Is your holiday more important than someone else’s?
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It’s a question I find myself pondering as I read stories like the one about the Pizza Hut GM who was fired for trying to give his employees Thanksgiving day off or about the Whole Foods workers in Chicago who successfully struck for the choice to work the holiday or not.
I’ve been in the position of being employed in industries where I’ve had to work while the majority relaxed and celebrated, but in all of those cases I enjoyed the benefits of overtime pay and/or bonus vacation time. Sadly, though, more and more people find themselves in the position of being told they have to come in on these days as if they were any other with the only alternative being their finding a new job.
Of course, it doesn’t have to be like this, but for that to happen we’d all have to agree to accept some inconvenience on the actual day itself and give up the tradition of trampling each other for shopping deals on the next. (Also, we might have to stop supporting companies that so clearly don’t give a shit.)
Do you think it would be worth it?