well isnt life great went into work today and was told im working from xmas eve till the 02/01/06 on 12 hrs shifts. under the roster i was off xmas thill the day after boxing day but the boss bless him swapped me round. as we work a 7 day run during 4 days 3 nights im on days xmas nights new year and covering a extra shift !!!!! .now how do i tell the family thats coming from yorkshire to london for the holiday that im working like i did last year????. to make matters worse was told if i didnt like it to out the door. nobody will swap this near the time either!!!. nobody to complain to becasue i work in security
sorry guys just had to rant and rave

Sorry to hear that. Well, you know, you could catch a nasty flu around Christmas, but suddenly be healed as soon as your ready. Thanks for your time and I hope you can get off.

I hope they give you a little premium pay. I've had it happen to me a couple of times. The company had Christmas Eve as a holiday, but our customer would have none of it, he wanted us to work. I was told I'ld get off around 4:30, and I'ld get repaid with a comp day. Once again the customer would have none of it so I ended up there until 8:30. The customer calls me at 7:30 and insists that I run a crew the next day. This time I am the decision maker and refuse no matter what he says, oh did I mention he was from India. All we were doing at the times he wanted was preprogramming phones. I eventually got my two comp days around New Years, But I did get stuck until 10 PM on New Years eve courtesy of the same guy.

Sorry Dave, can't give any sympathy....
I've worked Christmas and New Years like that for years, except Christmas, and New Years normally are 16 hour shifts for me.

Same here. My shift this year falls on Christmas and New Years Eve. Oh well, somebody's got to work.

Patrick

Sorry to hear that. My wife used to work as a direct care person at a small institution and she had to work a couple Christmases, though not 12 hour shifts.

As much as I find myself hating my job at times, I am glad that I always have weekends off and most holidays . Sorry. I can sympathize to some extent as I worked in the "food service" industry throughout school and on the weekends after afterschool while I worked where I am now. I always found myself working on holidays all the time - I didn't see a football game for close to 4 years...

Im on call through out the holidays Dave, Including Christmas day.. Came close to going out one year untill the customer realized it was a $500 minium

Dave

Hi Dave
I know the feeling it sucks that sadly is the nature of the security game i would check things out with some situations they have to give you a certain amount of notice before they change pre set shifts.
I had a simular situation over here during the summer.
I was working doing some security at a very very high end Hotel the boss as he liked to call himself was an a-----le he had no Police Military background, mind you he had degrees coming out of every orifice.
I had leave booked for when my kids were coming over.
The afternoon i was picking my kids up from the airport he contacted me and told me that it was all changed and i would have to come to work that night and that my complete shift situation had changed basicaly for the whole period of time that my son were in the US,i had not seen my two boys for 6months.
He explained that HE had to attend some courses so he would require me to work extra shifts and he had adjusted the rota . and that i would be in charge..yahoo!!!.
I met him in work that night and got him to the front area of the Hotel reception i asked him why, and he said it would look good on my resume.
With that i asked him to look around the reception area of the hotel and in front of some very high end guests said
'if you think for one moment that i would choose between my kids and this job you are wrong".
Walked up to reception with him saying you cant do this handed my radio my keys and my id over to the front of house manager and said ..Oh yes i bloody can enjoy your stay..you might have to do some work.
And the drive home was wonderful dont do that Dave i had plenty of work but it felt bloody great.
Cheers Chris

i dont understand why the switch was made at the last minute. your supervisor sounds horrid.

I remember working Boxing Day at least once in my student days as a security guard. Think I may have worked New Year's Day as well.

After 28 years in the FD, I've worked more than my share of Christmas and New Year holidays.

Now that I've reached that magical world of seniority, I take vacation around the Christmas/New Years holiday.

It's too late now to get back all the time missed with my kids, but with the grand kids, I can make up for it.

I agree with the other guys, you have a crappy supervisor.......maybe it's time to move up in your organization!

Try to have a good holiday despite your unfortunate schedule!

Cheers all!

I'm callout Engineer for the Christmas week.

Unfortunately I'm standby Engineer for a lot of people who shouldn't be allowed in the same city as the equipment they alledgedly work with. m*rons!

I'm not bitter... And hey, I'm the boss!

Has the humanity gone out of British Management?

Most companies sort their rotas out so if you work Christmas you are off for New Years or vica versa.

I think nurses and doctors and the like do.

Is this a sad reflection on modern society?

Hope you get "some" Christmas Cheer David one way or another.

Peter
:-)

Thirty years as a copper and only about three christmas days off bit hard when you have two kids but thats the name of the game Im afraid

Luckily the hospital I work at is on short staffing, but as I AM the IT group, I'm still on call.

Should be OK, they've only had to call twice in 4 months, but with lots of new staff, the KCI might act up and break things.

The change last minute notice sucks the worst.The original guy that was scheduled owes you forever.I'm off this year,but always seem to be on nights for Easter and New Years.Always on days for Thanksgiving.10 years of that so far.The guy on our Ops team who is standby for Christmas won't get that again until the other 11 guys standby that holiday.
Hope Santa is triple good to you and yours for this put-out,mate.
God Bless!