OK, you don't like it. Don't be a whiner.

[Atomic Playboy]

Originally posted by: kranky

Originally posted by: Atomic Playboy
This is the problem with America. Not her, mind you; everyone in this thread. You all seem to think that we live to work. Work is a necessity born out of our desire for money so we can afford leisure. Fuck work. Fuck making your employees come back for one lousy day, where nothing will be accomplished anyway. What a fucking sad business that is, so worried about profits and cutting into the bottom line that it is content to pull that level of completely unnecessary stupid bullshit with its employees.

And before you jump on me for laziness, I'm working over the holidays. I just happen to be of the mindset that our lives don't have a specific purpose; enjoyment of life is as good a purpose I can find as any to live your life in pursuit of.

Fucking American business mentality is completely disgusting... I need to move to Tibet.

Help me out here.... sarcasm? Serious?

Quite serious. I think the American attitude about putting work first is inherently flawed, and I think it reflects a mentality wherein we must always be striving to "get ahead" as though the only real point to human existence was competition. I think that's an unhealthy way to live. I think the business' decision to be open for one day on a holiday week is absurd (I work at a school, and we never have people come in for one day at the tail end of a business week). I don't care if people enjoy working and want to work over the holidays; more power to them. But you guys (in a generic sense) all jumped down this woman's throat as though her request were patently absurd, and that's just not right. Her motivations in life differ from your own; that's no reason to call her nasty names.

 

[JS80]

Originally posted by: Atomic Playboy

Originally posted by: kranky

Originally posted by: Atomic Playboy
This is the problem with America. Not her, mind you; everyone in this thread. You all seem to think that we live to work. Work is a necessity born out of our desire for money so we can afford leisure. Fuck work. Fuck making your employees come back for one lousy day, where nothing will be accomplished anyway. What a fucking sad business that is, so worried about profits and cutting into the bottom line that it is content to pull that level of completely unnecessary stupid bullshit with its employees.

And before you jump on me for laziness, I'm working over the holidays. I just happen to be of the mindset that our lives don't have a specific purpose; enjoyment of life is as good a purpose I can find as any to live your life in pursuit of.

Fucking American business mentality is completely disgusting... I need to move to Tibet.

Help me out here.... sarcasm? Serious?

Quite serious. I think the American attitude about putting work first is inherently flawed, and I think it reflects a mentality wherein we must always be striving to "get ahead" as though the only real point to human existence was competition. I think that's an unhealthy way to live. I think the business' decision to be open for one day on a holiday week is absurd (I work at a school, and we never have people come in for one day at the tail end of a business week). I don't care if people enjoy working and want to work over the holidays; more power to them. But you guys (in a generic sense) all jumped down this woman's throat as though her request were patently absurd, and that's just not right. Her motivations in life differ from your own; that's no reason to call her nasty names.

Why are you still here then? Move to Tibet. Do you realize how lucky you are that we live in a time where we can "work" instead of hunting or farming for food?

 

[BurnItDwn]

She should be able to take the day off without pay if she doesn't want to use a paid vacation day too ...
No reason the comany should pay her for not doing any work.

Also, Atomic Playboy, I do in part agree with your way of thinking, I think American work too hard and put in too many hours. People become a slave to the grind instead of living the lives of free men, however, the solution is not to make businesses pay people to not work.

 

[Injury]

Originally posted by: Atomic Playboy

Originally posted by: kranky

Originally posted by: Atomic Playboy
This is the problem with America. Not her, mind you; everyone in this thread. You all seem to think that we live to work. Work is a necessity born out of our desire for money so we can afford leisure. Fuck work. Fuck making your employees come back for one lousy day, where nothing will be accomplished anyway. What a fucking sad business that is, so worried about profits and cutting into the bottom line that it is content to pull that level of completely unnecessary stupid bullshit with its employees.

And before you jump on me for laziness, I'm working over the holidays. I just happen to be of the mindset that our lives don't have a specific purpose; enjoyment of life is as good a purpose I can find as any to live your life in pursuit of.

Fucking American business mentality is completely disgusting... I need to move to Tibet.

Help me out here.... sarcasm? Serious?

Quite serious. I think the American attitude about putting work first is inherently flawed, and I think it reflects a mentality wherein we must always be striving to "get ahead" as though the only real point to human existence was competition. I think that's an unhealthy way to live. I think the business' decision to be open for one day on a holiday week is absurd (I work at a school, and we never have people come in for one day at the tail end of a business week). I don't care if people enjoy working and want to work over the holidays; more power to them. But you guys (in a generic sense) all jumped down this woman's throat as though her request were patently absurd, and that's just not right. Her motivations in life differ from your own; that's no reason to call her nasty names.

Yes, we jumped down her throat because she deserves it. Why is the company in business? To pay people to sit at home or to make money? It doesn't matter WHY they want to make money, the point is that they do. If you don't like it you can find a job somewhere else... like Tibet.

My beef comes with the fact that she's getting PAID days off. The company, without the legal requirement or necessity to, is allowing her to stay at home with her family for 7 days and they are going to take a hit in the labor costs and pay her anyway. She's literally getting paid to do whatever she wants.

It's not that she should be enjoying time with her family or that she doesn't deserve time off, it's that she's so fucking ungrateful to think that the company should pay her to stay home an extra day just because she doesn't think she's going to get anything done.

Fine. How about they lock the doors for those 7 days and don't pay her for a single fucking one of them. The company is within their legal right to do so, I believe. How about since you don't want to work just one day before the weekend you come in on Saturday the 3rd, too? Why stop there? How about Sunday the 4th? You were off for 9 straight days, you can deal with working 8 straight, right?

I would totally agree with you if she was being denied the chance to use a vacation day or if the company wasn't giving any paid days off and she only got to stay home on Christmas and New Year's day. But the lady is bitching because she has to come in for what will likely be the easiest working day of the year and she doesn't get paid to stay home. That's just ridiculous.

 

[JDub02]

<-- no days off. But I'm being forced to use vacation for 2 weeks while the place I work is shut down over the holidays.

 

[keird]

Originally posted by: JLee
Coming from someone who is working until 7am on Thanksgiving morning, then Christmas Eve, Christmas, New Year's Eve and New Year's, I say she can stuff it.

You said it, brother. I'll feign interest in people's 'normal' holiday conversations or even ask them to tell me about theirs in order to segue in to my real requests. I know that this seems like a no brainer for socially adept people, but I'm wondering what these people would do on a shift schedule.

I bet you're not getting holiday pay for 7 hours of Thanksgiving, but the day shift people do. Though you may get Thanksgiving 'off', you're probably struggling to stay awake during a family function just after a massive tryptophan overdose.

I had 12 hour shifts consisting of a 7a to 7p day follwed by 2 back-to-back 7p to 7a nights. This happened for about a year and a half with me repeatedly showing up late for a day shift. When I was placed on a consistent day or night schedule, the incidence of arriving late dropped to 1 event in a year. I wonder how much shorter my lifespan is due to the stress of that schedule.

Anyways, I'm incensed when people bitch about a generous vacation plan like the OP described.

 

[nakedfrog]

Originally posted by: kranky
Our company gives everyone paid holidays from Christmas Eve through New Year's Day. This year that's 7 paid holidays, and we have 6 other ones throughout the year. (I'm treating New Year's Day as part of the previous year's holidays for simplicity.) Counting the weekend between Christmas and New Year's Day, we will end up with 9 consecutive days off, 7 of which are paid days off.

Yesterday was when the third person asked me if we were going to have Friday Jan 2 off as a paid holiday.

Woman: Are we going to have Jan 2 off as a paid holiday?
Me: I don't think so, why would we?
Woman: It's a Friday. Why would they bother making people come back for just one day before the weekend?
Me: Maybe because we're getting 7 paid days off right before.
Woman: Why does that matter? They should realize nobody is going to do any work anyway, just talk about their holidays. Don't you think it would be considerate of them to give us that day off? It's just one day.
Me: Is it possible that no matter when our first day back is, people are going to spend the whole first day talking about their holidays? And I think it costs a lot of money to give everyone the day off. If you want to take a vacation day, you can.
Woman: <snippy>I KNOW I can take a vacation day, I just thought that the company could be a little considerate and give us one stinking day off.

At that point I walked away before I said something I'd regret later.

So you didn't want to expose the flaw in her logic?

Also, I've never gotten more than two days off for Christmas, and sometimes it's only the 25th itself. I don't think it ever occurred to me to bitch about it, though.

 

[foghorn67]

Originally posted by: Atomic Playboy
This is the problem with America. Not her, mind you; everyone in this thread. You all seem to think that we live to work. Work is a necessity born out of our desire for money so we can afford leisure. Fuck work. Fuck making your employees come back for one lousy day, where nothing will be accomplished anyway. What a fucking sad business that is, so worried about profits and cutting into the bottom line that it is content to pull that level of completely unnecessary stupid bullshit with its employees.

And before you jump on me for laziness, I'm working over the holidays. I just happen to be of the mindset that our lives don't have a specific purpose; enjoyment of life is as good a purpose I can find as any to live your life in pursuit of.

Fucking American business mentality is completely disgusting... I need to move to Tibet.

ooh, Tibet. Bad example there, know-it all boy.

 

[rbV5]

I'll bet you really gave it to that fourth person today :evil:

 

[moshquerade]

Originally posted by: amish
bottomline: people are ungrateful

yep, ingrates, all of them.

 

[ric1287]

Originally posted by: Atomic Playboy

Originally posted by: kranky

Originally posted by: Atomic Playboy
This is the problem with America. Not her, mind you; everyone in this thread. You all seem to think that we live to work. Work is a necessity born out of our desire for money so we can afford leisure. Fuck work. Fuck making your employees come back for one lousy day, where nothing will be accomplished anyway. What a fucking sad business that is, so worried about profits and cutting into the bottom line that it is content to pull that level of completely unnecessary stupid bullshit with its employees.

And before you jump on me for laziness, I'm working over the holidays. I just happen to be of the mindset that our lives don't have a specific purpose; enjoyment of life is as good a purpose I can find as any to live your life in pursuit of.

Fucking American business mentality is completely disgusting... I need to move to Tibet.

Help me out here.... sarcasm? Serious?

Quite serious. I think the American attitude about putting work first is inherently flawed, and I think it reflects a mentality wherein we must always be striving to "get ahead" as though the only real point to human existence was competition. I think that's an unhealthy way to live. I think the business' decision to be open for one day on a holiday week is absurd (I work at a school, and we never have people come in for one day at the tail end of a business week). I don't care if people enjoy working and want to work over the holidays; more power to them. But you guys (in a generic sense) all jumped down this woman's throat as though her request were patently absurd, and that's just not right. Her motivations in life differ from your own; that's no reason to call her nasty names.

So by your logic, these people shouldn't be getting paid - they're not working. And as an employee, you have the choice to take the day off using your own vacation time, why the hell should a business pay people to do nothing?

You can stand on your soap box all day claiming that Americans are stupid because they work, and if you really felt that way, then quit your job and live on the streets, its all about happiness right?

 

[Atomic Playboy]

Originally posted by: ric1287
You can stand on your soap box all day claiming that Americans are stupid because they work, and if you really felt that way, then quit your job and live on the streets, its all about happiness right?

I never claimed that Americans were stupid because they worked; learn to read. I made two claims: First, that the American standard of placing work above all else is an unhealthy way to live. Second, that people getting completely bent out of shape and heaping profanity and insults upon this woman for wanting the extra day off was indicative of this unhealthy attitude Americans have towards work, where it is taken far more seriously than it should be. I lauded Americans who worked more because they wanted to, but I'm not going to take the next step to attack someone who doesn't enjoy working as much as you all apparently do.

Look at Europe. Many countries get roughly two months of vacation time every year. How on Earth do businesses over there manage to survive? Surely they should all be bankrupt giving their employees so much time off? And yet, no, they manage to survive. Hell, in terms of vacation days, the US ranks just above Mexico (source). This is all indicative of a culture that places work on a pedestal while devaluing leisure time, something which runs counter to my personal philosophy about the purpose of life (enjoyment, which, while clearly hedonistic, is vastly superior in my mind to working to produce something that will make a profit for someone else).

So it's a fundamental difference in our basic understanding of what humans should do. I believe we should all work together to get as much enjoyment out of life as possible. I don't believe that it is best done through overworking ourselves at our jobs. And I don't think that woman was out of line for pointing out how silly it was for the company to make employees come in for a 1 day work week.

Remember what they say: No one dies wishing they'd spent more time at the office.

 

[Kirby]

Sounds like you need to pop her in the lip.