General Chat

Opening Boxing Day why ? staff need a break they have worked REALLY hard with Covid delivering & keeping people cupboards full think they deserve two days off Barbara

The trouble is soooooo many people will panic if the shops are closed for a second day!! How did we manage with Sunday closing and half-day closing; used to be Wednesday where I was.

Remember shops shut Sunday now it's family Day at the ( SHOPS ) shame it's just a greedy world my thinking !!!!

The emergency services work Christmas day and boxing day.
Theatres were open on Boxing day pre covid so the public could have their fill of pantomime.
TV companies used to work over Christmas in the old days.
Some factories couldn't close down for Christmas.
Corner shops have always stayed open on Christmas morning for those little bits and bobs that have been forgotten.
I would think that some are happy to work on Boxing day.

Remember also, not everyone is Christian.

Asda apparently is not opening on Boxing Day. :-D

Problem here is my son is a supermarket worker and relies on the bus. He has to work Boxing day but no buses running so his dad has to make 2 trips of 60 miles to take him, come home and then go again late at nite and come home!! Same on jan2nd as thats a holiday in Scotland. he has no choice.

Florence in the hebrides

Edit..although if his father didnt drive, I dont know what would happen, his boss would not be happy

Not all staff want a break and many in supermarkets only work part time anyway. Some people need or welcome the extra money and others have happily used the opportunity to boost their income by doing eg driving work whilst furloughed from their regular job. Others who would be on their own over Christmas welcome the chance to have company by being back at work. Everyone has different circumstances.

Think how much overtime Asda will save.

Apparently, Asda employees who were contracted to work on Boxing Day will be paid for the shift. So it's an altruistic move <3

Altruism and Asda just don't come together naturally in my mind.

It does seem strange, considering their past treatment of staff :-S

Asda - the old Associated Dairy Farmers and now part of the WalMart group. I used to do a big shop there often when it was 'the old'.

Although we don't have a store near, I've had three or four deliveries from the store since March, all coming a few miles from a branch north of us. (In case you're wondering, I always ask all drivers which branch the delivery comes from.)

I've digressed, sorry.

Not everyone celebrates Christmas.

As Annx wrote, some people rostered to work on Boxing Day may be happy to do so.

Florence, could your son swap shifts with a colleague?

Also, as Island pointed out, it is the norm for a good number of UK employees to work on holidays.

I think some of the big stores used to employ staff specifically to work on Boxing day. This year with so many stores going under it may be that staff are happy to work before they lose their jobs completely (i.e. Debenhams).

Our local pet ambulance will continue to be on 24 hour call over Christmas so presumably vets too. It's humbling to know that so many put others before themselves.
'Them's elves' :-D

People working over Christmas is not new in the UK, though you may think it is.

Apart from nurses, doctors on call, ambulance drivers etc, there have long been others.

OH's parents were pharmacists with their own shop. On every holiday the pharmacists in the town took it in turn to be open at least for half-a-day so that there was a pharmacist on duty available for people in need, often simply for the the stupid ones who had run out of aspirin or Alka-Seltzer.

They were only able to attend their daughter's wedding, which took place 3 days before Christmas over here, because a non-working pharmacist friend who still had her licence told them that she would take over the shop for 2 weeks.

Their "duty" that year was to open both Christmas morning and New Year's Day, although it was usually only for one or the other.

I never knew my dad to get New Year's Day off ............ he was expected to go into the factory and do the stocktaking in the department he worked in.

Yep. Bin sed. :-D

I worked in a supermarket bakery finishing room fresh cream dept those days we closed 8pm at night not 24hr like some are now .it was the norm then to work overtime .but now it's a seven day Rota two days of a week. I know people live on their own & want to work but surely one day off for Christmas they could handle that after all the hustle & bustle of all the shoppers one day rest lie in chill out ? Barbara

Not every home is happy.

I had one or two truly horrible Christmases and would have like to have been able to work Christmas Day if I could, in fact I did find a job i a holiday camp bar one Christmas.