Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2

Original poster

AIBU to think this employee has no right to be complaining about 'working christmas'

40 replies

MortifiedAnyFuckerAdams · 03/12/2013 21:09

One co-worker is muttering and huffing about 'working Christmas'. I use ' ' because working = 9-4 Christmas Eve, off Christmas Day and Boxing Day, in the interim days (9-4) off NYD.

To add, our business and industry is 24 hr 356 days per week and this employees department is the only one which operates on traditional office hours.

OP posts:

Pendeen · 04/12/2013 01:30

Shame!

I am self employed and give myself two weeks leave at Christmas!

But, I am also an officer in the Royal Navy Reserve so sometimes I do not have a choice...

kali110 · 04/12/2013 03:20

Yanbu at all. She should count herself lucky.
In 11 years iv only ever had 1 ce off. I would consider 9-4 great hours as that would be early!
Some people dont get the luxury of having christmas off she shouldnt be moaning about it to her collagues who have to work.

HerlockSholmes · 04/12/2013 05:24

YANBU, if they were working christmas day they are entitled to a bit of a moan about it but they have that and boxing day off so they should suck it up.

MidniteScribbler · 04/12/2013 05:29

To me "working christmas" would be Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Since when did Christmas become a week long public holiday?

grumpyoldbat · 04/12/2013 05:45

I too don't understand the moan about working Christmas Eve. It's a normal working day isn't it? Being a bit disappointed about working the public holidays I get though. I think the only times I have had Christmas Eve off is when it's fallen on a Sunday and that's going back to before I worked in a 24/7 365 industry.

I bet she'd moan about shops being closed or closing early.

VivaLeBeaver · 04/12/2013 07:18

Xmas eve is an ordinary day. When I had an office job we always used to work it. I used to love it, we'd wait for the word to be allowed to finish early. As soon as the boss gave the nod we'd be off to the pub. It was a great atmosphere.

Yanbu, if they want the day off then they take a days leave.

Perfectlypurple · 04/12/2013 07:42

To me working Christmas is actually working Christmas day. I am working Christmas day, boxing day, new years eve and new years day. Im not happy as its not eeven my turn but I have to make the best of it.

Lonecatwithkitten · 04/12/2013 07:49

I am ignoring -my business is a 24/7 business so someone has to work there are 4 of us last year A,B and C worked CD, BD and NYD. D was off, this year D is working CD and then C, BD, finally B NYD. A doesn't have holiday day this year.
D is making a huge drama about how she is getting no Christmas.

iliketea · 04/12/2013 08:04

hmmmm - it depends on this employee's circumstances whether YABU or not.

I'm off work 24th and 25th this year. But my family are 8 hours away, and I'm struggling with the fact Dd won't see her grandparents at christmas for the 4th year in a row, unless we drive for 8hrs each way over 2days (no flights on Christmas day).

So while everyone thinks it's marvellous I've got 2 days off, in fact it's just making me feel even more sad and homesick than I did before.

Yes, it's my choice to live here, but it doesn't mean I'm delighted about the situation.

Maybe the employer who's complaining is in a similar situation?

IamInvisible · 04/12/2013 08:16

DS1 was told he is working Christmas Eve in the job where his contracted hours are Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I expect the people he works with think it's ok because he's a young lad, living at home so therefore has no prepping to do, etc.

The thing is, I could have really done with him at home. DH went away in September and won't be back until January, I am disabled and need the help and it is DS2's birthday. He hasn't said anything at work, but has grumbled at home.

My dad always worked Christmas as a fireman when we were kids, it wasn't too bad, really.

TheCrackFox · 04/12/2013 08:28

Realistically working in hotels and getting Christmas Day off is pretty amazing.

Maybe next year she will get the time off she wants, in the meantime, try and stuff her face full of mince pies so she won't be able to moan quite so much.

Floggingmolly · 04/12/2013 08:32

I've worked in the Hotel industry. Those hours sound fine (relatively); she's in the wrong job if she's that pissed off.

PointyChristmasFairyWand · 04/12/2013 09:08

She's BU. She isn't working Christmas. Like lots of people, me included, she is working the week around Christmas. Which is a perfectly normal thing to do.

Where I work (NHS, but office) we have a rule that someone has to be in the office on normal working days. So I'm working the week around Christmas including Christmas Eve covering our admin as well as my work, and the week after our admin is doing the reverse, on the understanding that I am a phone call away if there is a major IT crisis because that isn't her field. It's fine.

I love working around Christmas, it is so quiet that you can get all the things done that you would normally not have time for. And of course there are stacks of chocolate in the staffroom .

RainbowCake · 04/12/2013 09:11

FutTheShuckUp
I can see how it seems selfish with me saying not my shifts, but I did offer to share or do some splits on the Christmas shifts.
I think it is winding me up a bit more as I have swapped shifts already to mainly late weekends so the other girls can have a social life ( oh they were the days!) I'll do earlys for them if they know they are going to have a late one and possibly be hung over.

I'm very flexible with my colleagues ( hmm walk over maybe!) so yes it does grate when I am told I have to so it is fair.

ApprenticeViper · 04/12/2013 10:04

She's BU to complain, as she is most definitely not "working Christmas", although she is obviously in on the days that aren't public holidays. If she wanted to be off 21 Dec to 4 Jan she should have booked leave, unless of course she was off all last year's festive period, in which case it's only fair that she's working.

I'm very lucky in that we get given an extra three days' annual leave which have to be taken between Christmas and New Year, so our office closes on Christmas Eve (usually at about 2pm) and doesn't re-open until 2 January. It has cut out all the arguments about who should work, who worked last year, why such-and-such can't work on New Year's Eve, etc., although I understand this wouldn't work for every industry.

Flip

1 2