Posted on 11/28/2013 4:57:15 AM PST by ExGeeEye
I haven't been in every business in town. Ever.
Certainly not in the past week.
But during the past week, at every business I've patronized, I've made it a point to ask at least one employee about their holiday schedule.
Only one will be closed today (Thanksgiving Day).
A couple will be closed Christmas Day.
One big store will be open Christmas Day, but closed Christmas Eve.
The businesses that will be open called for volunteers to work those days. All of them offered some sort of compensation: a multiple of the regular hourly rate (usually 2x), a dollar amount bonus, or another regular workday off.
One person in particular is getting Friday off in exchange for working Thanksgiving. He and his family will do "the whole bit" on Friday, and go right into the weekend. Said he'll be better off than the people who take today off and drag themselves in for one or two* more days before the weekend.
Another, a single living too many states away from home, will visit her church for an evening Thanksgiving service after work. "Nothing else to do, better to earn it than spend it", and the bump in the pay rate will help finance her trip home...for Easter Week.
Conclusion: Everyone I've talked to over the past week, who will be working today, do so voluntarily and earn extra in some way for doing it.
Even so, I'm going to assume that anyone working today really needs the money. I'm going to pull myself together and go to Denny's for breakfast, where I will leave a $20 tip on my usual under-$10 order.
Happy Thanksgiving, everybody.
*Those whose "weekends" are Sunday-Monday.
So I assume YOU are working today as well?
Sorry, not my intent. I was just curious, having heard all the muttering about evil capitalists threatening their shivering slaves into laboring on a particular day.
As for canvassing...well, I like to talk to people, and find that they like to talk to me.
No, I’m not working today (unless you count the fact I returned some work emails this morning that came in last night). But I’m happy that others are!
I guess I could have worded that better - I meant to say that in a good natured kind of way!
the way things have been lately I’d work today if it paid good enough. Thankful for what I do have but this economy has taken a very serious toll on my finances. Makes you want to give up at times.
I have a dear coworker who works weekends and some evenings at her second job as a bartender/waitress.
Complicated family situation, and the turkey dinner was not an option, so she volunteered to work all day today, hoping to do well with tips. Otherwise, she would be home alone today.
I have always eschewed patronizing any business open Thanksgiving or Christmas, but her circumstances may make me rethink that.
No, I’m not working today (unless you count the fact I returned some work emails this morning that came in last night). But I’m happy that others are!
So you like to have people ready to service you on a holiday, while you take off. Got it. I am glad that makes you happy.
Working on T day just another facet of the modern society.
Highly doubtful any work or commerce was going on back in Colonial times. The Amish will get by just fine today without a trip to the store. Yet I will pick up a newspaper for my friends before I drive out there later on.
I have to admit that it does make me happy to have people working on holidays, ready to serve me. Is there supposed to be something wrong with that? They do get compensated as a result.
I don’t know if they are unionized.
This actually applies every single week....to Sundays. Without any blue laws, employers are totally empowered to demand workers work on Sunday, even though, theoretically, it is supposed to be "voluntary" and the law requires employers to respect employees' religious Sabbath. They do not.
People wonder why so few young people go to church. Entry level jobs are most often in the service industry--where almost always, people are required...to work on the Lord's day. Very sad, and, wrong.
I feel the same way. If you look at Hobby Lobby’s, (always closed on the holidays and every Sunday), margins. Then compare it to other retailers of the same size. Hobby Lobby does better, has happier employees, and more loyal customers. Retailers with their stupid pricing games, bait and switch tactics, high employee turnover, and customers loyal only to the lowest price. They are their own worst enemy. I do not shop on Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, or Sunday. I do not eat out on Sunday. Unless I am traveling beyond the full tank range of my truck, I don’t even buy gas on Sunday.
Happy Thanksgiving to you.
You’ll get no argument from me on that. I do not shop on Sundays unless I have to drive further than the tank of gas I filled up on Saturday will take me. Then I will buy gas.
Surprised the leftists haven’t yet fully hijacked this old white man’s holiday and morphed it into Thanksgiving for Big Government day with all their leftist heroes as the ‘New Progressive Pilgrims’.and giving thanks to God is a violation of church and state. Not so far-fetched anymore is it?
The shoppers are part of the problem. But if all the retailers closed on Sundays and Holidays, the shoppers would still buy as much in less time. If Hobby Lobby has something I want, I’ll even pay more to buy it there on the days they are open. Rather than encourage their competitors to abuse their employees.
Yes.
Don’t forget the Folks at the Water & Wastewater Plants.
Without Us you can’t wash the pot ya pissed in.
Per usual few think about it until it doesn’t come outy of that faucet or swirl down the drain/bowl and THEN We are #1 on the speed dial and get bitched at even though We are up to our a$$ a pit full of H2o trying to fix it ASAP.
24/7/365 -50 to +130 degrees, rain, shine, sleet or snow.
Hey it was down to 39 degrees here this morning. We don’t even have a furnace and heat pumps just dont work down that low.
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