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

Being “the day before Christmas Eve” is irrelevant unfortunately. The only non-working days are 25th and 26th, this is two days before. The equivalent of not wanting to do something work-related on a Thursday because you don’t work on Saturdays.

If you don’t want to go and don’t want to lose pay can you not just take the day as annual leave?

Could you be any more patronising?

I think this is a time to focus on the bigger picture rather than the finer details op.

I get where you’re coming from and why you’re annoyed. It sounds like poor communication and high handed management and those could be solid reasons for taking a stand, or dusting off your CV.

It’s important to understand that real life isn’t about who’s right and wrong, or what’s fair and just and sometimes you have to suck it up when you’re not in a position to make a difference. I’m assuming that you’re fairly young - that first Christmas holiday is the worst! just don’t react from an emotional place, without thinking it through.

Do you want to stay in this company and progress? What are your long term goals? Working crap hours and travelling at unreasonable times are pretty much the standard job conditions of high earners. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with aspiring to work standard hours in a steady, secure job either. Or if you’d like to progress in the union, leading the revolution is one way to get noticed.

It sounds like your time off is quite generous in the greater scheme of things. You could leave and get a similar job and be working til 6 on Christmas Eve, or competing with more senior staff for Christmas Day.

No way would I do that journey and the extra hours just before Christmas. I reckon I’d call in sick if I wasn’t in a union that could support me.

That would annoy me, to be expected to drive so far, especially just before Christmas, only to attend something that could just as easily be covered in a video or livestream. It's the type of thing that would be fine if everyone lived in the same general area but simply makes no sense when you have people scattered far and wide.

I suppose you don't have much choice, really, unless you're not planning to stay with the company.

What a shame you'll come down with D&V on Sunday night and can't make it.
Take a sickie because they are more than taking the absolute piss!

Presumably you also need to factor in time for delays, parking and waking there so would actually need to leave at 5ish.

google maps is currently saying that Morpeth to Manchester is 3 hours and 20 minutes drive and this is outside of any rush hour period

Can you get there by train instead? I can see that the driving close to Christmas is annoying as the traffic could be worse than normal.

Otherwise I agree with others that it’s a normal working day and you should expect to work. But I think adding in time to travel is a bit inconsiderate.

But you chose a job involving that travel.

this has been sprung on the op at short notice. I don’t know if she does, but if she needs childcare for this it’s not going to be easy to find.

I think you should start a mutiny, OP.

Your employers are being unreasonable.

It starts at 9am?!?! So leaving the house at 6? Are they having a laugh. Or you've the expense of accommodation the night before! They've really not considered this at all. Push back on the basis of unreasonable travel/expense that will not be covered by a 2 hour early finish in January.

I have absolutely no time for management who just push ahead with ridiculous ideas without consideration for anyone else's time/spending priorities.

You've completely missed the 6 hours travel issue....

Op - what are your colleagues' feelings around this?

I drive 2hrs to work and 2 hrs home every-time I'm in the office so at least twice a week and that will be the 23rd and 24th.
When I was a library manager we were open Christmas Eve until 5pm every year and I had to be there to close up.
Many thousands of people from nurses, to care staff to soldiers to airport staff will all be working Christmas Day!

You have a company close down over Christmas many companies do not. Be thankful you have what you have and go to the Christmas "do" or don't go and face a disciplinary for refusing to work the choice is yours

it's December, it gets dark early. I guess your car has lights. Sorry to sound flippant but I find it an odd thing to say. It's absolutely normal to drive after sunset. cars and roads are built to facilitate that.

But it’s not a normal work day that she is expected to do. It is significantly longer due to travel time, she is being told about it at short notice and she is going to be incurring a large travel expense that she is not getting reimbursed for.

Your husband is a rarity that's for sure.

Most men over 60 have prostate issues and yes, it's a medical problem. I said so. All his friends are the same.

Not getting paid travel expenses!?! They can fuck right off then.

So does the OP have medical issues? Most adults can go 3 hrs without the loo. My husband's nearly 80 and he still can.

@blinddoorshyt
Start looking for another job now.

You're well placed for a job in Morpeth or even Newcastle.

Not sure where you are based but from your posts you're either in posh Ponteland or Cramlington or a smaller town on the coast.

There will be other shops who are better to work for.

It's a normal working day but I agree it's rather close to Christmas for lengthy travel for work purposes and sounds impractical in this day and age.

Instead of forking out for this event give everyone a bonus or another day off, and do the meeting on Zoom.

For one thing they usually start doing engineering works on the trains and there could be bad weather.

I wouldn't mind going per se if the journey is not too bad- as others say it might be a bit of a jolly. But not if I'm going to risk being stuck several hours away from home just before Christmas.

Spot on - the ones at the top are laughing all the way to the bank as it’s been mission accomplished from their POV. A race to the bottom indeed.

But were you expected to drive for 6-7 hours across country in winter, so close to Xmas, for a mince pie?

Totally and utterly ridiculous idea from the owners of this store.

I think the main issue here is that the work OP does (shop asst) does not normally require this amount of travel or use of her personal time.

It's usually senior managers who are expected to travel these distances for important meetings, but they are rewarded by bigger salaries.

If someone is on the minimum wage they should not be expected to drive for 6+ hours, the evening before Xmas eve, for a sausage roll and a pep talk.

My guess is this company will not survive very long because they management seem tone deaf in terms of their staff.

Bathroom shops come and go very quickly- look at the Bath Store and Soak- here today, gone tomorrow.

I worked Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day in my previous profession.

Changed jobs and became self employed. Now I take the whole of December off and most of January.

This sounds perfectly fine to me. Part and parcel of the job.

My previous employer would always tell everyone to stop work and come and enjoy a mince pie and some brandy at about 11:30am let everyone go home at 12:30pm on Christmas Eve but if you wanted the day off you would have to take a full day rather than a half-day, which always seemed a bit unfair but the fact of the matter is that you are contractually expected to work that day and instead of making you work they are putting on a bit of a shindig. YABU to moan about it. And the company is perfectly reasonable to say that anyone who moans or skives off will not be considered for progression - I wouldn't want people who can't participate in such a thing to be in a senior rolw under me either.

The one thing that you are mildly reasonable to be miffed about is if you were clearly told that you could have that monday off for free. But I don't think you were - I think you were told that the shops would be shut that day, which is not the same thing.

You have the right to a set number of paid days off per year, but the employer is fully entitled to decree when those days off are, and requiring you to take some of them on days convenient to themselves is perfectly normal and not something to gripe about, nor is having a company meeting on a day when all the branches are going to be shut anyway - it sounds very sensible to me as otherwise it would be impossible to get everyone together without losing business.