Should stores be closed on Thanksgiving?

[mikehaugen]

What about manufacturing operations? The plant that I work at is running on Thanksgiving (today). Typically, we are a 24/7 operation but try to close on holidays when production demands are met. When we run on holidays, we take volunteers from most senior employees down, then force employees from least senior up if there are not enough volunteers. I'm not a fan of running on holidays, but I have had to work them in the past for shut-down related projects.

I can tell you from my perspective, most of the time we don't have to force anyone to work, because they want the overtime (it is a 2 1/2 time day). I don't know if that is the same from retail establishments or not.

I just worked last night (my Thursday) because of a shutdown... such is the life for industrial maintenance crews I guess. We are installing new machinery and the big cheeses up front figured it was less important for us to have a nice holiday weekend than to minimize the impact the install would have on production. I will work tomorrow as well. I guess it could be worse... the day shift crew is there during the day today and we have contractors working around the clock all weekend.

 

[dave1949]

I just worked last night (my Thursday) because of a shutdown... such is the life for industrial maintenance crews I guess. We are installing new machinery and the big cheeses up front figured it was less important for us to have a nice holiday weekend than to minimize the impact the install would have on production. I will work tomorrow as well. I guess it could be worse... the day shift crew is there during the day today and we have contractors working around the clock all weekend.

A lot of large or complicated software updates or conversions get done on holiday weekends too. It's the only time it's possible to keep the users off the system long enough to get it done.

 

[RobertN]

I don't care if someone wants to shop so bad they do it today or Friday. For some folks it also means a job and food on the table. Well, I would prefer not to work today, or Christmas. But if it means I have a job I will if needed.

Eddie is a Marine, and has stood duty on every major holiday. A few other folks here serve in USMC, USAF, USN, US Army and have done same. In combat and hostile situations.

I have worked at the fire station. Now I am a volunteer now, but a few years ago, I was on-shift on Thanksgiving and Christmas. My pager is on right now though...

All the primary stations in our fire district are staffed as usual right now. All the local deputies are on their patrols, as are the highway patrol. Our local hospital and ER is staffed as Eddie mentions. So are the elderly care homes.

For folks complaining about working Thanksgiving, or Christmas, try combat. Or a working structure fire with the family who lost everything watching from the sidewalk. Or work an ER shift trying to save someones Grandma or baby while the family is frantically crying just outside the door.

My girlfriend is a manager at one of the big hospitals in town and she has well over a hundred nurses that work for her. The hospital is open every holiday, all day and night long. None of them are complaining about working Thanksgiving. They know it's coming and they plan their family time around their work time.

Eddie

 

[RobertN]

My wife had to work New Years 2000.... Back then, she was a Sys Admin at Intel and oversaw some of their important computing infrastructure. The paranoia was real; the big companies were all up in arms about that...

A lot of large or complicated software updates or conversions get done on holiday weekends too. It's the only time it's possible to keep the users off the system long enough to get it done.

 

[dave1949]

My wife had to work New Years 2000.... Back then, she was a Sys Admin at Intel and oversaw some of their important computing infrastructure. The paranoia was real; the big companies were all up in arms about that...

Yep, Y2K was very real for many aging computer systems. The project I worked on, the company literally could not produce a useful invoice after 12/31/99 with their old system.

Imagine trying to do invoicing/accounts payable where 30-60-90 days means a lot, or W2's when you can't get the year correct.

 

[daugen]

well it is clear the level of our civilization hasn't risen one iota when I see this as a headline today:

Hey, how did you get stabbed? Well, I was knifed in the Christmas Spirit...

Holiday shopping starts with fights

There were reports of fights at several Walmarts. One man was stabbed and two were arrested fighting over a parking space in Virginia.

 

[Midniteoyl]

Ya.. read another where a guy was shot over a PS4


This is why I stay home

 

[Gary Fowler]

The secret to not shopping on Black Friday, Thanksgiving day or any other day is to own everything you could possibly ever need (sometimes more than one)

 

[TomSeller]

Good idea.

 

[CurlyDave]

For my entire life, I have been hearing this issue every major Holiday.

The evil retailer of the year (it wasn't always WalMart) is making people work on Thanksgiving, Christmas, or whatever day is "sacred".

Think about this for a little bit. WalMart can not force anyone to work on any given day. Every single day that an employee works there it is voluntary. Every single one of those employees can quit whenever she wants to.

Now they might not like working on a Holiday, but they think about the overall benefit of the job they have and and decide that it is worth it to have a job rather than have this day off.

In our neck of the woods, unemployment is at least 15% by the government measure, more like 40% if you add in the people who don't bother to look any more since they haven't found anything in the past three years. Those jobs at WalMart that are so underpaid and have such horrible working conditions, start to look pretty good when your neighbors haven't had steady work for years.