brihoppy

Afternoon all,

It's my understanding that as a shift worker, it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect a leave ban to be in place over the festive period.

Obviously this is to avoid everyone attempting to take the same days off, leaving some inevitably disappointed.

Is this commonplace in the commercial world?

Any thoughts or opinions?

Cheers,

Bri.

daveyj

iTrader: (1)

Depends on the business tbh. Not unreasonable imo.

Ant

i did work for a company that did the same as it was its the busiest period of the year and needed everyone in. not end of the world for me at the time

Chip

I would say it's quite reasonable.

brihoppy

As I thought. In general I've had the same response from everyone except the company I work for!!

They can't seem to get their heads around the fact that the current 'management discretion' policy isn't really the best way to go.

mart360

Unless stated in your contract, all bank holidays are technically days off!

any dates around that are at the company's discretion

You may be required to work a bank holiday, for which there should be a reciprocal arrangement, or agreement in force...


(unless you work for a one man band, who can usually do whatever the F*ck they want lol)


Mart

CharlySkunkWeed

iTrader: (7)

At my work we just received the callout rota (we all do one weekend every 6 weeks, and the boss covers weekdays) and this year they have decided to put us on call for 2 days each over the xmas period (boss is covering xmas eve/day)
Not really pleased that I'm on call during my holidays , coz technically I wont be on holiday ! Yes its fair as in we all are on the rota , but think I need to speak to the boss to see if thats really fair not being free do do what I please on my holiday.

RoyPinhey

Try working in retail

RobsyUK

iTrader: (2)

Christmas off for me

Felix.

I'm:
day shifts Christmas Eve & Christmas Day
late shifts Boxing Day & 27th
night shifts 28th & 29th

So Christmas cheer or wine for me.....

Qwertyco

iTrader: (2)

Christmas is for kids,
got kids/have christmas.
Not got kids/grow up and get on with life.
******* pantomime time.

Anyone want a humbug?

Lisawrx

iTrader: (1)

I do, but thankfully I've been granted my holiday request for between Christmas and New Year.

Feel sorry for people from some of our stores as we are now opening some on Boxing Day. I know plenty retailers have for some time now, but it's always crap when it eventually hits your own place.

thenewgalaxy

The joys of being self employed

zip106

Was going to say the same thing.

I can have as much time off as I like, when I like

Wage slave numpties

scoobyboy1

iTrader: (16)

Dont know what your all moaning at, Father Christmas got to work on Xmas day!!

paulr

That's awful having to work on Boxing Day, just to satisfy our never ending desire to shop.

Lisawrx

iTrader: (1)

Despite the fact that us retail workers rely on people coming out to shop, I do find it a little sad that people can't take a break from it for a couple of days a year. I'd imagine that not too long in the future, shops will be open every day of the year.

scoobyboy1

iTrader: (16)

More chance of all the shops shutting down due to people shopping on the internet!!!

Been over 3 years since I went to a town centre to buy anything!!!

brihoppy

Thanks for the input so far.

I'm particularly interested to hear from anyone in the hospitality or security industry.

brihoppy

I'm trying to establish any 'norms'.

Midlife......

iTrader: (2)

I take on average 16 days out of my allotted 34 days holiday a year.......

Your norms will be in your T's and C's

Shaun

Lisawrx

iTrader: (1)

I see where you are coming from, wanting to know what happens elsewhere, but it doesn't really matter. The 'rules' your employer has is up to them, and whilst you could try to sway them, it is their decision.

When I first started at my place, nobody was allowed to take holiday in December at all, as it's the busiest time. That has since changed and they now allow holiday any time, no matter what, but it's on a first come, first served basis and the number of staff allowed off at any one time, is restricted at peak times. However, on my team, for some reason, the general rule is we are only allowed one person off per week at all times, so we are always in the position of having to get in quick if we want a particular holiday. To some extent, I don't understand why Christmas should be any different.

That said, is this worth a thought if it could work? We used to (and still do to a point) rota people in who didn't have kids on Christmas Eve, so those with kids could be at home, then they would work the New Year shift, so the kid free people could go out or whatever they wanted to do and generally that worked fairly well. Obviously if you work in hospitality, I'd imagine you're stuck working all through, so that may need to be tweaked and it depends on how many staff there are, but it could be a base for a suggestion that your employers may be more in favour of than a ban on leave????

Infected by sti

iTrader: (6)

We run dom care homes where we provide supported living for mental health, learning diss, challenging behaviour etc and would be impossible to grant Christmas leave to the staff as we would have no staff to provide the care needs to the tenants, we leave the staff sort it out amongst them selves as to who works what, we find it works much better than us handing down rotas that may not suit everybody as some have children, some do the family thing etc, never have no issues and find "sickness" levels at bare minimum, some will always have a grip I suppose if your not use to ever working holidays over the years, but at least they have some input as to what they work so can at least accommodate some plans.

If the houses can grant leave as they have ample staffing levels on and some tenants may go home to family's and the rest of the staff team have no problems with other staff taking leave then they can take leave.

lordharding

iTrader: (1)

We close 5 days before Xmas then work constantly for 14 days 9am -8pm for the January sales

I don't mind I make a fortune ££££ but it's hard work

I agree with others though and share it out for those with kids To be off in Xmas day and those singles to be off for new years eve /day
But employers can do what they want and in this economic climate with hundreds chasing jobs my advice is
""Don't rock the boat ""

Peedee

iTrader: (4)

To say that people with kids should get xmas day is discriminating against people without kids. Why should I be punished for not having kids (im personally not actually fussed about xmas, just trying to balance the argument!).

Ive had to work a few xmas's over the years and it really doesnt bother me. If you work, be prepared to work when you dont want to, thats life. I completely agree with the comment above about 'sorting it out between yourselves'. Get together, have a chat and come up with a plan that means people are a bit happier, that way there are less arguments.

mart360

No but if my memory serves me correctly, you get

double time for CD & BD and and an additional day off for each one worked

and subject to local agreements you can move CD & BD to days of your choice

All i used to get was £8 per call out regardless of how long it lasted, no time in leu or double time ...

Mart

JGlanzaV

iTrader: (3)

I used to work for a major FM company as an electrician, and had a pretty good system going with them, Id be the first one to put my name down all over christmas an extra £100 a day for been on call, and double time as soon as i left my front door. And the office is shut so I wouldnt have to go in to normal "work"

So all the other idiots, used their valuable holiday up over christmas, I was getting paid my normal wage, plus £100 every day and still sitting at home waiting for a call out that would never come as I was mainly looking after EMPTY buildings where no one would notice if there was an emergency until everyone went back to work.

And I have no signal at my house anyways, so no one could ever get hold of me anyway

Made a fortune from sitting at the bar over christmas...


EDIT - plus major brownie points and owed favours from all other engineers whom I "graciously" helped them out by covering their call out, (Which i was gonna do anyway ) and the management, meant I pretty much got away with anything I wanted haha

pimmo2000

iTrader: (6)

Only if he's running late.

DYK

Its how this country has gone though isn't it,leave work early,have a couple days off and you're slated for it.Lets be slaves to work.
Europe is bank holiday this weekend lisa,Friday/Monday,they take it no matter what.If it falls on a Saturday,they still take it Monday.Our guys who are working have had to down tools and come home for the weekend,Go back Tuesday.
Bringing back Shops Close on Sunday in UK, Best joke i hear all year so far..



Just to add,i'm off on holiday all next week

hodgy0_2

Yes, I have never understood this too - why swap a glorious day in June, when you could get 18 hours of sunshine, for simply watching sh1te tv in the dark on a wet miserable day in December

Especially if you work in the bits of the economy that are pretty quite over the Xmas season

Obviously if you are going away, skiing etc it is different

We tend to do Xmas away one year then at home and hosting the next, I always work on the years we host, although I do work from home when I want too