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

You can't please all of the people all of the time...
You are working 2/3 as per 111 policy. I would think they have a high turn over of staff, so those who were off this year may have actually moved on by next Christmas.
I worked my fair share of Xmas day's when my son was small. Once he got to the point where he wasn't surfacing out of bed til gone 11am I used to volunteer to work Xmas day.
NHS 111 staff will get +70% ish for bank holidays, which may or may not be some consolidation, but Xmas eve is just a normal day pay wise - I'd be saying "no" (which is a full sentence - no need to justify why you don't want to do them a favour)

I then have the parents of toddlers asking me to cover their Christmas eve shifts

tell them

yeah if you'll swap for xmas day, New Years eve ? Ill keep NYD though

2 separate issues
you are working 2 out of the 3 BH so you haven’t been shafted someone one has to work them and make sure you don’t next year

Colleagues asking to swap is fair enough just say no

It would be interesting to see how the 2/3 rules works out for the rest of the staff if there are enough staff for this rule to apply to more than 1 person. It does seem that the parents of small children expect even more special consideration for their breeding skills at Christmas.

could you charge those x amount to cover the shift ?

What?

Everyone (regardless of whether or not they have children) has been asked to work 2/3 Bank Holidays, OP included.

There's no preference given to people with children. None at all.

Someone has asked if OP would like to swap her Christmas Eve off for another day. She can decline, or equally she might prefer to work Christmas Eve and have 27th or NYE off - that's up to her. It's not unreasonable for someone to ask. In general I'd say that unless you're doing the whole Santa/Stocking ritual, Christmas Eve is a bit of a nothingy day, and personally I'd have far rather had a different day off. But in any case OP can decline or accept, whatever suits her best.

What kind of call centre is open Christmas Day?! 😞

OP says she works for 111.

Ah oh sorry only read the first page.

I do think if there is no small children involved then "moving" your Christmas to another convenient date should be perfectly acceptable for most adults. OP has the choice of Christmas Eve or Boxing Day; that sound pretty good to me.

It's not hard if you think about or guess what people work on Christmas Day. Anything emergency services, hospitals, anyone who does emergency call outs e.g. gas, electricity, some people in the entertainment industry e.g radio, TV and some hospitality. Also some smaller shops are now open on Christmas Day in larger cities and towns as they shop staff don't celebrate Christmas.

YANBU with knobs on.
Having been in this situation before, more than once and left a job over it, this is where I believe the childless get well and truly screwed. It's almost that the fact you are childless, you don't have rights to a personal life!
I'm sorry this has happened to you 😞

@redskydarknight I noticed with my extended family it was actually easier to move your Christmas celebration to another day/later in the day if the children are under school age as long as you have someone else to care for them or if they are teenagers.

It's when they are in primary school they noticed their parent isn't around for the full Christmas Day or has randomly disappeared due to being called out.

Not sure you can say you have been shafted.

You are working 2 of the 3. Obviously not your ideal ones. Were you there last year? What did you work then? If you worked last Christmas Day and were in the same job, that does feel shitty.

But someone has to work Christmas Day and I would guess many people asked for that.

Christmas day as the day off shouldnt be allocated on the basis of whether someone has children or not. Do you think that’s what happened?

Do not do Christmas Eve if you don’t want to. You may want to and be able to change one of your other days that suits, but otherwise absolutely don’t.

"Of course I can do your Christmas Eve. Swap you my Christmas Day 👍"

I am. No it doesn't because there than Christmas the only other public holidays we get are Easter

Next year they'll check who had this year off & factor that in but there's so few people allowed off I may not get next year either

The joys of working in a role that requires 24/7 coverage

I was including "primary school children who notice their parent isn't around" in my defintion of "small" :)

Basically unless there are children involved who are young enough to care about Santa/magic of Christmas, then there is no particular compelling reason to celebrate Christmas on Christmas Day.

Or, move the xmas to another date if you've got small kids because they don't really know what day it is.

Basically unless there are children involved who are young enough to care about Santa/magic of Christmas, then there is no particular compelling reason to celebrate Christmas on Christmas Day

But people don't need a "compelling" reason. You (generic you) are just trying to place guilt onto CF colleagues and expect them to compromise.

I say this as a nurse, who did my fair share of Christmas working when my kids were little...

I very much disagree with this "its more important for kids" I dont think its a one situation fits all...

For example , I think its more important for a person who lives a few hours away from family via public transport to have Christmas day off, than a parent who has other family at home with their kids so that the first can actually see their family.

Or someone who may have an elderly relative who is otherwise spending the day alone.

There are lots of cases where having a child does not trump someone elses need for Christmas off

It's more important for parents of young children to be at home with them compared to adults who can create the same day on Boxing Day etc. people who refuse to acknowledge that are just being facetious.

I think a bigger issue particularly for single parents is the total absence of daycare for younger dc.
I never used to work Christmas before dc and have new year off.
Not because I didn't like Christmas but because I didn't need to open my gifts from Santa early on Christmas morning.

Hmmm not too sure about this tbh.

I would never want to miss Christmas with my children. Which is why I would never take a job that didn't close down at Christmas.

Maybe parents should consider that.

I have worked various Christmas days and happily celebrated the day after with friends. But there is no way I will be the default person who works Christmas day every single year so an ever-changing set of parents with young children can have the day off.

I am honestly not being facetious but I just dont agree with you.

I had a situation where I had to do the Christmas rota. I needed one out of these 3 to do Christmas day and I stand by my decision:

Mum of 5 year old whos husband and parents were going to be at home with her child on Christmas day

Single woman who's recently bereaved dad would be home alone on Christmas day if she had worked

21 year old who lived 3 hours away from family and did not drive and finished work at 3pm and would be home alone once finished her shift. She had confided in me previously that she had depression and was homesick. Working Christmas day would prevent her being able to get to her parents

I put the parent on shift as I felt the others had "more need" to be off Christmas day.

Yes, Christmas is lovely with young children and its nice if parents can be off with them. But it doesnt necessarily make it more important than others being off