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 !

Well if it’s a normal working day for you then whether the shop is closed or not is kinda immaterial and you’ll need to put up with it. If they are expecting you to just be there like 12-2 then that’s annoying but probably within your hours including driving, although obviously I’d expect fuel or train fares to be reimbursed. If however the travel time is outwith your normal hours (ie they expect you to leave at 6am and you won’t get home till 8pm) then you’d have the right to claim overtime as well as travel costs.
If the days they are closed over Christmas are taken out of your annual leave (my work is the same although they did increase our annual leave to reflect this!) then you must have been expecting this to also be true of the 23rd if you believed it wasn’t a working day? Cos it’s not a public holiday or anything. I’d rather have a no work/skivvey/annoying day with potentially some nice nibbles than lose a days holiday or be unpaid.
I would however refuse if travel took me outwith hours and I couldn’t claim overtime or the extra hours were unmanageable due to lack of childcare or similar.

Mad Friday (Liverpool)

No travel expenses (fuel /fares) and you probably can’t claim overtime either?
In that case I’d refuse and consider seeking advice from your union rep/ACAS. 2 hours time in lieu in January is NOT sufficient recompense

I think it is extremely unreasonable to expect employees to travel three hours each way for such an event, I doubt you will be the only one who feels as you do, it's too ridiculous at any time of year but particularly immediately before the busiest time.

Speak to colleagues and see who is for and against, those against tell management that it's not on, you will go to work normally but cannot undertake such a tiring journey on that day. It could possibly be done at another time but transport should be laid on and maybe overnight accommodation.

Whoever decided to arrange this has not thought it out properly which is grossly inconsiderate.

Feign excitement about it then phone in sick.

If they explicitly told you that you would be finished on the Friday and have now added an extra day you are not being unreasonable! I would complain about the contradictory information. I actually feel it's really disrespectful to mess staff around like that. If you have made plans I would raise it.

That being said it sounds like a doss day, as long as they are covering your travel and it all falls in your work hours I would go and let the boss have his ego stroked.

Yeah. That is ridiculous. I'm all for a bit of Christmas bonding but that's a bit much.

Would be fine if it was a bit more local.

You sound a bit entitled to me. It's a working day so until you win the lottery you have to go to work.

Wtf? I just understood it's actually 3 hours each way no travel costs and you are reimbursed with 2 hours in lieu?!

No chance would that time on lieu cover the travel costs.

Sorry but wtf is Black Eye Friday? 😳

The 23rd is a normal working day but the 6 hour round trip with no reimbursement for travel expenses is v v unreasonable.

Well it sounds a bit frustrating if you were told earlier that there would be no work that day AND if they are expecting you to travel to another site without paying you travel expenses, that sounds unreasonable. It’s a pity you weren’t given fair warning and proper reimbursement as then you likely would have seen this day out (instead of a normal working day) as a nice little perk. I expect they will have a colossal number of staff phoning in sick, because of the way they’ve handled it.

But unless it’s stated in your contract or you have it written somewhere that your holiday started on the 22nd, then you’re probably going to have to go and get on with it. Do you have a colleague you could travel with to share the cost?

I'd be really pissed off going to this right before Xmas. There is so much to do at home. I'd much rather take an annual leave day.

I'd be fuming too, if I were you! If they are forcing you to do the journey, which includes 6 hours of travel outside your normal working hours, surely they should be paying your travel expenses, as well as overtime, that's really not on. And telling you not going would stop your progression in the company? That's beyond ridiculous. I understand your complaint. If I were you, I'd either take annual leave or a day's unpaid leave and start looking for a job elsewhere, or resign myself to not progressing within the company, and knowing that, look around in my own time for something better.
Agree with other posters that you should say you'll go into the shop for the day's work. Having to travel, unpaid, a long distance, to do 9 till 6 nowhere near home during the Christmas period is ridiculous. Can you imagine people having to travel from Land's End?

Working on the 23rd in your normal place of work should be expected. Travelling be it by train or car for a meeting that could take place say in early January is not. Many of those travelling long distance on 23rd December don't do so on many occasions in the year, so for example on the roads you will have more than the usual share of middle lane hoggers and other driving that should result in a ban.

The comment about progression could be taken as bullying.

You keep saying about black eye Friday but that's the 20th not the 22nd?

Perhaps they are going to announce a Christmas bonus for everyone if they have said that they are going to go through the years results.

Have they actually said you’ve got to be there at 9, through until 6pm? If so, that’s a bit of a jig ask as it’s effectively a 15 hour day for you.

If they had said leave home at 9, get there at say midday, and leave at 3/4pm then that’s a bit less of an arseache

Having to do this for some excruciatingly boring forced "fun" and having to travel 6 hours without expenses is not at all reasonable especially given the undoubtedly appalling traffic that day from people travelling for Christmas. Take the day as unpaid or try and take annual leave if you can and then in the new year look for another job. It's very nasty of them to then threaten to curtail your career progression if you don't attend.

No sympathy whatsoever here, healthcare worker who has worked literally years and years of Xmas and NY. It's a luxury in my eyes to just have Xmas day off.

Plus you are going eat a buffet 🤯🤯 it's not even as if you at work work. Such an entitled insensitive post. Think about the millions of people who are actually working hard over xmas

Yes but if you were told your Christmas eve or Christmas day shift would be at a hospital 3hrs away and you had to pay your own transport, which is the point of the op, surely you'd object?

What is Black Eye Friday?

@Poppybob and ? I took a job in a bathroom shop 15 mins from my house
So because there are people working over Christmas I should be happy to travel 6 hours to listen to facts about the company and they are throwing in some sausage rolls ?

This has actually happened to me?!!!! live in rural area so had to travel to a hospital last minute (many times but just at Xmas)who were short staffed more than an hour away.