Should Shops Be Shut Boxing Day?

humptydumptybits

charlotte1994 wrote: »

What I said "it's nice that they're shut boxing day"

What you read "I think that literally no one should work christmas and boxing day regardless of profession.

Last year I had one less day at Christmas, but I got it back at Easter. I'm not an employee there but if the shop is shut there's not much they can do about it holiday wise. My christmas break has come out of my holiday entitlement, I'll live

So you start a thread entitled "Should shops be shut Boxing Day" but you don't want people to tell you if they they think they shouldn't. If you wanted a thread about isn't this firm lovely for closing Boxing Day you should have started one.

Marisco

humptydumptybits wrote: »

Should that go with all working hours though? What if someone says they don't want to start at 9 am and would prefer to have a lie in so although they are employed to do 9 to 5 they want to do 11 to 7. Or if they can't open shops because people need their family time on a Saturday, or want to watch their football team? An employer offers you a job and you know the terms so get on with it.

Is it really too much to ask that staff have an extra day off? As I said I don't care as I don't go shopping BD and I've only ever worked BD in one job I had (pub cleaning) and that was only 2 hours in the morning.

When my ex joined the fire service, he worked every Xmas for the first six years, that was the way the shifts fell, which is fair enough, it's an emergency service, if no one there worked people could die. This year my daughter will have Xmas and BD off for the first time in years, it's the way her shifts have fallen, she works with vulnerable adults, again if no one worked the holidays, there would be problems. If a shop doesn't open no one suffers.

As for the hours you quote, that is different as it's week after week, BD is only once a year.

mark1959

Of course shops should shut boxing day. And the other 7 bank holidays. And every Sunday like they used to. :beer:

System

chris_m wrote: »

So why do they go shopping a day or so before any bank holiday and come out with two or more trolleys overflowing with enough to feed the proverbial five thousand for a month?
:rotfl:

There are the two extremes. The one I mentioned earlier - buying for the night's meal and an item or two. Then the above,

I don't understand why people buy stupid amounts of bread or milk. I have been at someone's for Christmas Day and Boxing Day - there were 14 of us (2 kids) and we only consumed about 3 pints over the 2 days for hot drinks and a bit of custard for the 2-3 that have to have custard on their Christmas pudding.

System

I do feel sorry for Next workers. I believe they are forced to work at 4:30am. I also believe they were one of the first retailers to drop premiums for working Sundays and BHs. I somehow doubt they get any help with cost of taxis - many rely on public transport as some stores have no staff parking (plus good number don't drive). A few local authorities its triple rate before 8am on BD - though many towns have buses on BD, some don't.

I am believing that many Next workers are working for less than the cost of them getting into work. If this is the case, I am very surprised that none of their former workers has expressed this in the media.

On a similar note, my friend's sister worked for another High Street fashion retailer on BD and with the amount of refunds processed against the sales, her store made a loss of £345 that day

humptydumptybits

ScarletMarble wrote: »

There are the two extremes. The one I mentioned earlier - buying for the night's meal and an item or two. Then the above,

I don't understand why people buy stupid amounts of bread or milk. I have been at someone's for Christmas Day and Boxing Day - there were 14 of us (2 kids) and we only consumed about 3 pints over the 2 days for hot drinks and a bit of custard for the 2-3 that have to have custard on their Christmas pudding.

My visitors are here for 11 days between 6 and 12 over the various days. Two under 2s so plenty of milk will get drunk, plenty more on cereals, some will be used for hot drinks but that will be small by comparison. I might buy what seems stupid amounts of milk but it will all get used.


I'm amazed that people go round studying other people's shopping trolley and judging if they have bought an acceptable amount.

humptydumptybits

Marisco wrote: »

Is it really too much to ask that staff have an extra day off? As I said I don't care as I don't go shopping BD and I've only ever worked BD in one job I had (pub cleaning) and that was only 2 hours in the morning.

When my ex joined the fire service, he worked every Xmas for the first six years, that was the way the shifts fell, which is fair enough, it's an emergency service, if no one there worked people could die. This year my daughter will have Xmas and BD off for the first time in years, it's the way her shifts have fallen, she works with vulnerable adults, again if no one worked the holidays, there would be problems. If a shop doesn't open no one suffers.

As for the hours you quote, that is different as it's week after week, BD is only once a year.

Is it too much to ask that when you take a job you decide if the terms and conditions are acceptable and take the job on that basis.


Not sure why it is different, if staff can decide what hours suit them regardless of the needs of the business or their contract of employment I'd say it is the same.

Marisco

humptydumptybits wrote: »

Is it too much to ask that when you take a job you decide if the terms and conditions are acceptable and take the job on that basis.


Not sure why it is different, if staff can decide what hours suit them regardless of the needs of the business or their contract of employment I'd say it is the same.

You think it's no different, I do, so I'll leave it there otherwise we'll be on the Magic Roundabout

System

I've been lucky really, put of 5 years i've only had to work one boxing day (we had a thing where if you worked xmas you got new year of and vice versa, execpt that year i did boxing day AND all of new year), that was my first year in my life that i wasn;' at home with my family. If id seen them on christmas day i would have had no way of getting back to here for work (no pubic transport, can;t drive due to disability and a taxi would have been over £100), so i stayed at my bf's as that was closer, and work agreed to get me a taxi. Except the taxi company they agreed a price with repeatedly hung up on me when i tried to book a taxi and i ended up shelling out about £60 to get there. Which they then refused to pay, so basically that christmas i didnt see my family, worked essentially for free, and was still out of pocket for the taxi.

This yea i've moved shops and my manager agreed i could have boxing day off so i actually get to see my family

choille

Should shops be shut on Boxing Day?

Only if there's an 'R' in the month.