Employees Forced to Work on Thanksgiving Day or Face Being Fired

[Matt1970]

Have you read your lease? LOL
http://www.sott.net/article/289016-...-with-fines-if-they-dont-open-on-Thanksgiving

That's been the standard for most malls for a long time. You must be open during mall hours. No exceptions on Holidays.

 

[Sonikku]

Thanksgiving and Christmas are just cooked up holidays anyway.

 

[MovingTarget]

Thanksgiving and Christmas are just cooked up holidays anyway.

That can be said about every holiday, without exception. However, we as a civilized society need these days for our own collective mental and physical health. All work and no play, etc., etc...

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Thanksgiving and Christmas are just cooked up holidays anyway.

All holidays are "cooked up." People need an excuse to celebrate. Unfortunately, the 'youts' of today can't even eat with a group of people they know without suffering stress. Maybe if they'd been taught when they were kids but, their parents were too busy working.

 

[DCal430]

There needs to be a law that requires a minimum of 40 dollars and hour to work on specific holidays.

 

[Mixolydian]

More money v.s. Spending time with family.

Hmm let me think about that... 😀

 

[BoberFett]

LOL, the outrage.

 

[MongGrel]

Most people who work at retailers love working holidays. They usually get double-time-and-a-half in addition to possibly getting comp time on top of that.

People at retailers fight over the holidays.

don't like it? a newly legalized illegal will take that job.

The newly legalized thing just amazes me a bit, as most of them have had a number the freaking IRS issued just so they could pay taxes for years.

Seems the IRS has known they have been here for a long time and have no problem with many a long time now.

I remember growing up working at a retailer, would be a short shift usually and earlier in the day and would close early, maybe it's changed over time.

 

[Mai72]

I worked holidays. When I was in Korea I loved that I didn't have the holidays forced on me thru commercials. Now that I'm in America I can't escape holiday commercials. It's not even Thanksgiving!

 

[rommelrommel]

LOL, if I didn't want to open on Thanksgiving I'd pick one employee to be there and have huge signs advertising a "1000% higher price sale" for the day.

You might think that would stop people but you might be wrong...

 

[DCal430]

More money v.s. Spending time with family.

Hmm let me think about that... 😀

Stop acting like these people are being given a choice. They are being forced to work or risk losing their jobs and seeing their children go without food.

 

[inachu]

Sadly, I've noticed more and more people have to be taught how to celebrate.

yay lets kill more indians! and be thankful they did not scalp us!

 

[werepossum]

Nowhere did I say the consumers were demanding anything. Every year, in search of more profits, the retailers have been moving back the time these sales start. Trying to one- up each other. Shoppers keep showing up to the sales. If no one showed up, the retailer would decide that being open on thanksgiving was a bad idea and waste of payroll.

Exactly. If all the dickheads stayed home, this would last exactly one year and then be written off as a very bad idea.

Big fucking deal. Doctors, nurses, cops, firefighters, and a myriad of other folks have to work the holidays too. Don't like it? Find something with holidays off.

But those are necessary jobs that have to be worked. Same with some others - my aunt worked almost every Thanksgiving and Christmas because she worked swing shift for Dupont running a machine that had to run continuously. Shut-downs lasted a minimum of two weeks to clean, service, and restart the process. Similarly, when I worked in manufacturing engineering I've had to to work some holidays because carpet mills (whose furnaces and presses also take a very long time get back into service) would commonly schedule shut downs during holidays, so if we had a project that required an engineer one of us had to be there until it was done. And in AEC engineering I've had to work holidays to get a particular project out.

Those are reasonable examples. Getting a jump on the crowd looking for a cheap Chinese toaster is an unreasonable example, and probably counter-productive. This certainly makes me less likely to shop a KMart. Why on Earth would I want to support a retailer who is more assholish to its employees than necessary? Perhaps whatever replaces it will be nicer.

 

[Exterous]

Most people who work at retailers love working holidays.

Citation needed. I spent 9 years working retail in various stores in different areas with hundreds of different people and met very very few people who liked working holidays.

And being forced to work certain days is nothing new. There were several 'blackout dates' as long as 9 years ago

And if stores werent open that day people couldnt shop. Works both ways. Id rather retail stores stay closed and let people enjoy a family holiday.

Sure but you'd need to get all stores to agree. If one store opens it gets all of the ~35% of those shoppers who plan on shopping on Thanksgiving. Last year overall sales during the two day period were up 2.3% despite a 13% decline on Friday sales. Shoppers may say they think stores should be closed but that isn't going to stop them from shopping

 

[The Merg]

Sure but you'd need to get all stores to agree. If one store opens it gets all of the ~35% of those shoppers who plan on shopping on Thanksgiving. Last year overall sales during the two day period were up 2.3% despite a 13% decline on Friday sales. Shoppers may say they think stores should be closed but that isn't going to stop them from shopping

At a major mall near me, Macy's is opening at 6pm on Thanksgiving Day. Because of that, Lord & Taylor also needs to open at 6pm so they are not outdone.

- Merg

 

[Babbles]

I think this stuff is dumb and I refuse to shop on Thanksgiving. Amazingly all of the other modern capitalistic societies get along just fine without these idiotic 'Black Friday' (Thursday?) arms races.

I totally believe that this is a supply side issue and not a demand one; in other words shoppers aren't actually demanding that stores open earlier and earlier. Also it seems as if people have limited holiday shopping funds so all retailers are doing is speeding up the rate at which people burn through their shopping money. Costco seems to do just fine without playing this silly game.

 

[Mai72]

 

[Engineer]

I think this stuff is dumb and I refuse to shop on Thanksgiving. Amazingly all of the other modern capitalistic societies get along just fine without these idiotic 'Black Friday' (Thursday?) arms races.

I totally believe that this is a supply side issue and not a demand one; in other words shoppers aren't actually demanding that stores open earlier and earlier. Also it seems as if people have limited holiday shopping funds so all retailers are doing is speeding up the rate at which people burn through their shopping money. Costco seems to do just fine without playing this silly game.

I tend to think this way also. I don't seem to recall any big spike in sales over the entire period from Thanksgiving to Christmas because of this. I suppose it could help the people who work at those stores make more money and spend it since they are working vs not getting paid (since many don't get holiday pay).

I'm not going on at all regardless of when the sale starts.

 

[Exterous]

I totally believe that this is a supply side issue and not a demand one; in other words shoppers aren't actually demanding that stores open earlier and earlier. Also it seems as if people have limited holiday shopping funds so all retailers are doing is speeding up the rate at which people burn through their shopping money. Costco seems to do just fine without playing this silly game.

I disagree. Sure its not like people are picketing for earlier openings but if it was completely a store issue then people wouldn't be lining up days in advance. And the race isn't to increase how much the consumer spends but to get the biggest chunk of the expenditure and a very good way to do that is to be open when others are closed

As for Costco you may want to look up and see how well they would be doing if it weren't for the membership fees.

 

[Engineer]

I disagree. Sure its not like people are picketing for earlier openings but if it was completely a store issue then people wouldn't be lining up days in advance. And the race isn't to increase how much the consumer spends but to get the biggest chunk of the expenditure and a very good way to do that is to be open when others are closed

Good point. Still, you're paying extra to do that, but I suppose the gains are worth it or they wouldn't do it.

 

[drebo]

Here, let me fix that for you.



Again, who is to effectively call companies to task for treating employees as replaceable machines instead of people? Nobody. So, the American citizen on the brink financially is out of a job and one who came to this country illegally is substituted for the exact same exploitation that the citizen was being subjected to. Same shit, different color (and possibly language).

If you work an unskilled job, you ARE replacable. Period.

Hell, eve if you work a skilled job, you're replacable.

Companies don't exist to employ you and provide you with a living. Companies exist to make money. They need people to help them with that, but they do not need YOU specifically. Anyone with the skills and willingness will work.

Employment is a two-way contract.

 

[drebo]

As Lewis Black said the other night (and I paraphrase here), forcing a store to open in a mall on Thanksgiving or face a fine from the landlord, that's like sharia law for capitalism. But if you're an employee who wants off for Thanksgiving, well, 'you can punch in and shut the f*** up. You can see your family in January.'

In high school, I worked in a grocery store and would routinely pick up morning hours on thanksgiving for the time and a half pay we would get. But the store also closed at 3 on Thanksgiving, giving time for people to spend time with their families. On the other hand, I'm sure there are a lot of places that won't pay extra for working on the holiday and I can also see where a grocery store and a retail store might be viewed just a little differently for having any thanksgiving hours.

Simple solution: don't open a store in a mall.

It's not like the leasees didn't know that when they signed the lease.

 

[drebo]

Citation needed. I spent 9 years working retail in various stores in different areas with hundreds of different people and met very very few people who liked working holidays.

And being forced to work certain days is nothing new. There were several 'blackout dates' as long as 9 years ago

Citation needed.

See? I can do it, too.

That's kind of how anecdotal evidence works. Nearly everyone I know who works retail likes working the holidays because of the extra pay.

 

[DCal430]

Citation needed.

See? I can do it, too.

That's kind of how anecdotal evidence works. Nearly everyone I know who works retail likes working the holidays because of the extra pay.

Again many major retailers are no longer giving extra pay for the holidays, just fire anyone who doesn't show up.

 

[OutHouse]

Most people who work at retailers love working holidays. They usually get double-time-and-a-half in addition to possibly getting comp time on top of that.

People at retailers fight over the holidays.

Bullshit