To wonder why people are so protective of retail workers but not those who work in hospitality?

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A lot of people are horrified at the thought of weekend working for retail workers but they don’t care about the people who work in hospitality. So they don’t want shops open on Sundays because of family time and so much consumerism yet they will quite happily go out to cafes, amusement parks, historical places and the like ignoring the fact that all these places have to be be staffed and the workers are also being pulled away from their ‘family’

No realistic opting out.
If I'd have opted out, I'd have been managed out.
Constructive dismissal was big in some of the retail places I worked.
Set a sales target, ensure it can't be realistically met. That's a verbal warning. 2 more of those, written 1 written 2.. out.
And we all witnessed it so toed the line.
I had an area manager that boasted about the amount of managers he had on final warning. He said jump, they said how high.
People assume everyone is well protected by employment law.

Unless you make it your business to be aware of employment law, a lot of traditionally min wage employers will push, bend ad break rules, it rarely comes back on them.
I've been out of retail for a while now, it would take the threat of destitution to make me go back.

At least the people asking for longer opening hours are honest, whether selfish or not. Unlike the person I served on a boxing day who told me they thought it was disgusting the shops were open 😞

To all those wanting 24/7 retail & leisure, why not have 24/7 working for everyone? If it is so wonderful, why limit it to certain sectors of the workforce?

Nobody is asking for 24/7 leisure.

How would it be applied to all the workforce? How ridiculous. You want nurseries and schools to be open all night?

Exactly. My conveyancing solicitor should be working Sunday night so that I can exchange first thing on Monday.
After all its a 24/7 society now.
I'd like my hospital scan to be at 3am please, I'm a right night owl.
After all it's a 24/7 society now.

I don’t.
Just saying that those who want to “have the option” should maybe look at it from the other viewpoints.
But yes, maybe for those who work shifts, nights & weekends 24/7 nurseries would be useful! I have seen lots of posts about limited options as no childcare available other than weekday office hours.

I’ve worked office hours as well as retail and leisure. Started out with Sunday working being optional and paid extra but now is normal day & pay with little to no choice depending on your employer.

I wish those wanting to protect retail workers for the horrors of weekend or Sunday working were as keen to protect them from bad manners and badly behaved kids (and dogs).

And if it was that hard to choose your hours, you wouldn't have all the sixth formers working around their studies. It clearly is possible for many, or even most.

When I started in hospitality about a million years ago, places closed at 10.30pm on Sundays (that was licencing I think) and many closed between 3-7pm most days except Saturday and Sunday.
With the introduction of being able to apply for 24hr licences, that's changed mostly and a move to pubs etc serving coffee, they open earlier than 11am which they used to, 'Spoons are famous for being able to have a pint with your breakfast.

There was some backlash, but mainly around the alcohol availability, certainly I never knew of anyone that was concerned about the extension of opening hours and 24hr licencing with regards to staff and family time, child care, travel etc, as is being said about extending retail hours.

And if hospitality workers can go and find another job if they don't want to work Sunday, or longer hours, why can't retail? Why is the expectation different? The challenges would be the same for either industry in that regard.

I guess hospitality workers may get a small advantage in that there's tipping in hospitality and not in retail, but then there's those who are dead set against that and feel like tipping is outdated and if we don't tip retail workers then we shouldn't tip hospitality staff - maybe that should be the difference, if you use a hospitality business on Sunday, bh or Xmas then you tip because you're dragging them away from their family for your own convenience.

In Scotland, we don't have restricted trading hours except for alcohol, 10am-10pm Sunday-Saturday...
Which means we have 24/7 shops in places.
Only a few retailers (if any) pay extra for Sundays/Bank holidays.
Staff can opt out of Sunday working, but won't necessarily be given hours Mon-Sat to make up for it.
Large shops over a certain sq. footage need to be closed on Xmas day (most shops of all sizes are closed). That's it.
Quite a few shops are open 1st & 2nd Jan (both bank hols here), but they will tend to pay a premium for those days 😂.
Generally, potential retail workers can state their availability at interview and as long as it's not taking the piss, not working Sundays isn't an issue 🤷‍♀️

Well not schools

But everyone wants a nurse available at 2am in A&E, or a fire fighter or a police officer etc etc and any of them might have kids

So actually 24 hour child care is a need, it's just not one that currently fulfilled. But it's certainly not a ridiculous need

But you get to choose if you want to work in a shop selling food to people at a weekend, or serve coffee in a train station, or sell fish and chips at night. You get to choose if you work at 3am or at 3pm.

If that is what you choose to do, deal with it.
Most people don’t want to work at all if they have the choice. But they do work because it is how they bring value to other people and get paid.
some people choose not to work and get paid for that too.

I don’t get why if there is a demand for coffee at 8am on a Sunday morning, and someone is willing to do that, they shouldn’t be allowed to do that.

Or are you advocating that we remove all employment at the weekend and just force our emergency services to work weekends?

I don’t understand from your post what you are wanting. Should we also prevent people working on Fridays or should we discriminate against those in our communities who hold Fridays to be sacred?

Get down off your high horse. I'm not at all critical of weekend working in retail, hospitality or anywhere else.

For many individuals and households it makes perfect practical and financial sense and they PREFER to work weekends, evenings, nightshifts, public holidays .

DH and I both did all the above because it suited us at the time.

Exactly. Why not live and let live. Why start a MN thread about such inane crap?

How much choice do you think some employers give staff?

My employers were so happy and grateful to have a worker of my calibre they'd fall over themselves to accommodate my wishes.

Nobody is asking for 24/7, just more flexibility,

Appreciate all who work antisocial hours. And I get that many need to to fit around other family members etc.

Surely places being open longer hours will push prices up?
If a shop/pub/leisure facility is going to extend their opening hours, and thus staff them, heat/air con or light the premises, (possibly have more cleaning to do) etc that cost will be passed to the consumer?

Laugh at people who advocate for Sunday closures and then sit on a Sunday ordering stuff off the internet.
I am pro 7 days a week accessibility, but sometimes think it would be funny to see what happens if telecommunications staff decide they aren't working Sunday.

We live in a 'you don't see it, it doesn't count' society

If there was a demand, legislation permitting, it would be filled by the market. I have lived in a society where everything is open until midnight. Shops, restaurants, everything. When the demand is there the supply meets it.

Bottom line though is we all get to chose what we do, when we do it, and who we do it for. No-one has a gun to your head forcing you to work on a Sunday. If they are that is a criminal offence. You can leave any employer and go and get another one. You can also choose to work for yourself. Hell, anyone in this country can match the median income by selling crap in eBay. But are they willing to make the sacrifices to do so? I didn’t think so.

I work every day and I don't resent others some time off because I'm not an arsehole.

If you don't want to work weekends get out of hospitality.

Changing people's working conditions is often negating the reason they want the job, which is often because it suits them

This is a silly thread. Of course hospitality and leisure places will be open when most people are available to visit them. Thorpe Park wouldn’t be in business very long if it were only open 9am-5pm on weekdays would it?

There’s no need for retailers to be open any longer on a Sunday though as there are multiple times and options to buy what you need outside of Sunday at 9am. I can’t really take my kids to a museum during my work lunch break though.

Memories of covid I expect. Supermarkets etc stayed open bars and restaurants didn’t

I didnt see much hand wringing on here for those in hospitality when they were the ONLY ones forced to wear masks while serving "the great and the good" at the G7 summit and award ceremonies and other major events. It was such an awful look only the help being forced to mask up Treated like they were subordinates. And yet.....tumbleweed.

There was a thread yesterday asking for longer opening hours on a Sunday and many people were against it because they wanted "slow Sunday" for themselves or they cared about retail staff.
I think that's what this thread is about.
It makes sense for me that places should be open when people most want to use them, but people don't seem to care as much about the staff in amusement parks and cafes/restaurants as they do about retail workers.