AIBU to think this about working bank hols etc?

[OldandJaded]

Is it unreasonable to expect that if you work in certain industries you expect to work bank holidays (easter, Christmas included) nice days, late nights/early mornings and basically the times when most other people don't work?
I don't think it is, if you work in the hospitality trade then surely it's common sense that when the majority of working folk are off, is going to be your busiest time? Therefore the increase in business needs an increase in staff? I'm astounded by the number of people who come into hospitality that say they didn't expect to have to work Christmas/New year/Easter etc and feel it's unfair.
I've also worked in health care and have heard similar complaints - people don't stop being old/ill/sick because it's a public holiday!
I do agree it sucks that some places don't offer a little extra for working these holidays, but I wouldn't expect it because it's the type of job I'm in and comes with the territory. Most places I've worked give maybe time and a half or a small cash bonus if you work Christmas day, but the other days are business as usual.
Of course the shifts need to be shared out fairly and any religious need respected.
Working shifts, late nights, weekends and holidays does have it's advantages - I get to shop in relative peace, I don't have to travel in the rush hour, if I want to go out for a meal, to a theme park, a pub etc it's usually much quieter because other ppl are at work when I'm not!
Just don't understand those who come into an industry that relies on when other people don't work and therefore want to enjoy themselves and spend money, and then complain about it!
Rant over!

Bank holidays are just normal days now though - you don't get time back in lieu, if it falls on your shift you work it.

We have the opposite problem - shop shuts for bank holidays. We get 5.6 weeks off including bank holidays - so those who work on Mondays have less say in when they can take their annual leave - the bank holiday Mondays HAVE to be taken. (Thankfully I knew this before starting so chose not to work Mondays.)

Hmm. You're overestimating the level of choice some people have about their employment OP.

Clearly nobody falls into being eg an A and E nurse without realising or thinking about it, and anyone in that line of work will have other choices, but retail and hospitality can be quite different. Sometimes you have to take what there is, and if the terms and conditions are shit, shitter than in other lines of work even when the pay is similar, you're more than entitled to complain about it.

Ultimately, not all people working BHs get compensated adequately for it and not all people doing those jobs have a choice about them. So YANBU and YABU, depending on which workers you're talking about.

YABU. People are allowed to dislike aspects of their job.

Personally I feel we've gone too much into a 24/7 world and people are being treated like slaves. I'd be happy if we shut large shops completely on Sunday and would be happy for them to be shut Xmas, Boxing Day, NYE and NYD as well as bank holidays. People working in retail deserve that time off like everyone else.

Of course, you need to keep emergency services running but there's no need for shops to be open.

I'm a teacher and I'm not overly thrilled about working next Monday. It's a bank holiday but I'm going in because we're doing revision classes for kids who want them. I won't be being paid and I'll probably complain to colleagues about not spending it with my own kids, but I'm allowed to do so.

DP has worked his fair share of holidays and christmas days over the years. Obviously, he knew that getting into it but he and his colleagues still complain when they're 300 miles away from their kids keeping things ticking over just in case a war kicks off.

As someone else said - there's lots of invisible people working on these holidays too. E.g. DP in the forces works a lot of holidays and it's not something you'd necessarily think of. Also people working in warehouses for companies like Amazon or other websites will be working on Bank Holidays to pick the items to be sent out the next working day.

A lot of banks will keep their IT departments running as well as customer service and the country would literally grind to a halt if electricity companies and water companies didn't have someone working.

Actually as a student midwife who has previously worked for fifteen years as an hca I don't think that's fair. I love what I do more than anything but ultimately I make a huge sacrifice that my family simply didn't choose. I did. I'm not complaining because that is what I have chosen but if I were working in retail the sinking feeling I get as I leave my family to enjoy another special occasion would probably be a bit too much. As it is I am lucky enough to be doing the most rewarding job I can think of. It doesn't make it easy. It's a huge conflict, I know someone has to do it. And I want to more than anything and I miss the job when I'm not there, to see a child enter the world is the most amazing thing...but I wish I could occasionally not miss a birthday/Christmas/bank holiday. It's hard.

And of course if you want newspapers or fresh food in the shops the morning after the BH some other bugger has to drive all night to make it happen. And that was true when Sunday and BH working was much more restricted than it is now.

I worked in travel for decades. Covered bank holidays including Christmas Day, and 4am or 6am starts on New Year's Day etc.

Most of the time I was ok with working them, I knew it went with the job. However, when the same people were getting Christmas off year after year it was very annoying. Also, as in many workplaces, none of our managers ever worked on bank holidays.

That said, I enjoyed good working conditions and got a day off in lieu in addition to an extra payment for working the bank holiday. So overall I never minded them very much.

Crashbang You may be able to tell me: is it true, or is it urban myth, that weekend births are becoming unusual because women are induced on Fridays to avoid it?

I heard that from an HCP but she is not in obstetrics.

I think what others have said is more the point, no one wants to do it but you make the best of a bad situation, without fail however it is the same people who work the holidays etc over and over again, some people appear to get off scot free and work what they want to

The HCA's at our place who have now just started the ? Associate health practitioners course which will eventually lead to a Band 4 and will take some of the pressure off the qualified nurses ( as we just can't recruit them !! ) had to have GCSE maths and English as a basic requirement to get on the course. Those that didn't have them couldn't apply.

Andrew where I work inductions happen when inductions are needed, planned sections are different but inductions happen at all hours on all days/nights. I can only speak for where I am studying though. I like to think the safety of mum and baby comes first. I can't say that for sure

Thank you CrashBang and I hope it is just an urban myth. The Registration Service could tell us!

many of us are not, with respect, waitresses or cleaners, we're degree qualified professionals, rather harder to replace

I'm waitressing to pay off my loans from my Masters degree while I try and get into my field. I do not get paid enough (let alone on BH and religious festivals) to put up with the disrespect and bullshit I get from some people I serve.

I work in healthcare (or will again when I go back from mat leave) I knew weekends and night were part of the deal and accept that, it's the rest of the rubbish that comes with it that's the issue. The OP says she gets days in the week to do things, that's not the case where I work, if you work the weekend you also work the week so you just work 12 days straight! It's exhausting and you do feel like you never see your family. Again I don't mind working nights but we only get a day off after them now before we go back to days, it's just not time to turn your sleep cycle round. All of the above would be manageable though if we got more than four weeks notice of our shifts, it's the never being able to plan that gets me down, you can't commit to anything, weddings holidays because you just don't know. As I'm on mat leave my husband and are are having our first holiday together in three years! One of his colleagues has just had his shifts changed and is now working his own wedding day with two months notice!!!! So yes I do feel entitled to moan about it!

A lot of banks will keep their IT departments running

In my 20 years of experience, including in a bank, IT staff get on-call payments for this. In fact, when I was working for a bank, we got on-call payments and TOIL, but it may well have changed since then.

In my current role, we get on-call payments, then pay for any actual work over 30 minutes. I can't remember if it's a different rate I'm on bank holidays though. I've a feeling that it is.

It is part of a sys admin's job to do on-call - there aren't many jobs for that role without it. But I expect it to be compensated, too.

Some good points raised worthy of a good think.
I guess the angle I'm coming from is hospitality workers - I kind of fell into this work because of lack of other options, and I've done care work because of that as well. However my view is that it comes with the job, and due to my lack of options (personal circs dictated) that is the only type of work available to me and that's a part of it, no point me going into the job knowing that and then complaining I should get this and that - I knew I wouldn't.
If I felt that strongly I'd attempt retraining and look for a position where I wasn't expected to work unsociable hours or was compensated for such.
One way I do feel compensated is tips, in hospitality some people like to show their appreciation by leaving a good tip especially on bank hols and such and this could be considered an 'extra,' even though I have to declare tips....
That said I do understand that others who work unsociable hours don't get tips, especially health care workers

EBearhug do you work in a bank? Something I've always wondered is why payments, credits etc don't move on weekends or bank holidays. After all, it's not like people have to be at work to process payments, surely it's all automated these days?

I wonder what the percentage working BH/not BH actually is. Offices, banks, some places like opticians, vets, doctors, dentists etc will be closed on bank holidays, but when you take into account shops, leisure facilities, entertainment, food/drink, emergency services, power generation, TV/radio/communications, travel, places like oil rigs that don't shut down, and many other places, there are lots of people who will work weekends and BHs so maybe it's actually a minority who don't?

I hated working weekends and bank holidays as a nurse so much, I left and found a role which includes these days off. Of course I knew I had to work them when I started my training as a single carefree teenager, but didn't look ahead and think how this would impact me when I had DC. Extra pay was irrelevant. I wanted to be at home xmas day with my family.

Not all business owners are 'Tory voters'. I work in hospitality and I'm afraid that unless customers are prepared to pay extra for eating out on bank holidays / Christmas etc it isn't possible to pay double time to staff. Employees get paid 5.6 weeks holiday a year. Being self employed I don't get paid holiday at all.

I work in a factory producing meals. I've worked there as an agency worker for three and a half years. We're working the Fri and the Mon for minimum wage, no extra pay, no time in lieu.