To think we shouldn't have to work the day before Christmas Eve?

I’ve not read the full thread (got bored of all the repetition by page 5!)

surely the answer to this completely depends on what @blinddoorshyt ‘s contract says and then whether or not they already have booked annual leave for Monday 23rd December.

we can all says it’s too far to travel, company should be paying, etc etc but without knowing the t&c’s of their employment it’s all just an opinion.

Read the updates. They not covering the expenses!

Whether they want to or not. They still agree to it as it’s apart of their vocation and they can choose another one if they don’t want to work them.
And again if you read the updates, the Op isn’t having issue with working, it’s the over 6 hours of travel, outside of the work hours without any financial compensation.

It would be reasonable to expect you to work at your usual place of a work on a working day.

It’s totally unreasonable to expect to you to add 6 hours unpaid to your working day, and to expect you to fund those travel expenses yourself. I would be seeking advice about whether this is even legal.

Not worth it OP. Get HR involved.

I don’t think it’s unreasonable to work on 23rd but I do think it’s unreasonable being expected to drive for 6 hours, if my travel expenses were paid for a train that’s different

Am I the only one who had to Google black eye Friday? Never heard of it before 😂😂

I suspect they know a lot of people won’t want to come if they’ve mandated it like this.While they may not have deliberately set out to annoy people, it sounds like at the very least the boss insisted on this event and didn’t take into consideration the adverse impact it would have on employees.

“Team player” should not equal accepting poor treatment although I accept that unfortunately in corporate speak many
companies essentially behave as if that’s what being a “team player” amounts to.

No - we’re not talking about traveling time being paid. Well I’m not anyway. Travel expenses refers to being reimbursed for the train fare or the petrol an employee will need to use. OP is not getting travel expenses. This is unusual and outrageous especially so close to Christmas.

I’ve said upthread, I travel to my head office sometimes which is 2.5 hours away from my local office and that’s fine - I get travel expenses. However they wouldn’t ask me or any of us to do it so close to Christmas.

I live just outside Manchester (30 mins on train) and as good as the shopping is there even I wouldn’t be traveling there that week , the traffic and public transport is going to be horribly jam packed.

You are being unreasonable for using the term “picky food”. If you use the word “pud” I would say you should me made to work Christmas Eve too. If you call vegetables “veggies” you should never get another day off!

Nothing cunning about it - I just misunderstood the time she had to be there by!

If you read all her posts she explains more. Her expenses aren't paid. I doubt she'd be objecting to a normal work day.

Doubt you can. It would be classed as travelling to your place of work. Carers for example can only claim from second call of the day as first is classed as travelling to work. Same for last call of the day hence why many try to request first and last calls near their home addresses.

I can't see how this is going to work as if some people are driving 3 hours each way they will only have an hour, hour and a half in the office there. Some people won't drive ( I wouldn't be a passenger on a journey that length) and choose to take public transport. That will take longer.

Apart from that, it is a work day.

She didn’t say travelling expenses were not paid, just that she had to travel.

In relation to comparing essential services.. you do know, don’t you, that NO NHS worker wants to work at this time of year. we sign up because it’s a vocation that overrides working conditions, for the benefit of people like you and the op.

The OP’s terms and conditions are to work on this non Christmas day.

Buffets are horrible though. Beige meaty food and the meat eaters steal the few veggie bits.

It would have been a reasonable expectation if they gave you plenty of notice and paid your travel expenses.

Leading you to believe it wasn't a working day asked then changing their minds is not on. What if you'd booked to go on a foreign holiday over Christmas?.

And not paying expenses? Very unfair. I think it's worth approaching them about this, including showing how much the train fare would cost.

If you don't want to progress in the company, maybe weigh up the difference between one day's earnings, and the cost of travelling. It's possible that the return train fare is actually more than a day's earnings!

If you're hoping for promotion, I don't think you have much choice.

Is this your first job? I'm going to assume so.
"having Christmas off" in retail means Xmas day and Boxing Day - and there's plenty of people who don't get that perk.

Having a team build event in Manchester where you'll actually find out what's happening, what to expect in the future etc is a good thing. This shows your company treats its employees well. You may not be interested in doing any more than bare minimum, but some of your colleagues will be and they'll probably get a lot from the day.

You sound immature, unambitious and weirdly entitled. Your description of "black eye Friday" says it all.

If you're a leader, it would be worth having a really good look at how your staff really feel about these awful team building days.

It’s not costing the Op nothing though. It’s costing her either petrol or a train ticket which could be potentially the same amount she’d earn for the day anyway and over 6 hours of just travel.
Its also unfair to compare working in a bathroom store to essential services, they understand and agree to those working conditions

You sound very bitter and generalise about management, who here, are clearly trying to ‘include’ and build their team within the company. I’d be interested to know your working background because it sounds like you are neither a leader, or a team player.

I’m guessing that they have calculated the holiday allowance to take account of Christmas.

So they’re e.g. probably told that they get 28 days holiday, but three of those are the Christmas/new year bank holidays, so they probably get 25 days normal holiday but the way it’s written is likely confusing.

Yawn. The “think of all the <insert people who don’t have a choice> line is getting tedious.

Yes it’s really unfortunate that in some professions you are required to work over Christmas. But presumably you realise that before heading off to med school?

And no the OP’s expenses aren’t covered, she’s expected to drive three hours to Manchester and then three hours back again and will be getting two hours in lieu for that. If it was some dull corporate event they had to go to the office to you may have a point, but it isn’t.

Do you mean actual Christmas day and boxing day come out of your allowance. These are bank holidays and I would have thought these would be allocated separately. Any other day would normally come out of your allowance. I agree, it's ridiculous asking you to do that just before Christmas your clearly won't want to do it so why force people

Are you having to drive 3 hours to arrive at your normal start time, @blinddoorshyt ?

It isn't a race to the bottom! So because someone else might have to work Xmas then OP should just lose hours of her own time and ££ that she won't get back in petrol costs?!

Maybe those in the NHS should just suck it up and be ecstatic to be working because some people in other countries are in a war zone.

people can have a whine about their situation and get advice without having to consider others who have it worse.

I'd take the day off unpaid, if you go it will likely cost you more in petrol, time unpaid and general effort and faff than if you didn't get paid.

Then I'd use that unpaid day to polish up my CV and job hunting to get out of that place as fast as possible

I used to work retail and only manager ever had to travel for company meet ups, us sales staff never had to go anywhere unless we were asked to cover a shop in the next town over (never more than an hour away)