Working over Christmas

[Chronicallyknackered]

I see so many posts about two weeks off at Christmas, how many people is this a reality for ? And how many people have to continue to work as usual ?
I work in a hospital, and feel fortunate that I don't work Christmas/ boxing day unlike clinical colleagues who have no choice. Our patients live with us 365days year, many without leave, so staff are needed as usual.
Family members have said they feel sorry for me working up until Christmas Eve, and after boxing day.
Is that not reality now that a lot of employers expect you to work over Christmas, not off to relax for a fortnight ?

I've only got Christmas Day off, retail, but I'd rather keep my annual leave for the summer than use it in the winter. I know some people are lucky and don't have to use annual leave to get Christmas off but most people I know do have to use it.

I'm working Christmas Eve night and Christmas Day night this year! But I get to lay out stockings for the teeny tiny premature and poorly newborn babies.
We are planning a Chinese takeaway on Christmas Eve and I've had many offers from friends and family to drop a Christmas dinner off for me :)

Most shut downs involve using annual leave alongside the bank holidays to make up the time.

Just depends on the reality of your work. I'm able to save annual leave and take it off so I finish on 20th December and start back on 2nd. I pull all my work forward to accommodate the break and generally find clients are on leave too.We have a large team and only require skeleton cover for emergencies. There's usually some people in the team who are happy to work one or two days and provide the cover. If we were struggling and everyone wanted to take leave then we'd have to agree to work one day but the reality is that we usually have 2 or 3 people working to cover.

I used to work in a job where I only had Xmas day off and worked every Xmas eve and 6am boxing day. I now work a job where you can take longer. Alot of my colleagues had their last day yday and aren't back till the 6th of Jan. That would be overkill for me personally. I'm off from Xmas day and back the third. Need to use three days annual leave.

Child protection social worker. I'm working everyday apart from bank holidays. My kids are older so I pick up the slack in our team.

It’s the first time in 8 years I have almost 2 weeks off in a row. I’m in the entertainment industry and Christmas / New Year are some of the busiest weeks of the season. Most of the time you manage to schedule 2-3 days off in a row by arranging swaps with colleagues, but I’ve never had such a long stretch off since working at entry level.

We weren’t meant to be off for this long this year either - 26-30 December was a working period as was 2-5 January. However the union managed to negotiate the extended (paid) holiday due to some management errors that meant we worked an illegal schedule for close to 2 weeks earlier in the year. I am not expecting Christmas off again for a very long time…

DH finishes tomorrow until the 6th January and I work freelance so try to have most of December off. I realise we are lucky and this is not the norm.

Not all of them.

Officially we close christmas eve and reopen on 2nd. So 6 working days off. And we have to use 3 days of our annual leave to get that.

I work 27/7/365 shifts and I've not had a Christmas off in 15 years.
Some years are better than others depending on what shift I'm on.

Being off for 1-2 weeks maybe not, but none of the corporate roles I've had in the last 15 years have required weekend/bank holiday working and would be happy for people to use holiday over Christmas week. Personally I like to have one decent break a year, so tend to book 3 weeks over Christmas and my company have no issue with that. Obviously that's a luxury, but I'd never accept a job anywhere that required me to work over Christmas itself.

I worked in retail management and hospitality so December eg run up to Chris tax and Boxing Day were always our busy time.

i now work in early years and I’m off from Christmas Eve until the 3rd Jan but I have taken Monday and Christmas Eve off to give me a longer break.

dh finishes on Friday for a fortnight.

There’s such thing as normal, it depends what you do for a job! I haven’t worked between Xmas and NY for 20+ years and our offices now close over that period so quite normal here but for others (retail, hospitality, medical etc) working will be normal.

A two week forced shut down is a pain in the arse if your employer only gives the stat minimum 20 days (plus banks) annual leave.

Friends of mine in industries like this then have to use 7 days of annual leave along with their 3 banks, leaving 13 annual leaves and 5 banks for the whole of the rest of the year.

My own employer closes Christmas eve and reopens 2nd Jan, so we have to use 3x AL and obvs get the 3x BH but we have a very generous leave allowance so it doesn't sting to be forced to use a small amount then.

I'm very, very fortunate. I work at a university and it shuts down over Christmas and all staff get those days in addition to their annual leave. This year it closes on Friday 20th and re-opens on 2nd Jan. It means I have 2 and half weeks off and i've only used 4 days annual leave.

I’m fortunate that I’ve never worked xmas day as I’m a single parent and my workplace is closed on Xmas day.

I think most workplaces are open over Xmas but I know lots of my colleagues have taken off 2 weeks.

I am fortunately as my last day of work is this Friday and go back to work again 2 January.

Feel very lucky-finished on Friday 13th not back until 6th Jan ! ( Independent school)

I choose to work as much as possible so I get the days off to use in the summer

I'm a contractor we're furloughed over Christmas for over 2 weeks, it's great to have the time off and I appreciate it.
But it is unpaid at the most expensive time of the year and tax bills are due in January so it'll be an extra lean month ahead.

I am a Midwife so will work the whole period on labour suite, but I must say, its pretty incredible and an honour

I work in care and very unusally for the sector, we don't have to work Xmas day or boxing day or NYE and NY day. I'm working a few hours Xmas eve morning, finish at 11am and then not back until a sleep in on the 29th then new year's off

I'm a DN. I'm working Christmas Day, Boxing Day as well as New Year's Eve and New Year's Day

My last day is tomorrow then I'm back in on the 2nd WFH, awaiting confirmation of a site visit on the 3rd for 2 hours then WFH. Then back into the full swing of it on the 6th jan.

It varies loads where I am.

this year as well as the bank holiday days and weekends I’m taking 31st off. But working the other weekdays over the Christmas & new year period.

last year I was on call 23rd-27th which was hectic.

some years I’ve managed a week or more off.