Getting screwed on our country's birthday!

Our company observes the July 4th holiday on Monday, when the place is officially closed. You have to work Sunday to qualify for extra holiday pay. Yeah, it's not as good for the (few) people who work Monday and not Sunday, but that's the perk of having the weekend off.

 

I don't get any holiday off or any holiday pay. So I guess I get screwed every day.

 

Our shop has the policy of "if you were normally scheduled to work the holiday, then you get paid for the holiday." In sports, where our hours vary from week to week, I've often struggled to figure out what the hell that means.
In any event, we're doing something silly this time around. We're a p.m., but switch to an a.m. cycle on weekends. So in a normal week we work late Saturday night, have Sunday off, then come back bright and early Monday morning. Because of the holiday we're working late Saturday, putting out Monday's paper on Sunday with a 5 p.m. deadline, then taking Monday off for the holiday. We still get holiday pay for Monday, plus I'll pick up an extra five hours or so for working Sunday.
Even though it works out to my benefit, I'd personally rather stick to the normal schedule. Sunday will be more of a leisurely day than Monday as far as extracurricular activities go.

 

It's all a matter of perspective, of course, but, really, this is the thing to do.

 

At my former place, if you worked a holiday and were hourly, you got time-and-a-half. Salary didn't get any extra. Regardless, everyone worked a four-day week. If you had to work on the actual holiday, you just got a different, extra day off at some other point in the week.

I always thought that seemed fair.

 

Confessions from a middle manager....

As a former SE and ME at several newspaper chains and having seen this scenario so many times before, this all boils down to which day the corporate suits deem is the official holiday. In practically every case this year, it's going to be the 5th of July. Just as the "official" Christmas holiday will be become December 24. For those working Dec. 25, or July 4, it sucks. But for those us not in newsrooms, hospital ERs and cop shops, it's a Monday through Friday world, or so my M-thru-F, 10-12 hours a day, wife tells me. By the way, the wife gets July 5 off, but that will NOT stop the calls to her on July 5 from her bosses in Europe, who most definitely will not honor America's birthday in any way. Just goes to show it happens in every industry.

The only fair way to deal with this (and I'm going to go out on the limb here and say that most media companies, maybe not CNHI, honor this):

The people who work Sunday at regular pay, they also get three days off that week, including Monday the 5th. The ones who get screwed are the ones who work for companies that decide Monday is your "normal" day off, so that you're not entitled to a third day that week. So... if you're working Sunday the 4th (or Saturday Dec. 25), not getting holiday pay, and not getting three other days off that week, yeah, that sucks.

The bad part is, legally, I don't think a company must give you time-and-a-half, or double pay, for holiday shifts. In fact, I have seen one company who shall remain nameless, in the middle of ugly negotiations with the guild, actually force its hourly workers to work the designated holiday at regular pay, but then somehow give its salaried workers outside the guild double-pay for working a holiday.

Since I'm not in the industry FT anymore, no worries here. My wife says I don't have to take out the trash Sunday or even Monday, the official holiday. I'll pay for it on the 6th, though....

 

The salaried people where I work, if they don't already have that day off, get another paid day off elsewhere, but the hourly get nothing.

 

I still find it hard to believe that the holiday isn't on July 4. That's the holiday. It falls on a Sunday this year. Monday through Friday people already have the day off.

At our shop, the holiday is whatever day it falls on. Fulltimers get a full day of holiday pay, and if you work it, you get time-and-a-half. You don't have to work it though. If you call in sick the day of, befor or after, you lose your holiday pay. Salarieds can take an extra day whenever.

I would like to see Christmas Eve become a time-and-a-half holiday in retail. A lot of people take it off.

 

We don't get special holiday pay. We'll have 8 hours - regular rate - added to our paycheck at the end of the week.
Thankfully, schieza and I will still work a 40 hour week plus the free 8 hours, while the rest of our company will work 32 and take the 8 hours.

 

You must be kidding. There have been other holidays what have been changed to "officially" be the Monday, you have a hard time believing this?

I am no longer in newspapers and I don't get it off, either. It's not the end of the world. And I can guarantee I make less money than you at the moment.

 

That's how it is with us.

 

I happily work holidays for the extra bucks.