Is anyone else at work during the holidays? I got swing shift throughout entire holiday season, it sucks that i won't be able to enjoy my Christmas dinner with my family, considering it was supposed to be my first holidays with new family..

 

Bummer.

You won't have to worry about that after you retire

 

Yup, been there done that, a few years back.

Trick that worked for me was to pretend that Christmas day is just like any other day, but to have a great day some other day. Just a matter of attitude and fooling the mind.

Not quite the same thing, but as a bonus, you get two Christmas days.....

I still try a similar trick for Birthdays..... Accept that my real birthday may be a disappointment, but have a fantastic day a few days later when the planets align better to make for a great day.

Have abysmally low expectations, and you will never be disappointed.

My next psychiatrist appointment is Wednesday

 

I still try a similar trick for Birthdays

My last company made our birthday one of our holidays. Unless it was a National Holiday, we could use our other holiday days as floaters; so I never actually took my birthday off.

Luckily that policy was implemented long before the current batch of ruthless executives who value money over anything else. Of course I'm not in a position to care now. I can appreciate when their ruthlessness causes the stock price to go up.

 

Not quite the same thing, but as a bonus, you get two Christmas days.....

Not quite, no schedule change for me, just another week..
The only positive that I have is I get paid 2x on 25th...

 

The only positive that I have is I get paid 2x on 25th...

I remember 35 years ago we were paid triple time Christmas day. There was guaranteed 100% staff attendance despite only half the work to be done. Nobody phoned in sick and nobody took leave.

Soon after the system changed to single time, and strangely, minimum skeleton staffing became the norm for Christmas day.

But a job is a job. Just part of life. (the part that pays the bills and provides a pension)

 

Where I worked for 14 years we had no specific days off. We got (as a new hire) ten days of VHS -- combined vacation-holiday-sick days that you could use whenever and however you wanted, subject only to the needs of the project to get done on time. So no one took time off prior to a submission deadline -- in fact that is when most of us put in 70 to 100+ hours a week for a week or two. But we got paid for every single hour we worked -- and we could take pretty much as much unpaid time off as we wanted -- subject only to the same progress on the projects and also to averaging at least about 30 hr/wk over the course of a year to justify the very sweet benefits package we all got. The result was that people tended to work longer hours toward the end of the year to fund their holiday plans and we usually ended up starting the new year with all of the projects in really good shape.

There weren't many complaints. I saved all of my VHS time for nearly a decade before simply cashing it out. I still had time off, I just chose not to get paid for it and to let the VHS accrue so that when I did cash it in, it would be at a higher per-hour value.

 

Someone has to mind the children on the job. Happy Holidays.

 

Christmas in boot camp was "special."

As was Christmas on a nuclear submarine.

 

Christmas in boot camp was "special."

As was Christmas on a nuclear submarine.

I spent July 4, 1976 on duty. That was special.

 

I'll be in the office tomorrow. Just as soon as I send the family off on their holiday.

 

I spent July 4, 1976 on duty. That was special.

I bet it was. What did they do forbthe bicentennial?

 

I will be putting in hours later tonight, into the morning, of my own volition. Trying get caught up on my project. It's nice to set my own schedule. I took a nap earlier. Sweet!

 

I bet it was. What did they do for the bicentennial?

I heard there was a big party but I've no idea as I was stuck inside all day minding the store. The day is a total blank today.

 

I was at Coney Island Lighthouse, watching the parade of ships entering NY Harbor. July 4th, 1976.

When they re-lit the statue of Liberty in 1986. I was on Governors Island, directly across from the Lady, at the Chief's Club doing volunteer work ... like buying Willard Scott a beer at 7 am.