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 !

Buffets are horrible though. Beige meaty food and the meat eaters steal the few veggie bits.

She didn’t say travelling expenses were not paid, just that she had to travel.

In relation to comparing essential services.. you do know, don’t you, that NO NHS worker wants to work at this time of year. we sign up because it’s a vocation that overrides working conditions, for the benefit of people like you and the op.

The OP’s terms and conditions are to work on this non Christmas day.

I can't see how this is going to work as if some people are driving 3 hours each way they will only have an hour, hour and a half in the office there. Some people won't drive ( I wouldn't be a passenger on a journey that length) and choose to take public transport. That will take longer.

Apart from that, it is a work day.

Doubt you can. It would be classed as travelling to your place of work. Carers for example can only claim from second call of the day as first is classed as travelling to work. Same for last call of the day hence why many try to request first and last calls near their home addresses.

If you read all her posts she explains more. Her expenses aren't paid. I doubt she'd be objecting to a normal work day.

Nothing cunning about it - I just misunderstood the time she had to be there by!

You are being unreasonable for using the term “picky food”. If you use the word “pud” I would say you should me made to work Christmas Eve too. If you call vegetables “veggies” you should never get another day off!

I suspect they know a lot of people won’t want to come if they’ve mandated it like this.While they may not have deliberately set out to annoy people, it sounds like at the very least the boss insisted on this event and didn’t take into consideration the adverse impact it would have on employees.

“Team player” should not equal accepting poor treatment although I accept that unfortunately in corporate speak many
companies essentially behave as if that’s what being a “team player” amounts to.

No - we’re not talking about traveling time being paid. Well I’m not anyway. Travel expenses refers to being reimbursed for the train fare or the petrol an employee will need to use. OP is not getting travel expenses. This is unusual and outrageous especially so close to Christmas.

I’ve said upthread, I travel to my head office sometimes which is 2.5 hours away from my local office and that’s fine - I get travel expenses. However they wouldn’t ask me or any of us to do it so close to Christmas.

I live just outside Manchester (30 mins on train) and as good as the shopping is there even I wouldn’t be traveling there that week , the traffic and public transport is going to be horribly jam packed.

Am I the only one who had to Google black eye Friday? Never heard of it before 😂😂

I don’t think it’s unreasonable to work on 23rd but I do think it’s unreasonable being expected to drive for 6 hours, if my travel expenses were paid for a train that’s different

Not worth it OP. Get HR involved.

It would be reasonable to expect you to work at your usual place of a work on a working day.

It’s totally unreasonable to expect to you to add 6 hours unpaid to your working day, and to expect you to fund those travel expenses yourself. I would be seeking advice about whether this is even legal.

Read the updates. They not covering the expenses!

Whether they want to or not. They still agree to it as it’s apart of their vocation and they can choose another one if they don’t want to work them.
And again if you read the updates, the Op isn’t having issue with working, it’s the over 6 hours of travel, outside of the work hours without any financial compensation.

I’ve not read the full thread (got bored of all the repetition by page 5!)

surely the answer to this completely depends on what @blinddoorshyt ‘s contract says and then whether or not they already have booked annual leave for Monday 23rd December.

we can all says it’s too far to travel, company should be paying, etc etc but without knowing the t&c’s of their employment it’s all just an opinion.

I find it fascinating that so many people on the thread ( and elsewhere on the forum) have bought into all this nonsense and made it normal.

I'm often aghast at the lack of critical reading/thinking skills in some posts

I suspect it’s because so many of these people exist in the UK, that this kind of unfairness continues and grows. Working conditions and standards are being eroded gradually and some people are racing to the bottom with glee.

The problem is your thread title says

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

Hmm, I have extensive management experience and I can't think of a better "own goal" than getting workers to travel to a team engagement event on December 23rd and listen to a CEO speech. It's like a perfect "alienate your staff" recipe and completely pointless as well.

If they want to do team building, let them do it on January 2nd when everyone is fresh and wanting a new start - but nobody is buying bathrooms.

One of the biggest leadership fails I've seen was around a Christmas lunch.

The CEO worked remotely and rarely attended the office. The Christmas do was always to down tools at 11ish, do secret santa with eggnog or mulled wine in the office, then make a leisurely trip into town for a long lunch at 2, after which people could leave at normal work time, taxis home paid for.

Because the CEO was rarely there, he missed a lot. And he decided to catch up with one employee at 10.45. To make it fair, the rest of us would stay working as well until we went directly to he restaurant. We could do SS at the restaurant instead (usually these were joke gifts, sometimes quite big, and would be left in the office). Oh, and he wanted to continue with the work chat at 4pm, lunch couldn't take that long, surely?

Complete fucking idiot. He was ousted as CEO a couple of years later, and no one was sorry to see him go.

But the title of her post is about having to work on Christmas Eve…

I've just remembered our organisations epic christmas do fail a few years ago.
Staff going to the local Xmas meal were allowed to leave, paid, at 3pm. Everyone else had to work as normal. I wasn't going as I was a lone parent and my team leader couldn't go as she was hearing impaired and restaurants were too much for her. I still hold a grudge against the HR member I think allowed it to happen. Just awful.

Always worth checking out posts, not just titles

An hour away or 3hrs away as the op is having to do?

As an aside if you work for the nhs you'd have had all extra travel paid for. The op is having to pay for this treat herself.

A good manager imo is capable of nurturing team player spirit in their employees without making them jump through all manner of ridiculous hoops to prove they are team players.

@TheNinkyNonkyIsATardis yes, totally agree this is also a leadership fail. I feel the people leading teams should show they value staff rather than some of the ridiculous things they expect people to do.
I'm sure very clever leaders could work something out by themselves if the didn't just jump onto the ridiculous bandwagons that the seem to.

I have, but it’s interesting to wonder why she chose that as the main point. (Actually I got it wrong, it was "the day before Christmas Eve".)

The employer is being unreasonable, but I don’t think the event being the day before Christmas Eve is the part that is unreasonable.