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

The 24th is also a working day. I do think it's a pain but add it to the list of totally pointless things we need to do to earn a living.

The 6 plus hours (minimum) of travelling that is outside work hours that she isn’t paid for or reimbursed for and the short notice

You could be really sneaky. Text someone to say that the taxi didn't turn up and you'll be on a later train. Dang that train was cancelled.

I'd check the cost of train tickets on train line add in any other expenses and deduct it from a days net salary. Still looking good?

I get that it may seem alot of effort but you are getting paid for it, are getting updated about the company you work for and having some down time with colleagues. And, you get to have time off over Christmas.

I work as a private self employed carer in the community and if I dont work I dont get paid. I also dont get paid for time taken or the cost of any training courses I have to take.

Dont get me wrong, I love my job and the people I work with - otherwise I wouldnt have done this for last 13 years. They really make it worthwhile, and I have to say its the most fulfilling job Ive ever done.

But, I will be working Christmas Eve, Christmas Day (8.00 am - 7 pm & believe me there have been years when its 6.45 am - 10.30 pm so Im counting myself lucky), Boxing Day, New Years etc etc. I work every day through the year unless Im on holiday.

Even my 'weekends off' are just ones where Im working in the mornings & have the afternoons & evenings free.

I get it that in the lead up to Christmas its nice to have abit of give to get everything ready, but at the end of the day its your job & you are getting paid to go. Why is it a problem?

Clearly OP is not experiencing this as a treat! But I doubt that the employer arranged it just to piss everyone off and ruin their Christmas. The intention was probably to provide a way for colleagues to celebrate together and get to know each other a bit better, and being up for it would be taken as a sign of a team player who wanted to do well in the company and likely to advance.
I guess that being asked to travel in non-working hours is unusual in this company, since it has come as a shock that only 2 hours TOIL will be given for a 6 hour journey. In the jobs I've had, travelling time has rarely been paid so I wouldn't be particularly surprised. But there's no doubt that it's a long way to go for a day trip and hopefully it will only happen once a year.

Friday like any other

Just book a date leave?

What's Black eye Friday?

Agree you’re getting a hard time because of the title of your thread it's not the real issue

i live in greater Manchester and my aim is not going anywhere near town until January. Travelling anywhere by road or public transport is an absolute nightmare

my job involves travel, it's in my contract. There is no way I'd agree to be somewhere that far away for 9am and expect to travel back to get in late that wasn’t anything business critical especially just before Christmas Eve (and yes I know that’s not the issue but it does factor into the discussions)

It’s not a treat or Op probably wouldn’t be here complaining about it. The employers know it’s not a treat either and that’s why they’ve essentially forced employees to attend by threatening them with no career profession if they take the day off.

Her usual workplace location is a 15 minute drive. On the 23rd she has to leave about 5 or 6am to get there for 9am then the same trip back while probably fighting Christmas traffic AND she’s not getting the travel expenses reimbursed. She’ll likely be exhausted and out of pocket.

How is that a treat?

I’ll never forget the year I had 3 zero hour contracts where I really did get zero hours. Awful.

Swings and roundabouts, innit?!
I think teacher friends are lucky to have the long summer holidays but on the flip side, I know I am lucky I can book leave during most of the year, whenever I want but within reason.
My work place is under pressure at Christmas so we don’t always get the time off, as requested, but I’m fortunate enough to receive a decent salary which compensates.

Yes indeed.

That's really shitty, and so is the vanity project shindig on the 23rd.

If I were you I'd be looking for another job.

On your marks and get set for the race to the bottom...

I think you have to tell us what awful company this is! It's very late to be only introducing this company day if you were originally told you were finishing on Friday 20th. What if people have unmovable plans by now? Fine to declare Mon 23rd as a normal working day which it is for many people but not if you have been told differently until now.

If it's going to take you three hours to get there and this is a nationwide company there must be people coming from even further away who will have no option but to stay overnight or drive all night - and you say there are no travel expenses! That's pretty outrageous.

Just ask them for expenses, and say that you can’t afford to pay the extra travel and overnight ( so you can get there in time in the morning.). Because you are really looking forward to it, but you just can’t manage the extra unexpected expense, especially so near Christmas.

Don't work a job where you have to work Xmas if you're bitter about it.

Quite. She should be paying for the privilege 😳

Thank ya lucky stars you get a Xmas break unlike some off us!!

Why do you think you need to be off the day before Xmas Eve? It’s not a holiday, so just take it as annual leave 🤷‍♀️

Exactly.

These types of threads always have the same types crawling out their manager's arseholes to witter on about how they would do this with no questions asked and how dare anyone else complain! People just don't want to work nowadays!

It's easy to tell others to do it when you're not the one being told to.

Whilst it's not a legal requirement for a company to pay travel expenses, it's good practice to do so and the fact that they're not and expecting a 6-hour commute to have what amounts as forced fun so close to Christmas too (when it's going to be very busy) is very unreasonable of the employer.

They absolutely can make this request and aren't being unreasonable in expecting you to work on this day-however, from a morale standpoint-they're really not doing a lot to boost it, are they?

It would be one thing if they said they were covering the travel expenses for this day of delightful forced fun (can you tell I hate this type of shit?) and paying overtime/giving time back in lieu-then it would fall into a reasonable request.

But to expect employees to pay out of their own pocket to travel 6 hours to play games and "enjoy" snacks isn't reasonable at all. The issue isn't that it's so close to Christmas. That's a red herring, I think. Ultimately, the 23rd is a normal working day and yes, they can expect you to work it-but is it really reasonable to expect employees to do this with zero reimbursement from the company?

What I'd be doing is totting up how much it's going to cost me to get there and back in fuel and time and then how much I'd be expecting in pay for that day-and then making my decision from there whether I can afford to lose the day's pay or not.

But your employer doesn't sound all that good, if I'm honest.

We always had TOIL offered.

Ahhhh Ok that makes sense. Well that’s a new one on me 😃