Are you working Thanksgiving, 2014?

[bulldog1979]

I worked retail for 10 years at a few different Walmart stores. The ones that were Supercenters were open on Thanksgiving. The few years that I worked, I was scheduled from 7 a.m. until 4 p.m., but I usually left at noon. The last couple of years, we rearranged some scheduling to get the day off in my office in the store.

Two years ago, I worked at a hotel. The front desk manager and I each worked 12-hour shifts so that the rest of the staff could have that day off. My family and I had Thanksgiving earlier in the week so I could travel on my days to see them. As a result, I got several days off at Christmas.

I'm glad that I got out of retail by the time Black Friday started this creep into "Gray Thursday". My family has never been the type to shop on that day. Personally, outside of essential services, I think that the only businesses that should be open on Thanksgiving or Christmas are limited in number. Marquette's restaurants take turns opening from year to year so that one is available, usually with a limited menu. I'm not sure the fast food places even bother opening. Not all of the gas stations open, and I suspect that rotates from year to year. Last time I checked, bars are forbidden from operating after a specified hour on Christmas Eve until noon on Boxing Day.

[ZLoth]

I'm at work now, and in about an hour, it will be Thanksgiving.

[misterjimmy]

I have tonight (Wednesday) off, but have to work Thursday night. We were gonna have T-Day dinner tonight, but nobody felt like cooking! What the heck, at least we already got the turkey.

[signalman]

I'm in retail, so today is indeed a work day for me.  I'll be working my normal 5am-1pm shift.  I'm paid time and a half for it, and I don't mind working Thanksgiving.  I go to my dad and step mom's for dinner and they live locally.  IMO, Thanksgiving is a better holiday to work than Christmas, although I've worked plenty of Christmas days too.  Not this one though, it's my turn to have that one off this year.

[Pete from Boston]

Since I'm lazy, my first thought this morning was that I need to buy a cup of coffee before I hit the road.  Then I realized this creates demand for people to not be home on Thanksgiving, and thought better of it. 

[vtk]

I work for a company that provides crew transportation for the railroads. The railroads aren't shutting down for the holiday, but most of their industrial customers are, so there should be fewer trains running and less work for my job.

My days off are Tuesday and Wednesday. We have more drivers than vans in Columbus at my company, so this Thursday like any other, I'm waiting for a call from my supervisor or a coworker about getting in a van. If that doesn't happen, I don't work today.

If a business wants to be open on the holiday, that's fine. But the stores having mega sales today are artificially increasing the demand for their wares today (or shifting it from other days, more likely) and increasing the pressure on their employees to work the holiday. Staying open but low-key with a skeleton staff is respectable. Holding a blowout and asking all your employees to show up because you "need" them for the event is a dick move.

[CNGL-Leudimin]

And since I live across the pond, I had to do my 45 mile commute as every day. Today is like another day here, but we'll have two holidays back to back soon. Too bad this year December 7th is Sunday...

[oscar]

And since I live across the pond, I had to do my 45 mile commute as every day. Today is like another day here, but we'll have two holidays back to back soon. Too bad this year December 7th is Sunday...

In the U.S., December 7 is Pearl Harbor Day.

[cjk374]

If a business wants to be open on the holiday, that's fine. But the stores having mega sales today are artificially increasing the demand for their wares today (or shifting it from other days, more likely) and increasing the pressure on their employees to work the holiday. Staying open but low-key with a skeleton staff is respectable. Holding a blowout and asking all your employees to show up because you "need" them for the event is a dick move.

   

I see crew vans working for the KCS and UP all the time, but we don't use them because we are such a small railroad.  What is the name of the company you work for?

[SteveG1988]

Yes.

[1995hoo]

We're having my parents and brother over for dinner. My feet feel like I've been doing manual labor for several days.

We cheated and wound up using a pre-made pie crust after the first two crusts fell apart.

[Takumi]

I'm at work now. It's dead, to say the least.

[signalman]

Since I'm lazy, my first thought this morning was that I need to buy a cup of coffee before I hit the road.  Then I realized this creates demand for people to not be home on Thanksgiving, and thought better of it. 

Well done.  I wish more thought like you.  Sadly, I don't see thinking along those lines progressing as time goes on.

I have to laugh at people who say things like, "I can't believe that you have to work today" or "I can't believe that you're open."  My response is usually along the lines of, "Well, had you planned ahead a little better, I wouldn't need to be open" or "You stopped in expecting me to be open, didn't you?"

[J N Winkler]

Other people who work on Thanksgiving:  nurse aides and physical therapists in rehabilitation hospitals and skilled nursing facilities, as well as the patients themselves (you get PT even on Thanksgiving Day itself).

[ZLoth]

And, I'm at work. Because of the schedule today, I'm working from 8 PM-5 AM instead of 10 PM-7 AM, which means that I will be going to work and back home... in the dark.

[Takumi]

Despite our sales being valid all day, it was pretty dead until about 8 PM, when the floodgates opened for whatever reason. I'm now trying to forget it with alcohol

[vtk]

I wound up having  fairly normal workday, though I managed to spend about an hour between trips with some family members at my dad's house.  I took some pumpkin pie to-go and ate it while waiting for a train.

[jdb1234]

I got lucky, I had the night off from Walmart.  Everyone else on the night shift at the store I work at had a shift from 5PM to 7AM.

[Duke87]

On Friday morning someone responded to an email I sent at about 4 PM Wednesday and they were impressed I had been still working at that time.

One interesting aspect of working from home is that when everyone else leaves the office at lunchtime because it's the day before a major holiday, you don't really notice and don't get the message to stop working.