Completely shafted over in the christmas rota

[Mysticcatmum]

I work in a call centre

Everyone has to work 2 out of the 3 bank holidays, I put in my preferred date of Xmas off

I have been scheduled to work Xmas day, new years eve and day

I then have the parents of toddlers asking me to cover their Christmas eve shifts as I am 'childless'. I have found out that the same people do infact have off Xmas day

Apologies, more of a rant but AIBU to be sick of the mentality of 'christmas is for kids'?! Despite me adoring the holiday

The OP explains she is handling 111 calls earlier in the thread. Not your typical call centre but definitely one that is required to be open on Christmas Day.

What you would have been happy with isn’t really relevant to the OP.

The fact that she can just say no to working Christmas Eve as a favour is though.

Wrong thread?

My first thought was its a bank call center.

Mobile phone, emergency services, 111, breakdown companies, motorway/highways, emergencies such as gas/water... there's a long list!

New Years Eve won’t be classed as a main day/bank holiday unless you’re doing a late/twilight finish or a night shift so you are working 2 out of 3. Yes it’s crap that you didn’t get what you requested but there’s a very good chance most people asked for that off.

I have to write a Xmas rota and it’s an awful job. It’s rare that anyone actually volunteers to work Xmas day (I had 1 volunteer this year so she didn’t have to spend Xmas with her in-laws 🙈) so I have to be the bad guy who chooses who works it. I look back on previous years generally and new starters unfortunately often end up with it unless they can prove they’ve worked a lot of recent year in previous jobs. It’s an absolute shit job and I dread it every year!

I am always amazed by this sort of question! I'm a call centre team manager, we are open 24/7 365. There are thousands and thousands of people that work unsocial hours, including Christmas.

New Year’s Eve isn’t a BH so it sounds like the rota is fine? (Albeit shitty in general!)

Ignore people asking you to cover - everyone is allowed to have their time off no questions asked.

Exactly! That was my point earlier. It's so, so irritating when people assume that everyone has a massive pulling up of the drawbridge over Christmas...the world goes on, stuff happens and apart from in retail it's often pretty nasty, distressing emergency stuff. New Year's Eve and Christmas Eve are ordinary working days, people need to think a bit

If I had done Christmas Day last year, I'd be refusing to do it this year. It's simply not fair.

That’s very rude.

My point was the person is entitled to ask, it’s not a given the OP would say yes but neither is it a given she’s say no. It’s just s request she can politely decline. It doesn’t have to be a big deal.

No more rude than you implying that because you were happy to do something, the OP should be too and it’s no big deal.

When I didn't have children I was happy to cover Christmas Day, working day shift or night shift, in exchange for New Years Eve and New Years Day off. It was always done with people's preferences in mind and we worked it out fairly. We were a 24/7 health service so had to factor in three shifts per 24 hours and it worked out ok. I don't think you've been shafted as long as you have one of the BHs off.

You haven't been shafted at all. You have to work 2 out of the 3 bank holidays and that is what you are doing. You have boxing day off. You haven't been shafted just because you didn't get the one you wanted. You picked the one the vast majority will have picked. Not everyone can have it

If its a case of you never get christmas day then you need to start asking how they allocate the shifts.

And just say no to people wanting you to work their Christmas eve shift. Nobody is shafting you by asking

I work in a standard call centre, no emergency stuff and we are open
Christmas Eve then 27-30, new years ever and back open 2nd Jan

We all get Christmas Day, Boxing Day and NYD off but that's it

Thats isn’t what I was saying. I was saying people are entitled to ask, they don’t have to assume she would say no (I gave myself as an example of someone who would have said yes, I never meant the OP has to say yes that’s completely up to her).

It’s just a question. And question, get answer. It doesn’t have to be blown into a huge big deal because the OP is angry she didn’t get the days she wanted off.

If they are unpleasant or pushy about it that’s different.

You're wrong there.

That's not what she said and it wasn't rude at all.

I have quite a few people in my family that work on Christmas actually, as care assistants and social workers. In my mind a call centre is people phoning you trying to sell you a conservatory so that's where I was being a bit dim, but I do understand that people work on Christmas day.

I was imagining a call centre where people cold call you about rubbish sorry. Should have gone to bed.

Say no to covering Christmas Eve, you are already working Christmas Day. It is cheeky of them to ask. Christmas isn’t just for kids, you deserve to enjoy some of the festivities.

My BIL gets Christmas day off one year and boxing day off the next year. He's 225 miles from his parents and doesn't drive, so he never sees his elderly parents at Christmas and that makes them sad. He asked for more time off but as he's childless he was told no.

I grew up with a shift worker parent, he did two 12 hour days followed by two 12 hour nights followed by 4 days off… every so many rotations he got 18 days off… so he did not get annual leave to book, he regularly worked Christmas. I actually remember as a very small child getting up super early and opening a present before he went to work, then him leaving…. By the time he got in we would have all been ready for bed.. I also remember as an older child all having our big Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve so that Dad got to celebrate too as he was Christmas Day.
As we got older though we got up later so he was already gone to work when we got up.
much harder fr a single parent though.. I do think work places who don’t have set shirts should ask for volunteers but I guess they think people who want to will swap .. we had a lady who loved working Christmas Day morning… she’d work half the day then go round her daughters and spend the afternoon there…
ive also worked places where the shifts were made shorter Christmas Day so although everyone had to come in they each only did 4 hours.

Could he offer to work all the days this year in exchange for it all off next?