Has anyone out there ever had to WORK Christmas Day?

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My flatmate spent most of yesterday sitting at home stropping because he'd been rota'd on to work Christmas day (from 4pm to midnight ie the best bit) and the family live in Cheltenham so it has effectively eaten his whole Christmas in one go. But he works for a national newspaper, and hey, I'm sure there'll be people queing up to buy the 1ndependent on on Boxing Day, so, well, tough shit really.

I could never work on Christmas Day - it strikes me as the ultimate example of work encroaching too much on your life, but obviously in certain professions it is unavoidable.

Have you ever worked Christmas Day? What happened?

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Friday, 19 December 2003 11:22 (twenty-one years ago)

i never have but i think i would happily do so this year, esp. if there was the prospect of double yer earnings

― stevem (blueski), Friday, 19 December 2003 11:26 (twenty-one years ago)

My Mum works Christmas Day every second year coz she works in a secure unit for bad boys & girls so somebody has to watch them! If you do Christams you get New Year off and vice versa.

My Dad used to own an ice cream van and Christams Eve,Christmas Day, Hogmanay & New Years Day were his busiest days

― smee (smee), Friday, 19 December 2003 11:29 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm sure there'll be people queing up to buy the 1ndependent on on Boxing Day.

Are you quite sure about this? (j/k)
I know someone who had to work the 99/00 NYE at the Indie.

― Enrique (Enrique), Friday, 19 December 2003 11:32 (twenty-one years ago)

After Enrique's post I'll give half an hour tops before somebody makes reference to.....

― Fred Nerk (Fred Nerk), Friday, 19 December 2003 11:33 (twenty-one years ago)

... the Millennium Bug?

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Friday, 19 December 2003 11:36 (twenty-one years ago)

I often wonders what happens in the bits of the world that CAN'T shut down over Christmas? Do prisoners get a proper turkey dinner? Are hospitals really like the Christmas Casualty where all the nurses wear tinsel?

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Friday, 19 December 2003 11:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Close (2nd last post Matt).

― Fred Nerk (Fred Nerk), Friday, 19 December 2003 11:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Part of it is how much you value xmas--I don't so am happy to work xmas day if necessary and get that holiday back at a time of my choosing (basically I don't get paid extra but get an extra vacation day). I'm young and single and until recently lived quite a way from my parents, so why not let the folks with family have their fun? And yeah, the radio doesn't shut down over xmas--someone has to play that AWFUL xmas music.

― teeny (teeny), Friday, 19 December 2003 11:38 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm trying to think, but I don't think I've ever worked Christmas Day. (Unless singing in a choir counts, but I was underage at the time, so therefore didn't get paid like the regular choristers did.)

Which is kind of a shame, because I wouldn't actually mind it.

I *have* worked on New Years Eve and New Years Day, though. Sucks being the Sys Admin that has to turn all the databases over manually. That bugged me.

x-post...

Are hospitals really like the Christmas Casualty where all the nurses wear tinsel?

Yes. They are. Got a staff email this morning about how the wards are having a competition as to who can be most tinselly on Xmas.

― HRH Queen Kate (kate), Friday, 19 December 2003 11:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Matt - Prisoners in a certain Glasgow prison last year got 2 slices of Bern*rd M*thews turkey breast and some croquets.

― smee (smee), Friday, 19 December 2003 11:39 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm guessing we'll find more americans than brits who work over xmas.

― teeny (teeny), Friday, 19 December 2003 11:39 (twenty-one years ago)

After Enrique's post I'll give half an hour tops before somebody makes reference to.....

Geir? Simon Price? What??

― Enrique (Enrique), Friday, 19 December 2003 11:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Enrique, I'll post the answer at 11.03 pm AEST (ie in about 18 minutes)

― Fred Nerk (Fred Nerk), Friday, 19 December 2003 11:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Thanking you.

― Enrique (Enrique), Friday, 19 December 2003 11:45 (twenty-one years ago)

OK, I was wrong.

Matt was pretty warm. He mentioned the Millennium Bug. I was sure the Millennium Bore would re-emerge: you know, that tedious git who ran rampant around 1999-2000, whose idea of the world's earth-shakingly vital issue was whether the Millennium started 1/1/00 or 1/1/01.

― Fred Nerk (Fred Nerk), Friday, 19 December 2003 12:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Do you mean Tony Blair?

― Enrique (Enrique), Friday, 19 December 2003 12:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Ah - I thought it might have been that whole thing about the world not ending after all.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Friday, 19 December 2003 12:09 (twenty-one years ago)

Hey, I worked the Millenium Bug shift as a Sys Admin - OK, I wasn't in the office overnight, but I was there at 7pm on the 31st shutting everything down and at noon on the 1st getting it all back up.

Yeah, it's a total freaking joke, looking back at it, but at the time, yeah, there were several (fairly old) machines in the office that had hiccoughs and had to be coaxed back to life. Including the server!

It doesn't matter what the Millenium Bore said, the Millenium Bug itself was supposed to strike on 01/01/00 due to the very nature of the thing, duh, etc. tedium ad nauseum...

― HRH Queen Kate (kate), Friday, 19 December 2003 12:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Sorry everybody, you can have your thread back now! I've never had to work Christmas Day, and in 99% of cases I would tend to agree with Matt about it being the ultimate encroachment.

― Fred Nerk (Fred Nerk), Friday, 19 December 2003 12:17 (twenty-one years ago)

I nearly had to work Christmas Day last year, I was certainly rota-d for it, until the conversation with my team leader went like this:

Me: I can't work Christmas Day, or Boxing Day.
TL: Why?
Me: Because I come in on the train and there's no trains on those two days.
TL: Can't you get your wife to drive you in?
Me: Would you like to ask her to drive me from Newport to Cardiff at 8am Christmas Day?
TL: (Long pause) No, not really. OK, I'll sort it out.

It got sorted. If you work here Christmas day (here being directory enquiries, like you didn't know), you get triple time and three days off in lieu. I'm not sure how many people would actually ring DQ on Christmas Day mind, so I'd imagine it'll be quite quiet.

It's not really work but I'm playing in a carol concert from 10 to 11 Christmas morning in church. You're all welcome, of course.

― Rob M (Rob M), Friday, 19 December 2003 12:59 (twenty-one years ago)

I enlisted in the USAF Nov. 23, 1999. Basic Training lasted 6 weeks (I did a guard shift through the New Year, up all night with a flashlight waiting for the power to go out and something hopefully to blow up).

― TOMBOT, Friday, 19 December 2003 14:41 (twenty-one years ago)

When the recruiter told me that Nov. 23rd was the earliest date available for me to begin active duty my heart leapt for joy, actually. Compared to spending the holidays at home unemployed those 6 weeks were a wet dream. Don't tell my parents.

― TOMBOT, Friday, 19 December 2003 14:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Yes.

That's all I'm going to say about that because my job can go fuck itself in the ass in two weeks.

― Allyzay, Friday, 19 December 2003 14:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Yup, sometimes I've even volunteered. If you knew my family, my sister mainly, you'd understand.

― Huckleberry Mann (Horace Mann), Friday, 19 December 2003 14:57 (twenty-one years ago)

yeah, overtime at least.

― kephm, Friday, 19 December 2003 15:10 (twenty-one years ago)

I have to work the nights of the 23rd, 24th, 25th and 26th this year.

― Ed (dali), Friday, 19 December 2003 15:34 (twenty-one years ago)

does high school count? when i worked at giangrasso bakery, i had to be at work at 6am on thanksgiving, christmas day, and (ugh) new year's day.

― maura (maura), Friday, 19 December 2003 16:13 (twenty-one years ago)

i had to park cars at Hustler last xmas, i think i had 3 cars, all dancers, it was raining...i have this Christmas off, i worked Thanksgiving, got one car (dancer)

― Vacillating temp (Vacillating temp), Friday, 19 December 2003 23:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Not on Xmas Day. But I've had to work on the night of my birthday, once.

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Friday, 19 December 2003 23:58 (twenty-one years ago)

I've gone into the office on Christmas Day (may not have necessarily worked) because I really had nothing else to do.

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Saturday, 20 December 2003 00:05 (twenty-one years ago)

I've done the midnight shift on Chrismas Eve/day several times at a gas station. And delivered pizzas on Christmas eve another.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Saturday, 20 December 2003 03:10 (twenty-one years ago)

I'll be working this xmas day. Alcoholism never takes a break.

― Viva La Sam (thatgirl), Saturday, 20 December 2003 09:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Yep, I have. The curse of being a career bartender.

― Matt (Matt), Sunday, 21 December 2003 01:58 (twenty-one years ago)

yes, upthread i meant other's alcholism to which I shall cater. not my own.

― Viva La Sam (thatgirl), Sunday, 21 December 2003 02:03 (twenty-one years ago)

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