The annual "Are you working Thanksgiving?" thread (VI edition - 2018)

[Rothman]

I get 10 holidays and two floaters a year, if my interpretation of our calendar is correct.  Still have to use one of my floaters for Black Friday, though.

[hbelkins]

I usually have two or more floaters a week. A second flush takes care of them most of the time. 

I get 11 1/2 holidays a year. Two each for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's. Sometimes the calendar works out, depending on the timing of Jan. 1, that some calendar years are only 10 1/2 and others are 12 1/2. Other holidays are MLK Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, and Veterans Day. The 1/2 day is for Good Friday, as we get the afternoons off. Every four years, Election Day is a holiday for the presidential election. Why the state observes the presidential election as a holiday but not the elections for state offices is beyond me.

[kphoger]

In my line of work, a floater is a field tech who is scheduled to work but not part of our company's quota; he picks up the work that other techs might run late on.

A couple of years ago, we had a dispatcher whose mother works in CSI; he told us, "At my mom's work, 'floater' means something very different."

[abefroman329]

In my line of work, a floater is a field tech who is scheduled to work but not part of our company's quota; he picks up the work that other techs might run late on.

A couple of years ago, we had a dispatcher whose mother works in CSI; he told us, "At my mom's work, 'floater' means something very different."

Could also refer to a bowel movement.

[kphoger]

In my line of work, a floater is a field tech who is scheduled to work but not part of our company's quota; he picks up the work that other techs might run late on.

A couple of years ago, we had a dispatcher whose mother works in CSI; he told us, "At my mom's work, 'floater' means something very different."

Could also refer to a bowel movement.

Uh.  Yeah.  That was implied in the post immediately before mine.

[abefroman329]

In my line of work, a floater is a field tech who is scheduled to work but not part of our company's quota; he picks up the work that other techs might run late on.

A couple of years ago, we had a dispatcher whose mother works in CSI; he told us, "At my mom's work, 'floater' means something very different."

Could also refer to a bowel movement.

Uh.  Yeah.  That was implied in the post immediately before mine.

So it was. I just skimmed the post and didn't notice.

[thenetwork]

I was trying to find day-by-day historical Dow Jones data, specifically 10/25/1929 and 11/01/1929. It doesn't seem like either of them can be called "Black Friday". From what I can tell, 10/25 went down very little compared to 10/24 (Black Thursday) and 10/29 (Black Tuesday), and 11/01 went up, although it was very hard to find what I was looking for.

Call it Green Friday since we're supposed to give all our green money to Walmart and JCPenney 

I'm giving a good chunk of my green on Black Friday to the Colorado DMV for license plates for both of my vehicles...$60-something for my older Civic, but $600-something for my new SUV -- first years' license taxes are the killer!!!

The good thing is that the line Friday morning should be short/non-existent as everyone else will be shopping or sleeping!!!

[ErmineNotyours]

I used to work in the warehouse that supplies 7-11 in Western Washington and Portland.  They have shipments every day of the year, and I worked Friday - Sunday, and every other Thursday.  Every year, the Thursday off fell on Thanksgiving, though I still had to work Christmas and during the first Seahawks Superbowl game, a good game to miss.

[7/8]

I get 10 holidays and two floaters a year, if my interpretation of our calendar is correct.  Still have to use one of my floaters for Black Friday, though.

Is there a difference between vacation time and floaters (I've never heard this term before)?

I'm of course working today and tomorrow because I already had my Thanksgiving a month ago .

[abefroman329]

Is there a difference between vacation time and floaters (I've never heard this term before)?

Practically speaking, no; they function the same. A "floater"  (in this context) is a vacation day given to an employee who doesn't get a particular company holiday off. For example, I've worked for various law firms that had employees in states that don't recognize MLK Day, and the office was open that day, so they got an extra vacation day in lieu of having MLK Day off. Subject to the operational needs of the firm, they could use that day on MLK Day, or on any other workday that year.

[Eth]

Is there a difference between vacation time and floaters (I've never heard this term before)?

In terms of my company's implementation, the difference would be that floaters can't be carried over to the next year, whereas up to 5 days of vacation time could be banked for future use. (I say "could" because they're now catching up to the rest of the industry and offering "unlimited" time in the hope that employees will forget to use it and so they no longer have to pay it out if someone quits.)

[abefroman329]

"Unlimited time"  is a crock and probably results in people taking less vacation time than they would otherwise. I'd rather be told I can take X days per year and take X days per year. I like a good rule.

Also, it means the company doesn't have to pay you your unused vacation time when you separate from the company.

[bulldog1979]

I was promoted into a salaried management position at the hotel where I work on October 1. As a result, I no longer get paid extra for a holiday. Instead, I get to take an extra day off for the holiday, and I chose to use that for today. I'm also using a personal day for Friday, so hello four-day weekend. I'm spending most of the weekend with my grandma; her 89th birthday is Monday, so it's important for me to be here.

I asked my staff to indicate their scheduling preferences for the holidays, and the first two responses I received were from people who volunteered to work specific shifts today.

[abefroman329]

I asked my staff to indicate their scheduling preferences for the holidays, and the first two responses I received were from people who volunteered to work specific shifts today.

They were probably thinking they would rather work today than on Christmas.

[jon daly]

I get extra days off because I have to work on Columbus and Veterans Day. HR calls those "floaters,"

[ZLoth]

Now that the annual DST thread has been closed down (until March next year) and seeing the calendar, it's time to get a new edition of the "Are you working Thanksgiving?" thread. This time I'm beating ZLoth to create it , he almost forgot to do this last year.

Guilty as charged. For 2018, I had just accepted a relocation opportunity the day before Thanksgiving, and by Sunday, I was packing and sorting for a move to Texas. I had worked Thanksgiving that year.... fortunately from home!