Working on Good Friday - rather unusual!

[DisabledDemon]

I work as a private English tutor and every year, see an increase in students wanting extra tuition at this time of year (the Mock results are in and a number of students have realised that they need more work if they're going to get the grades they need - panic has set in!).

Covid, of course, contributed to this, as did the teachers' strikes - but this is the first year that I've found myself booked to teach on Good Friday (and not just one student). What on earth is going on?

So according to this link Good Friday is bank holiday in Scotland https://www.gov.scot/publications/bank-holidays/#:~:text=If%20a%20bank%20holiday%20falls,(usually%20the%20following%20Monday).

and I pretty sure it is in Northern Ireland as we have family over this weekend taking advantage of the long weekend. Though I could have assumed and they have just booked it off work.

@DisabledDemon I don’t think a lot of people view Good Friday as the same as a bank holiday Monday. Loads of people in my previous jobs have volunteered to work it, where they wouldn’t if it was a BH Monday.

Of course lots of people could have forgotten. We talked about this at work. Loads of us keep forgetting it’s 2, 4 day weeks coming up.

ha ! That's fine I'm just glad my NHS works as normal .

😂

Stop. It is a BH and you have medical appointments as the NHS runs 365 days a year. You have appointments due to those staff running clinics and working on those days.

The fact that it's a BH is surely irrelevant.

The OP has a tutoring calendar. And someone has booked her.

Had she wanted to not work on the BH, the answer was to not take bookings.

I think it's not a public holiday in Ireland.

It is in the UK though.

I don't think it's surprising that students want tuition when they're off school and close to exams. Apart from Christmas Day, most places operate in some capacity on Bank Holidays, and have done for years. I don't think this is unusual?

I’m self employed and work all bank holidays as I forget they are bank holidays. Students to often decline lessons as they want a free day

My daughter did a teaching placement and the school was open on Easter Monday. I queried it with my friend in the same LA and she said they often had to work Easter Monday if it fell at the end of the two weeks.

Thankfully our LA is off.

Our Scotland offices are open because we get the 2nd January off instead.

They are both BH which is why schools are shut

For those disputing it's a BH in the U.K.

Here's a list of the BH in 2024

🤣🤣

Yes that's correct (about Ireland).

I've worked Good Friday as a standard day be because "It's a bank holiday and this isn't a bank".

I was schooled on the fact only banks have to close on bank holidays and everywhere else it's optional! Clue is in the name I suppose.

From googling it does appear to be a public holiday in the UK.

Who is in charge of taking the bookings @DisabledDemon?

So the school had the Easter holiday and then opened on the actual Easter bank holiday?

And it often happened?

Never in all my years have I ever heard of a school being open on a bank holiday.

Yeah I agree! I’m in Scotland and it’s peak time for tutors etc! Exams are just around the corner!

I don’t think it’s unusual at all to work Good Friday! I’m a retail manager in a seaside town. Bank holiday weekend means we’re very busy so I’m working Fri/Sat/Sun/Mon over Easter weekend!

i work in the NHS too and where I work it’s a bank holiday. We have no elective surgery listed and our outpatient department is closed… just like bank holiday Monday. Obviously the urgent and acute carries on as normal. But less staff in places like radiology cos it’s a bank holiday! Banks are closed.

Shops are open every bank holiday!

But is still listed as a bank holiday on the Scottish gov website. So while people, might, work it’s a BH.

Another here who works in healthcare. It’s never been a day off. In fact I was convinced it wasn’t an actual bank holiday until a couple of days ago (but according to gov.UK it is)

Surely it's irrelevant whether it's a bank holiday or not ( as clearly the population of MN can't agree either).

You are a self employed private tutor that presumably sets their own working hours. Either you work or you don't. Nothing to do with whether the "banks" are open or not

I remember giving birth to DD on a Good Friday and DP was really chuffed because he had pulled into a prime parking space right outside the main entrance, intending to go back and move the car to the proper car park once he’d dropped me off at maternity unit reception . But the security guard said it was fine, he could leave the car in the spot all day because it was a bank holiday and nobody else would need the space.

Think DP was more chuffed about that than the birth itself, he never stops relaying that story.

If you’re a tutor can you decline the work? I imagine it’s a difficult day to work for a lot of people. If not working most people are busy either with church or family commitments.

DD.tutor messaged me to offer a session on good Friday. I would probably have said yes of we didn't have plans as she enjoys the sessions and gets a lot from them.

I have one Saturday and one Sunday appointment with doctors at my local hospital. By your definition, they aren’t weekend days.

People do not get good Friday off all over the UK maybe the banks do as they do tend to follow English holidays . It's not a public holiday where I live fgs .

Where do you live? @donteatthedaisies0

Good Friday is a UK wide bank holiday.

Easter Monday is in England, Wales and NI. But it is not a public holiday in Scotland.