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 !

it's December, it gets dark early. I guess your car has lights. Sorry to sound flippant but I find it an odd thing to say. It's absolutely normal to drive after sunset. cars and roads are built to facilitate that.

I drive 2hrs to work and 2 hrs home every-time I'm in the office so at least twice a week and that will be the 23rd and 24th.
When I was a library manager we were open Christmas Eve until 5pm every year and I had to be there to close up.
Many thousands of people from nurses, to care staff to soldiers to airport staff will all be working Christmas Day!

You have a company close down over Christmas many companies do not. Be thankful you have what you have and go to the Christmas "do" or don't go and face a disciplinary for refusing to work the choice is yours

You've completely missed the 6 hours travel issue....

Op - what are your colleagues' feelings around this?

It starts at 9am?!?! So leaving the house at 6? Are they having a laugh. Or you've the expense of accommodation the night before! They've really not considered this at all. Push back on the basis of unreasonable travel/expense that will not be covered by a 2 hour early finish in January.

I have absolutely no time for management who just push ahead with ridiculous ideas without consideration for anyone else's time/spending priorities.

I think you should start a mutiny, OP.

Your employers are being unreasonable.

But you chose a job involving that travel.

this has been sprung on the op at short notice. I don’t know if she does, but if she needs childcare for this it’s not going to be easy to find.

Can you get there by train instead? I can see that the driving close to Christmas is annoying as the traffic could be worse than normal.

Otherwise I agree with others that it’s a normal working day and you should expect to work. But I think adding in time to travel is a bit inconsiderate.

Presumably you also need to factor in time for delays, parking and waking there so would actually need to leave at 5ish.

google maps is currently saying that Morpeth to Manchester is 3 hours and 20 minutes drive and this is outside of any rush hour period

What a shame you'll come down with D&V on Sunday night and can't make it.
Take a sickie because they are more than taking the absolute piss!

That would annoy me, to be expected to drive so far, especially just before Christmas, only to attend something that could just as easily be covered in a video or livestream. It's the type of thing that would be fine if everyone lived in the same general area but simply makes no sense when you have people scattered far and wide.

I suppose you don't have much choice, really, unless you're not planning to stay with the company.

No way would I do that journey and the extra hours just before Christmas. I reckon I’d call in sick if I wasn’t in a union that could support me.

I think this is a time to focus on the bigger picture rather than the finer details op.

I get where you’re coming from and why you’re annoyed. It sounds like poor communication and high handed management and those could be solid reasons for taking a stand, or dusting off your CV.

It’s important to understand that real life isn’t about who’s right and wrong, or what’s fair and just and sometimes you have to suck it up when you’re not in a position to make a difference. I’m assuming that you’re fairly young - that first Christmas holiday is the worst! just don’t react from an emotional place, without thinking it through.

Do you want to stay in this company and progress? What are your long term goals? Working crap hours and travelling at unreasonable times are pretty much the standard job conditions of high earners. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with aspiring to work standard hours in a steady, secure job either. Or if you’d like to progress in the union, leading the revolution is one way to get noticed.

It sounds like your time off is quite generous in the greater scheme of things. You could leave and get a similar job and be working til 6 on Christmas Eve, or competing with more senior staff for Christmas Day.

Could you be any more patronising?

Being “the day before Christmas Eve” is irrelevant unfortunately. The only non-working days are 25th and 26th, this is two days before. The equivalent of not wanting to do something work-related on a Thursday because you don’t work on Saturdays.

If you don’t want to go and don’t want to lose pay can you not just take the day as annual leave?

Yes this does change things a bit!

A normal working day, fine and expected

A trek across motorways which are likely to be busy, starting and finishing hours before your usual start time - no

I don’t think it’s so much about needing to work that day but that they were originally told it was off and are needing to go to a different location that is a significant distance away at their own time and expense on a day when travel is expected to be bad (meaning op is likely to be out of the house from at least 5-10 (potentially longer)

the problem with taking the day off is that management has implied doing so will impact long term job prospects.

Isn't the 23rd a Monday?

You're being unrealistic. It's not about the fact it's dark although that does mean statistically there are more accidents.

It's all the other factors.

The journey is approx 170 miles.

It's either across country to the M6 or down the A1 then the M62.

The time it takes is around 3 hours each way with no/light traffic.

On 23rd Dec many people will be travelling for Xmas and I'm pretty sure that the trip home could take hours longer. The junction between the M62 and the A1M is infamous for tailbacks and queues.
Presumably you don' t know the area?

Not if you have to spend 6 hours travelling.

"The day before Christmas Eve" isn't a special day. It isn't anything. Ask if you can take it out of your annual leave if you don't want to go. Your employers will take note of it though.

I would leave home only 15 minutes earlier than usual and arrive to your destination late.

I would then set off for home, after thanking them for a fabulous Christmas breakup, so that you get home two hours later than usual (thus, allowing for the two hours leave given to you in January.)

Apologise, blame traffic, child care etc but quickly switch into work mode and show yourself to be a top contributer, an enthusiastic worker and worth every penny you are paid.

@blinddoorshyt You need to change your subject line to 'Should I have to drive for 6+ hours (360ml round trip) for a sausage roll and a company update, 2 days before Christmas when I'm just a shop asst?'

Good grief, what a patronising post. I presume you'd be happy to attend an event a mere 170 miles away that you have to be at for 9 am on one of the busiest Mondays of the year. A six hour round trip? I certainly wouldn't.

OP, what have other staff said about this? I'd be taking annual leave I think. This is so ridiculous and unreasonable and appalling management.

A social event that involves 6 hours of travel and no reimbursement for the costs. The event runs from 9 am to 6pm.
CEO is being totally unreasonable.