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Original poster

About non-essential shops being open on boxing day

292 replies

NayrusWisdom7 · 26/12/2014 13:12

Just that I am sick and tired of christmas being ruined every year by having to work Christmas Eve and Boxing Day. The sales may be all well and good but someone has to give up their day to make it happen! I think if stores are to be open at all on boxing day they should be subject to sunday trading hours of 1-6 only. I'm sure fellow retail workers will agree.. Or maybe I'm just bitter?

OP posts:
Celticlass2 · 26/12/2014 17:59

Mean You really just have to suck up the fact that people work on Christmas Day if they are in particular areas of employment.
I like Christmas, but I know many people who for various reasons are at best indifferent to it.
it's just a day after all. No need to get so hung up about a particular date on the calendar.

Nightboattocairo · 26/12/2014 18:00

I very much doubt she saves all her moaning just for Christmas; I'm sure she has a good old rant at Easter, Sunday's, sunny summer days & the like. You just know it, don't you!

ilovesooty · 26/12/2014 18:02

Hope your daughter feels better now Tough. I've worked in retail as a student and I'd have been upset to have been treated like that.

Nightboattocairo · 26/12/2014 18:03

Rogue apostrophe, I blame the iPad.

DastardlyDachshund · 26/12/2014 18:03

Well you see ilovesooty included amongst those utterly selfish people are my aunt and uncle and my sister in law. You know, the ones by definition are in a family, mine! Why isn't it utterly selfish may I ask? In a scenario where businesses were shut on only 4 days a year (New Years day, Easter Sunday, Christmas day and Boxing day) people would be without 'social contact' for no longer than 2 days in a row. Can people really not cope for that long? Does gong to a bookshop and speaking to a random stranger really help that much? In the case of a pp who'd had a marriage breakdown so took their mum out for a meal, what would they have done had nowhere been open those days? Coped I expect. Maybe done the meal round their mums house instead.

You either view the day as special and as such should appreciate it may be special to others as well and help facilitate them not working on those days too by not using a service.

Or

You don't give a monkeys about the day and don't give a monkeys that others may not want to be there serving you or that they had no choice in the matter.

I suppose you could view the day as special but also not give a monkeys about anyone else's opinion on the matter and just do as you like. But is this not utterly selfish?

Agree that shops should open if they have enough staff volunteering to do so and close if they do not. But sadly the majority of companies allow no such freedom for their employees.

lemisscared · 26/12/2014 18:05

i have never understood the next sale - generally their stuff is ok (ish) but some real bloody tatt comes out for the sale...its a bit like the stuff in the factory outlets. it actually says on the label its designed for the outlet hops that its shit

not relevant to thread at as ll but even so.

hugoagogo · 26/12/2014 18:06

I remember when everything shut on a sunday and we were all supposed to spend the day with our families, go to church and so on.

Now we have the freedom to do what we like on a sunday and I look forward to the day when christmas is the same and people aren't pressured into behaving a certain way just because of outdated social conventions.

ilovesooty · 26/12/2014 18:08

That pp was me.

Yes I expect I'd have "coped". I'd gone through enough in the previous months to be glad I didn't have to. I "coped" last year. I stayed at home, cooked for myself and didn't speak to anyone from the afternoon of 24th till the 27th when I got back to work. I'm happy to have been able to make a different choice this year - and why shouldn't I?

meandyouohyeah · 26/12/2014 18:12

So everyone in retail/hospitality should have to work to keep you company over xmas because you have no mates. Fair enough.

DastardlyDachshund · 26/12/2014 18:21

Because you then force someone else to deal with the side effects of your issues. Christmas day is special enough to you to make you sad that your relationship had failed and you weren't spending the day with your spouse but it's no issue to make someone else go to work so you can have a couple of hours distraction during your meal with your mum.

You said I "coped" last year. I stayed at home, cooked for myself and didn't speak to anyone from the afternoon of 24th till the 27th when I got back to work. I presume you managed to speak to your mum during this time? Or was the loneliness so crippling you were unable to make a phone call to ease it.

Customers have a choice to use a service (assuming it is available at that particular moment). Employees do not have this choice. Assuming they can simply 'change jobs' to one more accomodating to their preferences is laughable, even if the economy weren't as it has been for the last few years. I wonder if the ceo's of Next and the heads of restaurant chains are working Christmas day/Boxing day so they can make money. Somehow I rather suspect they are home with their families as they can make some other poor sucker do the legwork instead.

LongDistanceLove · 26/12/2014 18:23

With regards to resturants being open Christmas Day, surely the ire should be towards the people who decided they should open Christmas day and not towards the customers who are paying for a service?

In a fairytale world everyone would be at home with a loving family, but it just isn't like that for some people. And being able to go out for a meal might be a little bit of social interaction that stops them going over the edge.

In a similar vein of you've got 15 people for dinner but haven't got the room, being able to go somewhere where you don't have to worry about having to wash up, or dish up 15 dinners.

DastardlyDachshund · 26/12/2014 18:23

Quote meandyouohyeah.
So everyone in retail/hospitality should have to work to keep you company over xmas because you have no mates. Fair enough.

Xmas Grin
RufusTheReindeer · 26/12/2014 18:25

If I was alone at Christmas I wouldn't be sat in a pub or restaurant by myself

I think that would make me feel sadder...but maybe not. Maybe watching every one with their family pulling crackers and wearing party hats and everyone yelling happy Christmas would cheer me up

RufusTheReindeer · 26/12/2014 18:26

Do see that wandering round the shops and going for a coffee would make you feel that it was a normal day though

MrsItsNoworNotatAll · 26/12/2014 18:27

I agree op

Big retailers are just greedy. It's all about how much is going through the tills and it sucks ass. Their staff have to give up their day so as others can shop.

DastardlyDachshund · 26/12/2014 18:27

LongDistanceLove we are talking about the shops being shut for two days. Anyone who would be going over the edge for that period of time needs more help than a rudolph jumper on sale can solve. Also, if you haven't got room to have 15 people for dinner then maybe don't invite 15 people for dinner. You can spend time with people without cooking for them and if the shops etc were shut (like they used to be before people stopped being able to cope) then you'd have 2 whole days in which to do so. Or maybe hire a community centre, take the food there and you could see more family/friends in one go.

oswellkettleblack · 26/12/2014 18:27

'So everyone in retail/hospitality should have to work to keep you company over xmas because you have no mates. Fair enough.'

It is not only people with no mates who use services on Christmas and Boxing Days. Hmm

But continue taking the piss the out people who are lonely, might be too frail or weak to prepare a nice meal for themselves, have suffered a bereavement, etc.

MrsItsNoworNotatAll · 26/12/2014 18:29

Going for a meal in a pub on Christmas day by myself would make me feel worse than being at home alone.

Lweji · 26/12/2014 18:30

I didn't grow up with Boxing day.
It's not a religious holiday or anything, and it doesn't bother if I have to work then.
If you work other Bank Holidays, then I think it's just natural to work on Boxing day too.

lemisscared · 26/12/2014 18:35

i would love to think that retail and hospitality workers are generously remunerated for their time on Christmas day. i doubt they are and that is shit. it should be double time with time off in leiu as an incentive.

meandyouohyeah · 26/12/2014 18:35

Anyone saying that if you don't like it leave and implying I am giving terrible service to paying customers. Get real.

My manager once started our xmas day brief like this:

I know no one wants to be here and we hate with a passion every soul who walks through the door today .....pause for laughter.....but they are our guests and we are here to give them the same spectacular service we usually do.'

I don't go around snarling at guests and spitting in the food, but of course I am unhappy to be there, as are the majority of the staff. But we pride ourselfs on our professional service so you would never know that.

It's easier to blame it on the employers for opening, but they only open as they have demand from selfish people who only care about their own day.

26Point2Miles · 26/12/2014 18:37

we've had 'christmas'shoved down our throats since September......that's 3 months of the year taken up with Christmas crap. a quarter of the year....people want it over,to get out and be normal. even retail staff!

Nightboattocairo · 26/12/2014 18:39

mean fuck me, you are most definitely in the wrong job. appalling!

meandyouohyeah · 26/12/2014 18:42

night

Yep I am in the only person in the hospitality industry that hates working xmas day. The rest go skipping to work, thrilled at the prospect. Seriously what planet are you on?

Nightboattocairo · 26/12/2014 18:42

Get real mean - they are real people with real problems, had shit years, had bereavements, upsets, loses, some good times thrown in, health problems etc etc. they are not robots to be treated as numbers. "Get real" - I absolutely recommend you do.