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

Holidays should not be allocated according to whether you have children.
There are two fair ways to do it.

1. Seniority. Who has been there longest gets first dibs.
2. Alternating. If you had last year off you are bottom of the list for this year.

In my working life it was method 1 for 20 years and I never got Christmas off until I was in my 30s. Then they changed it to method 2.......

We used to have to work either Xmas Eve and New Year’s Day OR Xmas day and New Year’s Eve

Seniority could be argued to be age discrimination.

The most normal way places I know do it is ask for volunteers.

Surprisingly there are people who will happily work part of Christmas Day e.g. Christmas Eve night into Christmas Day morning, or Christmas Day night into Boxing Day morning as long as they can have NYE off. I'm related to and friends with people who used to ask for those shifts when they worked in hospitals. Oh and some of them had children. The reason they asked for those shifts is they lived nearer the hospitals than most of their colleagues so it made sense for them as they were able to walk or park on the grounds costing the hospital less in cab fares.

The thing is, everyone is going to ask for Christmas Day off so there was always going to be someone stuck working it - unfortunately this year, it's you.

But you have Christmas Eve and Boxing Day off, which is a lot better than it could be. At least when you're done on Christmas Day, you can kick back and relax without an early start the next day. Just plan your meal for the evening or have it on Boxing Day instead.

You're not completely shafted because you can say NO

Say no to the colleagues asking you to work their shift on Christmas Eve I mean

No, off I won't fuck.
Anything kids do on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day they can do any other day too. Many previous threads on this subject have featured people saying when they work these days they shift the whole thing to another day and their kids are fine.

If what you mean about your relatives is that they volunteer to work Xmas Eve or Xmas Day/are happy to if people with kids ask them too, then that is up to them. I've no problem with people volunteering or agreeing to cover these days for someone else. What I stand by is that no one has the right to simply expect people without children to work those days, or to guilt-trip them with 'but my children/but the magic' etc.
If I had to deal with anyone at work who behaved like that, I would hand them their arse.

2/3 is the rules. You're working 2/3

In previous jobs I've happily worked Christmas, if my kids were with their dad then I'll happily work Christmas, and I've never cared too much about new years so I've also generally worked those.

Now I'm senior, so I'll be on call throughout anyway (and hoping nothing bad happens).

I've also got a diverse team, including some muslims, so Christmas cover isn't the issue it once was for us anyway.

And yes, I'll happily move Christmas (eg. if kids are with their dads, we'll do it a different day). The only time I wouldn't be able to is if we were travelling to see other family (If I'm hosting, then again, we can just move Christmas)

Christmas hols in a contact centre is dog eating dog and unfair on anyone except who the bosses like and it's not just parents that get the good holiday, many don't. Sadly though there is no childcare on Christmas day or transport so it can be a genuine problem if you're told to work then and WFH isn't going to be possible with kids in the background at Christmas

Just do what we used to do back in the day, finish work on New years eve day, go out and have a smashing time, over indulging in everything and then creep into work on NYD, hungover with 3 hours sleep and do the bare minimum.

...after catching 2 cross country buses to work because you left your car at your mate's house because you weren't going to drink......

Offer to swap a bank Holiday if you prefer. E.g. Christmas eve for Christmas day or new years day.

Alternatively, look at your shift pattern between the two. For example, if you're currently working 25th, 27th, 30th, 31st - you could swap the 27th for the 24th to get a longer stretch off between?

Seriously? Why lie? She just needs to say sorry but as she’s working 25th she’s having her Xmas day on 24th. Your life must be bloody complicated if you dish out those sorts of whoppers when you could just say no!!

I'll never forget when my head of department said she'd come in to work on NYE. She'd already handed in her notice and it was obvious she'd call in sick, which she did.

Reminds me of 'While You Were Sleeping'.

BUT - I do agree that you have been rotaed on for 2/3 as stated, so have little to dig your heels in over. The two 'Eves' are probably fun days to work; you can have a festive drink after your shift 😁🥂

Bonus is that Boxing Day lunch is loads better and the day is usually much more sociable; people come up for air through the pile of paper and are more ready to have friends over and go on walks etc.

You will just have to defer your 'Christmas' until then - hopefully you aren't missing out on young nieces and nephews, and are spending it with adults who can wait for their gifts.

And BTW I'm firmly of the opinion that most of the time people with children make a fuss, they are using them as leverage not to have to work Christmas Day because THEY want to spend time at home with the kids. Small children don't care which day they get their presents so long as they do!

Sounds fair, you’re doing 2 bank holidays and 1 ‘eve’.

Not unreasonable for your colleague to ask you to do their Christmas Eve, not unreasonable for you to say no.

Of course you can say no. I get Christmas is more magical for kids but anyone who takes on a job that may require working over the festive period needs to take into account they won't be home for all of Christmas. In theory it is a religious holiday so if anyone should get dibs maybe it should be practising Christians.

Again, no, I won't just fuck off.

I wasn't discussing the OP's situation (I pointed out that she's not being 'shafted'), I was responding to your assertion about Christmas being more important for kids.

I will use the word cunt if I like for people guilt-tripping others about covering for them.
Ironically, despite my use of that word, you seem to be the angry one. I wonder if you're one of the people who moans/guilt-trips/calls in sick if you're going to have to work Christmas? It seems to touch a nerve.

I'll say it again, I would hand someone their arse if they tried that on me, and I would probably take some pleasure in doing so.

👆this. Ask her to swap

see usually I would agree with it never being unreasonable to ask someone for a favour as long as you graciously accept it if they say no, but it it is a bit different if someone is being asked repeatedly, if they feel guilt tripped, or if presumptions are made that because they don't have children they are less deserving of time off. When I worked somewhere with a Christmas rota any requests for swaps were made by email because it's less pressure than being nagged face to face. You only have to look on here to see how hard some people find it to just say 'No.'

Fair point but not always.It's not unusual for most employers to pay more and allocate more annual leave to those with longest service. You could be 28 with ten years seniority or 38 with one year though I accept it's usually the other way round.

Yeah, I think I can appreciate that point. I personally, always covered holiday periods before having kids because they were quieter (but I can’t imagine it would be for a 111 call handler!).

This is a good reminder that we all need to be considerate of feelings of others and not get completely focused on our own situation. Everyone loves Christmas don’t they?! Not just kids.