AIBU to ask for bank holiday pub shift off for Arsenal?

[CollectingAllTheACEs]

I have a second job in a pub/restaurant that I work in around 6-10 hours a week on top of my full-time NHS role. I am paid fairly well but like everyone my CoL has gone up massively and I'm a single woman too. I also like expensive things/botox/nice holidays, etc. and my second job is also quite sociable. On the upcoming bank holiday Sunday there is a music and beer festival from 2pm which is likely to go on well into the early hours - we were told absolutely no holiday requests for that weekend. For context, I only usually do 11-4 Friday, Saturday, Sunday (usually 1 or 2 but never all 3). I get between £50-£100 a week which is nice to have.

I'm also a massive Arsenal fan. Have been my entire life. I know football isn't a big thing on MN but it can be substituted for any hobby that you love and feel passionate about. For the first time in 22 years, we may win the league with the game that's being played at 4pm ON BANK HOLIDAY SUNDAY. I have sent my boss (who I'd been friends with for a long time before I worked there and who knows how much it means to me) a pleading message saying that I would happily work the Friday/Saturday/Monday and/or until 3:30 on the Sunday but PLEASE could I have the Sunday night off (there are five or six other members of bar staff and we will be open from 11am serving food until 4pm - you couldn't fit all of us behind the bar). She's basically said sorry but nobody can have time off, but then said she's doing the shifts this week and can't promise anything...

I feel like she IBU to not make an allowance for something that hasn't happened for 22 years and I'm honestly tempted to just quit if she doesn't allow it. I can get another job fairly easily but probably not cash in hand/with as much usual flexibility. I just don't know what to do.

To add I probably am in a bit of a 'fuck it' mood right now as I've just started a new main job which feels full of completely incompetent people and it's pissing me off, also waiting on the results which will likely say my mum has a brain tumour so you know... shrugs

YABU, get a grip. It’s football. I love football but you’re being silly.

Also - it’s not “we” and “us”, unless you’re a member of the team. As a woman I cannot imagine supporting a team that harboured and supported a rapist.

@bltwithoutthet Oh I knew there'd be one - if you really did love football you would understand what it means. I cannot condone what happened with Thomas Partey but it doesn't undo 40 years of following the club.

Cash in hand? Tax dodging?

PSG are awesome

Yea I’m surprised a hospitality business can stil
get away with this.

If you can get another job then I’d quit. By the way, Palace fan here, it will be a minor miracle if they beat City though of course we did beat them in 2025 FA cup final. Bet they want revenge for that though.

She clearly said she pays tax. It’s not illegal to
pay staff in cash if tax is still paid

Read OPs posts

YANBU to want it off.
She is not unreasonable to not run her shifts around that, or want a precedent set where people can have holiday that wouldn’t normally be authorised.
You would not be unreasonable to quit if the job no longer works for you.

I would personally wait until the shifts are decided and see if she has taken it into consideration.
if she hasn’t…if it was Chelsea I would quit…

looks like I’ve not got any worries anytime soon 😂

You've got an FA Cup final in three days! 😂Which incidentally I'd like you to win please...

Hope you get the day off! My football-loving son has just managed to switch his shift with his uninterested-in-football-but-also-not-especially-keen-to-do-him-any-favours twin for that Sunday (he's 17 so it'll be the first time in his lifetime if it happens!).

Last time Arsenal won the league we were living a stone's throw from Highbury. (Another of my Arsenal-supporting children loves the story of how she was almost born in a taxi as we made the mistake of waiting until the end of a game to head to hospital, without banking on extra time!) We'll be watching from more of a distance now sadly.

Anyway, off-topic, but just wanted to join in with the Arsenal support - you don't see a lot of it on here!

YANBU (as a Liverpool fan) but I would wait until the rotas are done. If you don’t get the time off would you be willing be to quit?

Maybe wait and see what happens when the shifts come out?

But as you don’t normally work that shift, if she puts you don’t I would just say “I’m not available” rather than asking. Worst she can do is not ask you to work there again - so you have to decide if it’s worth it.

@carefullythere now that's dedication! I'm up north but my love for Arsenal is via my dad who would have disowned me had I supported anyone else - they even wrapped me in a red and white scarf when they brought me home from the hospital. We buried his ashes at Highbury in 1999 but unfortunately aren't allowed to access the memorial garden with it now being apartments.

@Livpool @GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing I think my only option is to quit if I don't get the time off - she can be quite 'funny' about time off

I love football

No, you don't.

Nobody who loves football and supports a team is indifferent about whether they get to watch that team in a cup final.

The OP is absolutely not being unreasonable here. This is her second job, not her main one, and she's only asking for one shift off which I'm guessing she wouldn't be paid for because that sort of job is usually paid by the hour on a zero hours contract, so it was a perfectly reasonable request and if she leaves, she's likely to be able to pick up another casual bar job without much difficulty.

I'm saying all this as a Tottenham fan, by the way.

(It's for the final game not the cup final - thankfully I can have the champions league final off or finish before it starts)

Especially when I've been waiting 22 years for this to (potentially) happen.. but as a Spurs fan I guess you know the feeling! Sorry couldn't resist - we even did you a favour Sunday though

Me and my husband worked out the other day we haven’t beat city since we’ve been together so coming up 5 years 😂

Stranger things have happened though eh! 🤞

And there’s always Eurovision Saturday night if I need cheering up!

I don’t blame you

Mesmerising to watch ❤️

I had a part time waitress job at a pub when I was at college many moons ago. I asked for annual leave so I could watch my team in the Play off finals at Wembley. I used to watch my team all over. Anyway the manager was a right old grump annd supported our rivals and he said no, even though we would be fully staffed. I called in sick and went to Wembley anyway. Next shift in, my manager asked if Id enjoyed my Wembley trip 😂

ps. No offence, but I hope you don’t win the league and my blues do 🩵😂

Wait until the shifts are announced and then decide.

You can always call in sick! They'll know, but then it's down to them to decide if they want to sack you!

Up the Arse!