas eve if you aren't in an essential services patient/customer facing role.

(I have also worked Christmas eve, Boxing Day and NYD in retail roles in my 20s)

Answer me this OP will he be in on Xmas eve?

And to PPs, she stated she would be travelling after work so assume she would be WFH in Cornwall not whilst travelling. What a mad assumption to make.

Hope you get to have a nice Christmas with your family OP. Sorry your manager is a twat.

Hmm if the managers were going to be in the office then I’d say YABU but because they WFH then I’d say YANBU.

We are asking our team to work in the office as normal on Xmas Eve albeit with an early finish but then managers will be in too.

Mine is technically an office, but a small call centre and we are busy up until we close
People will try ringing us on Boxing Day as well, then ring on the 27th and complain we weren't open for 2 days
NYE is also a fairly busy one

Agree. Squeezing pennies of profit should not come before a people's need to practice their cultural traditions and be with family. I hate what has happened to our countries.

I hate working Christmas Eve and in the last nursery I was at we closed at 6pm Christmas Eve and yes we literally had parents turning up at 5:57pm, mostly parents who had been home all day
And we were open again on the 27th.
People say it's a normal working day but it shouldn't be or at least most places should close around lunchtime.
I'm now a carer for DS so not working out of the home and am so excited about Christmas Eve. We've planned a dvd day of Christmas films and a takeaway.
But yeah it's rubbish having to work Christmas Eve and it's incredibly shit if manager's don't work it (ours used to sneak off about 2pm, then send her DH to pick up their DS up about 5 o clock.)

The emergency services are on duty 24/7/365. Should we all do that?

🤦‍♀️

A little flexibility goes a long way. You won't be flexible in return when he needs a 'favour'.

Part of my work was in an office. It was busy on Christmas Eve.

I used to work in a shop on Bond Street & it was dead by the afternoon if you want anecdotes.

I won't be working on Christmas Eve. I no longer have to. However her employer has every right to expect staff to attend the office if they see fit.

@potatocakesinprogress it doesn’t depend, as I said the majority of offices are not a hive of activity late afternoon on CE.

NB this doesn’t mean every single office…

Part of my work was in an office. It was busy on Christmas Eve.