AIBU to think my colleague is being ridiculous?

[matchpoint]

I work in your bog-standard office job-Monday to Friday, 9-5pm. I will be working Christmas Eve, as it is a normal working day, as will my colleagues.

One colleague is moaning to anyone who will listen about how unfaiirrrrr it is that she has to work on Christmas Eve and therefore can't spend the day with her children. Because Christmas is "all about the children!" and it's "soooo sad not spending Christmas Eve with your children".

My DH is working a 12.5 hour shift Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. (he is a nurse) and we have two young DDs. I was also a nurse (left the profession though), and am sick and tired of people thinking they have an automatic right to Christmas off because they have young children.

WIBU to tell her to go do one?

We have to accept it, yeah.

We don't have to like it though.

YANBU.

I considered myself lucky because the year I started working shifts was the year it became illegal for my sector to work Christmas Day. I used to work 3pm to 1am on Christmas Eve and be grateful for it!

I had 5 minutes off on Christmas day and was grateful for it.

^We have to accept it, yeah.

We don't have to like it though^

No, but constant whinging like the colleague in the OP just gets everyone down. There's no need for it. None of us like it, we have to get on and make th best of it . Or get another job

We had to work down t' pit 27 hours a day.

YANBU.

Surely, if it's a bog standard office, she had the option of taking annual leave? Whining about it just annoys all the other people who're going to be working then too. Nobody likes having to be at work over Christmas.

I like a good moan at work TBH.

So they didn't care that they couldn't be with their children on Christmas day then?

There's have a good moan and then there's constantly complaining. We all want to be home for Christmas, but either accept it with good grace and a little whinge or don't at all. It gets moral down at a time when its already low.

What morale is low in Christmas Eve?

Surely not.

Everyone just loves working at Christmas, I mean fancy wanting to be with your children.

I love to work Christmas morning. The boss always gives me an extra candle and a small chicken wing for tiny tims tea.

In pop in for 15 seconds with it before going back in for the night.

15 seconds? your boss spoils you, Pickled

She works in a feckin office! Xmas is the same goddamn date every year she could have planned her holiday to have this date off. No u would not be bu to tell her to "do one" and damn well suck it up be-atch!

I say this with an office workers background. U want it, u book it, that simple. Grrrr!

I dare say if she had booked it off, her sense of entitlement would have sent shock waves around the office.

I know usual i am pretty lucky I would never dare moan about it.

Like everyone says I could have asked for a half an hour annual leave.

Usualsock -what point are you trying to make?

Sarcasm on here is pathetic. No-one is saying we shouldn't like to have it off, but constant bitching about it is pointless and makes it worse for everyone. Just shut up, suck it up or leave.

I think it's pretty obvious really.

The competitive working at Christmas is making me laugh.

"Shut up, suck it up, or leave"

Maybe get some banners done?

It's not competitive at all its people expressing that you're not the only people in the world who have to work Christmas. It's pretty common now and wether we like it or not it needs to be done.

Piles are a fact of life but if I get em I can tell you now I'm going to moan.

Banners are a good idea.

I'm sick to death of people moaning about it. We're all in the same boat. We knew what we were getting into when we took the jobs. It really gets you down when someone's constantly complaining.

OK serious now, I don't think the OPs colleague is being unreasonable to want to spend time with her children on Christmas eve.

I don't tend to suck things up and shut up about them either.