to think that that employees with small dc huold have preference on having xmas eve off work?

[pippylongstockings]

I work in an office with over 15 employees - 4 of us have young DC ranging from 11 to 2 years old - Surely at christmas it is not being unreasonable to think that the minority of 4 could have Christmas Eve off work?

BUT No, it is done on a random lottery - why ?

Honestly, I feel christmas is for the children and working til 4pm on xmas eve is not a happy place to be if you have kids at home waiting for you.

Waves to all the nurses on the thread

I always work Xmas day because I'm Muslim, so it's not a special day to me.

However, YABU, finishing at 4pm sounds lovely.

I had to laugh at this thread. I usually work 8am - 1pm on a Friday (which will be Christmas Eve), but I just saw my manager and volunteered myself to do the 8am - 5pm so someone with small children could have the afternoon off.

Well it beats picking up the mil and driving 160 miles (dh will have to do it himself).

YABU. 4pm isn't very late .I have 3 dds aged 23.20 and 18. Christmas Eve is family time with MIL, We always go out for lunch with her. I have worked some Christmas eves but have others off. Where I work now we take turns.

YAB so U
Ive just had my first dc and would still support equal entitlement to Christmas off regardless of family situ

Ive had to put up with the odd coworker who thinks their family is a get out of jail free card where the child-free workers can pick up the slack.

YABU. DH will finish work at 10pm at the earliest Christmas eve (probably later so pissed up twat will stab someone or something like that and DH will end up working late), because that's the way his shift rota falls. He's lucky that he has Christmas day off this year, as it's actually a holiday. Christmas eve isn't a holiday. DH is then working Boxing day and New Year's Day.

I'm feeling quite sorry for you OP! It seems to me that you have an idea in your head of what a perfect Christmas is and being with your family on Christmas eve is part of that. That's perfectly fair.

I think it is unreasonable to expect to be given the time off because you have children for much the same reasons that many other people have put here.

However, have you tried talking to your colleagues about it? In my old job (in a frontline service) there were two women out of the seven in my team with young children and I would always informally agree with them that I would cover Christmas eve but they would do new years day. Simply because Christmas eve didn't matter to me but did to them.

If you can't reach a compromise with your colleagues then remember that 4pm is still early and you can still have a lovely night with your children. Good luck.

Is working til 4pm on Christmas Eve really that much of a problem? You still get to be home for tea, and bedtime!

I have a young dd and many of the people where I work do not. However, I realise that they also have commitments; as someone else said - loved ones on leave from Afgan, elderly parents, sick relatives etc. This year I have Xmas and New Year off, next year I will be doing full 12 hr night shifts on Xmas Eve, Xmas day, Boxing day and New yrs Eve.... now that's tough!

YABU - especially as it's only til 4pm!

YANBU-Christmas Eve is a lovely time for dc and the people with under 10s should automatically have the day off and the others can have a lottery.

Pranma, that is just wrong and unfair. You can't say people with children have more entitlement to a day off than anyone else.

Do you think it's fair that people who don't have children have to work every christmas eve so those with children can be at home!?

YABU and a bit silly. Of course a lottery is the fairest way. The people you work with who don't have children presumably still have lives and relatives too.

A lottery is only fair in the sense that no-one gets the time off they want

Pranma, what about those who have to travel long distances, on public transport, so they can spend time with their families at christmas. Why should they have to work every christmas and then spend the day itself alone?

YAB totally U. You can't expect preferential treatment because you have children........pretty silly of you to think that you should.

What about all the parents out there who will have to work Christmas Day, never mind Christmas Eve? Thank goodness our doctors/nurses/firefighters/police officers etc don't think the way you do!!

I used to pack up DH, DS and myself to travel across the country on public transport to spend Xmas through to New Year with my elderly widowed mother. Why is she less important than a toddler?

YABU!
I am just about to do the Christmas rota for my 30 staff, the majority of whom have children. I dread the job all year round.
Some mutter that they shouldn't have to work Christmas Eve / Day as they have young children but I have to consider everyone's work/life balance and do not believe that parents should automatically get priority.

Waves to GothAnnGeddes ## Do you want a job on my ward? I'm desperate to cover Christmas day!

Maybe you should book Xmas Eve as part of your annual leave if it is so important.

YABU - maybe those with no children have elderly/sick relatives they need to get to/collect/look after. Everyone can make a case for special treatment - only fair way is to make sure no one gets it.

You can't at my work. Xmas and new year weeks can't be booked as annual leave as we need to keep the place staffed so no-one is allowed more than a couple of days off. Everyone gets the 4 bank holidays.

"Maybe you should book Xmas Eve as part of your annual leave if it is so important. "

Isn't that what we're discussing? I've had the whole thread tell me I'm totally unreasonable for doing this!

Can't believe this is still going btw!

gaelic It depends if other people would be allowed to book it off as annual leave as well if they wanted, or if you'd be the only person allowed?

I think it's reasonable if you are someone with no childcare options as it must be difficult to get childcare on Christmas Eve. I used to be a nurse, and worked regularly on Christmas Eve/Day which was only ok because DH was there to look after the kids (impossible now as my disabled son is too challenging - hence I am no longer a nurse). Otherwise, it would have been almost impossible as my family aren't known for being very hands on and live quite a distance away.

Depends on your situation really. Some of your childless colleagues may be carers for relatives, so priority would be difficult to sort out.

Perhaps you could think of something especially nice to do with the kids when you get home so they have something lovely to look forward to

Sorry, but although I sympathise your employer can't do anything else - to choose people without children could be construed as discriminatory.

parental sense of entitlement pisses people off,and rightly so.all requests on individual merit

nappyaddict - in all my responses I was envisaging the scenario I have always worked with, which is that anyone is allowed annual leave at any time, but somebody in each team is expected to be in the office. This applies all year round, not just at Christmas. With 200 odd working days to go at, we've never had problems organising annual leave under these conditions. And when you know that nothing will come up that can't wait, our team's view is that if there's no one there, then that's just tough. All the managers are always off anyway.

If the general rule, for whatever reason, is no leave over Xmas, then I would not advocate parents being exempted from that. I've never worked on a rota system like the OP so I don't know how that works wrt annual leave.

Christmas isn't for children, it's for Christians. I think Christians should get priority time off. YABU, DH hasn't been home over Christmas (various days and nights) since DS1 was born.