Oh no! What a terrible catastrophe!

[booger]

I don't work Sundays anyway, so this is awesome that I won't have to work Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. wooty! Our store is open every day of the year except for Christmas, where we close at 6PM on Christmas Eve and open at 6AM on the 26th. Other than that, we're open 24/7.

[I See Stupid People]

I am SO moving back across the pond...

[ArenaBoy]

Last year I had to work Christmas Day and I just checked the schedule for the NBA team and I don't have to work Eve or Day. I might have to work the Day after though.

[Rapscallion]

Let me get this clear. It's the law and not just store policy? Does this apply to all types of businesses?

Yup - it's the law in the UK. Large stores cannot open for more than six hours on a Sunday, and there are a few Sundays they cannot open, such as Easter Sunday. Small shops (there's a limit based on square footage) can open for as long as they like, but there's not that much trade for them on Sundays these days as everyone buggers off to the supermarket at about ten am or so.

One of the major chains (Morrisons) actually campaigned against allowing Sunday trading through the 'Keep Sunday Special' campaign, since the owners knew that it would just take trade from the rest of the week (ergo more costs for the same income), but it's open on Sundays on the grounds that it cannot lose market share.

A story that came to me through the grapevine from someone in the know at a supermarket is that their place took £26,000 on the first Sunday opening (this was within the last decade or so), but the Monday takings were down by that amount.

Rapscallion

[Rapscallion]

As an addition to this, though it's a reasonably recent development over here, it's become enshrined to an amusing extent. There's a rule about opening over christmas about how if it falls near a weekend, you can't open on the Sunday of that weekend, or something like that.

I drove down to our local supermarket to indulge in a little sport last year. Several people were clustered around the locked door, and I pulled up in my car and wound my window down.

"It's closed," they whined.

"I know. Great, isn't it?" I said, before lauging and driving off to the other supermarket in town. I came back after lathering, rinsing, and repeating, and did the same again to different people clustered around the still-locked doors...

Rapscallion

[AirHostess]

Rapscallion-I love your posts

As a flight attendant you expect to work over Christmas so I'm ok with it, of course I'd rather not but you know that when you go to the interview you could be working anyday! Oooo actually I just checked the website and apparently no flights on Christmas Day...woo hoo!

Working retail back in the day I could never understand who would want to go shopping Boxing Day...it's a lazy day for staying in your PJ's in my house. One store I worked in opened and got £100 for the day- they didn't bother opening after that. I think the rules in England are great, 6 hour shopping on Sundays etc

[Ree]

I am pretty excited because, for the first time in almost 20 years, I will actually get the appropriate Christmas holidays to which I am entitled.

I will leave work at 5 pm Saturday on the 23rd and will not have to return to work until Dec 27, or if I am able to actually book the whole week, not until January 4.

That will depend on what happens with the Saturday rotation, of course, since we are losing a guy to the delivery truck. If I play it right, I could end up with even more time off.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I will be working just Wednesday Christmas week, cuz that week I get Thursday and Friday off. Yay.

[Sacknahalf05]

Yay! A 3-day weekend for me, as I never work on Sundays and Christmas day is the only day my company is closed (a home-shopping company). Although, I'd almost rather work on Christmas Eve, and deal with the "can I get this item by Christmas if I order it right now, at 3pm on christmas eve?" Rather than the day after Christmas "I didn't get my item and it was guaranteed by Christmas, blahh blahh you are a bunch of %&#!!$ and I'm going to $&#*& your $#(*&"

Ah, heck with it. I'm in Sales. Complaints is what Customer Service is for

[Racket_Man]

the last 2 years I worked Christmas/New Years Eve and Day at the gas station (27/7/365) OK I got double time onthose days ----

BUT THIS YEAR ----- I am FREEEEEEEEEEEEEE for 6 days. I talked to my manager about 6 or 7 months ago and told him I wanted my vacation over Xmas so my daughter and I could go visit my Mom who live about 500 miles away.


and one other thing ------ WHY IS IT A REQUIREMENT THAT I HAVE TO BE FORCE TO LISTEN TO XMAS MUSIC BEFORE THANKSGIVING?????? One of our apporved radio stations starts to play THAT music about 1 or 2 weeks before THanksgiving and the have a VERY SHORT PLAYLIST. By the time Xmnas comes I want to slit my wrists sooooooooo bad. And I have to put up with Johm Tesh to boot. I swore to my manager that if I had to work Xmas Day this year I was going to put the radio on the local heavy metal station (apporpreately called the RAZOR)

[Canarr]

You might want to move to Germany instead - Sundays are closed, for everything except gas stations. There will be occasional "Open Sundays", but these are few and far between - maybe two or three per year, and always connected with some event in the city where they're located.

Other than that, no shopping on Sunday - or after 8 pm on week days. More than enough time to get your shopping done.

[Pagan]

I just had the same epiphany recently. Looked at the calendar and saw Christmas is on a Monday (Thanksgiving is the only other day our store is closed), which means Christmas Eve is on a Sunday. So, since I don't work on Sundays (which was because of a D&D game I was in ), I will have Christmas Eve off for the first time in about 8 or 9 years!

[Lulu]

Now, because the owner of our shop found out that the laws are different for smaller businesses, he's decided he'll decide how long we have to stay open on Christmas Eve...so...I looked up the laws on workers rights in such a circumstance and found these little gems :

Shop and betting workers have the right:

not to be dismissed for refusing to do shop or betting work on Sundays;
not to be selected for redundancy for refusing to do shop or betting work on Sundays;
not to suffer any other detriment for refusing to do shop or betting work on Sundays. Detriment is not defined in the legislation but could include, for example, denial of overtime, promotion or training opportunities.


So, he can demand all he likes, but we have the legal RIGHT to refuse to work AT ALL.....mwahahahahahahaha If he's lucky and asks us nicely, we'll do 10-4

[Kogarashi]

Well, normally this year, I would be getting Christmas Eve off (due to getting all my Sundays off thanks to church services), and Christmas Day as well because Wal-Mart closes at 6pm Christmas Eve and doesn't reopen until 6 or 7 am on the 26th.

Except for the fact that my baby's duedate is Dec. 20th, and therefore I am not planning on working past the very beginning of that month. So no post-Christmas working for me! You know, except in the baby-raising department.

I did like it in Utah, though, because a lot of retailers would be closed on Sundays due to a large percentage of the population being of the same religion that advocates Don't-Work-On-Sundays/Don't-Make-Others-Work-On-Sundays. Was very annoying, though, trying to explain to one potential employer that I could not work for them because of their mandatory Sunday rotations, not because I am a member of the aforementioned religion (which I am, but I needed a paycheck), but because my only transportation was the bus and the bus lines did not run at all on Sundays.

[SongsOfDragons]

I have an Xmas job in F.Hinds jewellery store, and I'm really looking forward to it too. The people there are wacko!!! I asked the guy to work Xmas eve, cause that's the day I hate - all that waiting around for bedtime, now I'm *hopefully* going to be occupied all day.