Christmas Leave 'I have kids'

[paintityellow]

Yes I know this comes up every year, but it's so bloody annoying. The Christmas leave list went around in September, with it being specified that priority for Christmas Day would be given to people who worked it last year.
Despite this we now have a couple of people really trying to pressure others to give up Christmas Day because 'I have kids'. One of these women has had the last 3 Christmas Days off, the other's kids are teenagers. One of the people they're trying to pressure wants to fly home to spend Christmas day with her parents, Another has no family in the area so also wants to travel home for Christmas. Both worked last year.
AIBU to find this attitude infuriating?

Yanbu, I used to work far away from my family so if I had any chance of not spending Christmas alone I needed a chunk off. Priority was always given to parents, which I get to a degree.

I think it just needs to be fair, once I moved to a company that gave you triple pay on bank holidays the issue didn’t exist anymore.

Thank you. We are 700km apart so it is really hard 😢

Sorry but I think children should come first.

Before I had kids I happily worked Christmas days so that my colleagues with kids could have it off, (one of the roles paid double time on Xmas day which was even better)

I made sure by the time I was ready to have children I was working I a job that shut down for the 2 Christmas weeks.

No way any job would come before my children

Apart from necessary jobs (emergency services etc etc) it pisses me off that the little people have to work on christmas day just so the big people can earn more money, whilst they are tucked up in their homes eating turkey. No one used to work on Christmas. Mcdonald's wasn't a bloody option and neither was a 5 course meal. Let people have the day. Its such an important day for a large part of the country.

I think there are some parents on here confidently making claims that childless people should go their entire working lives without Christmas off because they are assuming that either their children won't go into jobs that entail Christmas working or that their children will have children themselves.

I wonder how they would actually feel if once their children grow up they never ever see them on Christmas day again. Even if they are widowed or lonely etc. I wonder if they would look back at these comments and realise how cruel they were at the time.

So basically, those of us without kids should stop seeing our parents at Xmas from aged 18 until one of those parents is diagnosed with a life-limiting condition? Literal decades of not seeing our parents at Xmas?

Sod off.

I wonder how they would actually feel if once their children grow up they never ever see them on Christmas day again. Even if they are widowed or lonely etc.

This is it, in a nutshell. You're not just being cruel to the grown-up children, you're being cruel to their parents as well.

What a bizarre and derogatory way to refer to a child.

Agree
Let’s not forget.
Employers should not discriminate.
Employers can’t ask at interview stage whether you are married , have kids etc as that used to discriminate against women.
Women with children can’t have it both ways. We wanted equality.

that's the right way to do it. It's important FOR YOU, you plan accordingly.

Mostly from @DragonFly98 to be fair. Hope she grants her precious six year old the gift of empathy on her special, magical day 🙄.

Why are your children more important than a single person who wants to spend Christmas with their parents? Or someone wanting to spend Christmas Day with their feet up watching rubbish tv on their own?
Where I work you would be entitled to the same time off at Christmas/NY as every other employee - alternative years.

Everyone is equal.

I wouldn't be saying shove a child to any Tom Dick and Harry on Christmas day.

I would be saying my right to time off is equal to everybody elses right to time off

What you are saying is shove any childfree person on the Christmas rota, they don't matter

But hey, at least you aren't the spiteful one....

@applesandmares It is misogynistic to base a womans worth on whether she has reproduced or not. And they ARE seen as less worthy if they are being expected to do the shifts that no one else wants

Oh I’m not saying otherwise but your assumption if children don’t know is non existent , off course they know

And its not passed me by that childfree FEMALE colleaugues are seen to owe their single parent colleugue more than the childs OWN FATHER

Not everyone has a car or drives, and there are no trains on Christmas Day or Boxing Day. So it's not always as simple as just popping round to see your parents in the evening.

I'd swap with another lone parent with young kids now that mine is a teenager. Or another situation where someone needs it more than me, such as both parents of young kids being asked to work. Adults and teens can just celebrate the next day so it's no big deal.

It all went tits up when Sunday shopping was allowed.
Sundays were always a family day with the streets empty. We had to wait for covid to see that again.

Christmas is about celebrating the birth of Jesus. It is a Christian festival. Maybe the devote Christians should have priority?

It's not about Santa Claus ffs

Fairness doesn’t equate doing the same for everyone imo it equates making it according to people’s individual needs

HOW can this ever remotely translate in the work place?

Who gets to decide what individual needs are for a start? You? What makes you being right and everyone else who disagrees wrong?

That attitude is an open door for discrimination and unfairness, with a complete disregard for existing legal rules, employees promptly taking you to court and rightly so.

Bit unfair for parents who work Christmas to imply them working Christmas Day is putting their job before their kid. Some amazing parents work Christmas, some terrible ones don’t and vice Versa. It doesn’t mean you’ve put your job before your child.

Plenty of evidence to suggest Christmas can still roll on fine for children who have one or even both parents at work on Christmas Day.

Great for you that you’ve got a job where you don’t need to work Christmas.

Some parents are nurses etc and can’t easily find a role that means they won’t Christmas Day so they’re happy enough to take their turn working on Christmas. This is setting a good example to children IMO in being decent team players and playing fair, rather than the ones pressurising colleagues to work it so they can be at home with their kids for longer.

And it’s great that you were happy to work Christmas so maybe it wasn’t a big sacrifice to you but as many have pointed out for some childfree singles working every Christmas would be terrible for them for various reasons. Your kids are not more important than other peoples families or mental health.

it would be Especially unfair for the ones who don’t intend to (or can’t) have kids ever,
as they’d be basically signed up to working every Christmas forever if all jobs took that approach of prioritising families with kids.

Oh no, someone lost patience after the barrage of entitled derisive shit that the childless, childfree, and child-not-yet face and said something that you don't like the tone of.

I'm playing the world's tiniest violin for you.

Of course they know but they also know (as my DC’s) did that daddy has to work on Christmas Day so we will celebrate the next day.

I can see why Drs, nurses, carers, emergency services are needed on Christmas Day. Not sure who else should have to work. Out of interest, apart from essential medical/care/emergency services, what kind of jobs do other people do who have to work on Christmas Day?

So do you only think compassion works one way.
They way that benefits workers with kids?
Not anyone trying to see their family living miles away?