"You poor things..."

[Lauren]

hobgoblin, I don't think its patronising when said on most days. But if you said it on the day in particular, yes it is patronising. If you think it sucks someone has to be working that day, don't spend your money there and there won't be a NEED for them to be open.

[hobish]

Ohhhh - i wasn't picking up on the fact that people were saying that on the actual holiday. That is a bit of an odd thing to say. If it is a corporate establishment with rules about closing on holidays made by "they" i can sort of almost see it, but people should think before they speak.

I  used to work at a corporate restaurant & had a non-regular said something like that on a holiday i was working my first thought would have been,"Then why are you here???"

[Rose2Bear]

Ohhhh - i wasn't picking up on the fact that people were saying that on the actual holiday. That is a bit of an odd thing to say. If it is a corporate establishment with rules about closing on holidays made by "they" i can sort of almost see it, but people should think before they speak.

I  used to work at a corporate restaurant & had a non-regular said something like that on a holiday i was working my first thought would have been,"Then why are you here???"

Well my original intention was people who were saying it on days other than the actual holiday itself, but having it said on the holiday is probably even more frusterating exctly becasue of your reasoning -  if they didnt find it necessary to be at our store in the first place, then we wouldn't have to be open.

[HogwartsAlum]

When I worked at the deli-cafe, I used to wish we WERE open on Christmas.  I didn't get holiday pay and it was a forced day off, which meant I was short one day on my paycheck. 

With all this fuss about changing the minimum wage, I wish they'd also change the holiday policy at a lot of places.  I understand waiting for vacation time, because that's voluntary time off.   But if you can get insurance after a three-month probationary period, you should get holiday pay too.  I don't see the point in making people wait for it, if the business is going to be closed and they have no option to work.  That just makes them come up short. 

Sorry, didn't mean to hijack.  Rant over!

[Lauren]

That's the thing I love about Australia, if you're permenant and you're supposed to work a holiday, most EBAs have it so that you still get paid!

[CosmicPossum]

I've said something similar before but didn't mean to be patronizing.  I truly feel bad that some people have to work while I'm off. 

I didn't know that most people who work the holiday have volunteered.

[Lauren]

I would assume most people working on public holidays volunteered. Most people want the extra money. Technically they could force people to work at my work, but they HATE to do that. They did it last October long weekend and there was a HUGE uproar.