To think we shouldn't have to work the day before Christmas Eve?

[blinddoorshyt]

I work in a bathroom shop.
We are closed over Christmas and were lead to believe we broke up on the 22nd
Turns out now we don't
On the 23rd we have to travel to Manchester (3 hours each way ) to have a buffet and games with the company owner.
We have to listen to a presentation on how the company's done this year.
If we don't go we will have a day deducted from our salary.
It's the day before Christmas Eve and we have to drive to Manchester to have picky food with the owner and play Christmas games.
Aibu to think it's ridiculous?
And we have been repeatedly told if we don't go we won't get paid and it will halt any progression in the company !

I'd be outraged to be told I have to travel 6 hours for work at my own expense, I've no idea why everone seems to think it's fine.
I'd be fine with it if my normal hours are 9-5 and I could get a train/bus (paid by work) at 9am and arrive back around 5 ish but otherwise nope, I'd prefer to take it unpaid.

I'd definitely not be paying out of my own money to get there and back.

I'd be saying now that I can't drive to Manchester and back - im not sure I'd even give a reason other than 'I'm afraid I'm unable to drive to Manchester' does your job require you to even have a car? It would also raise questions around car insurance - you'd possibly need to add business insurance to your policy.

If they want you to be there they will need to book rail travel for you.

Unless you have to have a car for work; they can’t make you use your own transport.
I would say (hoping you haven’t already complained publicly because it will make it harder) that your car is not available that day (family member needs it, whatever) so although you are of course happy to travel for sausage rolls, bingo and the boss to say how great he is, you will require assistance / travel expenses to get there.
Or, if that isn’t possible, you are happy to join ‘remotely’ and eat your own sausage rolls at home.

How horrible a term then

you said they have allocated your leave for these dates? So have you actually got leave booked on the 23rd?

So is the 24th.

It's still annoying having to work it though. Are you having to work the 24th @blinddoorshyt ?

If the shop closure was coming out of annual leave anyway - are you worse off.

I'd say I'm not up for 6 hours driving that close to Christmas with weather and busy roads and take it as annual leave. Not attending the event may count against you but what does that mean for you and is it worth doing the 6 hour drive to prevent or will it soon be forgotten.

Even trains that close to Christmas can be dicey - they're planning work over the Christmas period which I think included that date - so timetable changes and disruption and when I used to travel back home for Christmas in my 20s the trains were packed - not sure if that's still the case but IL plan to travel on trains that day - so likely won't be only ones.

I don't see the issue with this at all, 23rd is a normal working day so don't see why you would get it off unless you take annual leave. To be honest 24th is a normal working day too for most - at my firm the approach is to feel free to log off / go home from midday/lunchtime IF your work permits (we're client facing so the client does come first however) unless of course you've booked the day off as annual leave.

If their saying you can take it unpaid I'd do that

Doesn't sound like much of a treat to me, a long expensive journey to hear some corporate spiel and a few stodgy sausage rolls afterwards.

'Nice'? No. The company has a moral obligation here even if they don't have a legal one.

The date is irrelevant as numerous people have pointed out it's a normal working day.
But a six hour round trip? What about childcare? Caring responsibilities? Even the dog? You can't just add those hours on for no more pay or time off....assuming you are hourly paid and not salaried

What’s black eye Friday all about? Is this bathroom sales lingo?

I assume this is what we call (or at least in Yorkshire call) Mad Friday, aka the Friday before Christmas when everyone 'breaks up' if you're still of school age (ah, the 80s/90s in a rural area where underage drinking and going to the pub was just the norm) or otherwise sort of finishes for Christmas (except being rural of course many are farmers so don't actually ever 'finish for Christmas') and everyone goes out for a big piss up.

It isn't the working on the day before Christmas Eve that would bother me, because that's quite reasonable. But expecting you to travel 6 hrs in your own time at your own expense, is not. If it were me, my car would be out of action and unable to get me there.

Oh this is interesting, I love regional differences like this. Yeah as others have said, it was always Mad Friday for me in North Yorkshire but live in the south east now, no idea if it's a 'thing' or has a name down here.

It’s just a day like any other. Can you book it off?

Or this.

You don't see the issue with being given a "day off" but the catch is you've got to do a nearly 400 mile round trip that will take 6 hours at your own expense or you'll lose your salary. You can't see a problem with this?

I agree with this. I think it's normal for many lines of work to have a general sweeper clause in the contract re occasional travel (and I don't know whether yours does or not) and that's generally fine, and some types of jobs obviously involve that travel sometimes being outside of normal working hours (but again I think it depends on the general nature of the role, and pay etc as to how reasonable that is in the grand scheme of the job overall) but (a) any travel expenses should be covered if that's the case (and driving shouldn't be the only option as I wouldn't be happy at having a 6 hr round trip drive, that's too much driving for one person to do in a day) so train should be an option, and they should just be generally reasonable/practical and take into consideration that being 23rd that will be extremely busy for travel and so just may be completely impractical/total nightmare for some people. And depending on travel situation, the day should be shorter to factor in how long many people's journeys will actually be.

All sounds pretty normal guessing shutting the Friday for safety reasons

most if not all companies that shut over Christmas take it out of your leave

23rd normal day

OP as your tactic - I would suggest that as it sounds like they've announced this relatively late, say you already have a prior family commitment near home at [x] time (ie whatever time you would usually get home on a normal working day] that you can't rearrange and so you're happy to attend provided (1) they reimburse travel and (2) you can leave in good time to be home for your family commitment.

It's not
Is a six hour round trip

My son is on a zero hours contract two days a week, Monday, Tuesday,for an architect practice. This year. He's having to work the 23rd and 24th as is everyone till 5pm. Then drive home 2.5 hours to do his family home.

It's a tough market out there

@Cosyblankets the 23rd is just a normal day, no different to the 22nd or 21st.

I'd just lose a day's pay - fuck 'em. I would also be sorting out my CV and going to work for a decent employer. Working on 23rd/24th - fine. But expecting people to pay their own travel to travel on what will be one of the busiest days of the year on the roads and trains just for a sausage roll ....no way.

Any half decent employer, if they really felt compelled to put on this sort of 'jolly' Christmas event, would provide mini-bus or coach travel for employees from their place of work to the location, as it's ALL employees who are expected to attend. They sound shite.