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In the recent week there have been several new reports of the badside of Black Friday including several companies like Kmart and Target threatening employees with the threat of being fired for not wanting to work Thanksgiving Day. My question is it right that despite Thanksgiving being a national holiday based around family that companies can fire employees that wish to celebrate the day similar to a religious holiday?
What these companies should be doing is offering double-time pay (or a bonus) for working Thanksgiving and then asking for volunteers. I'm sure there are some people who don't mind working for extra pay, or may be young and single and do not care about it being a holiday. But forcing mothers and fathers who want to be with their family to work that day is really a bad idea.
What these companies should be doing is offering double-time pay (or a bonus) for working Thanksgiving and then asking for volunteers. I'm sure there are some people who don't mind working for extra pay, or may be young and single and do not care about it being a holiday. But forcing mothers and fathers who want to be with their family to work that day is really a bad idea.
I agree but it should even be sons and daughters who barely get to see their family too.
Certainly an employer can do this - they can actually do most anything in an "at-will" state. What's bad is when non-Americans get stuck working all the holidays since "those days aren't special to you". Except they of course don't get their OWN holidays off...so yeah. That's when you have to decide if it's worth finding another job or not.
That's more of the retail corporate Kool-Aid. That the consumers drove the decision, which isn't true. They're just after the deals. The ones I know that do go after the deals, have complained that their day is being broken up early so they can try to buy things they might not otherwise be able to get. They're only there because the retailers made the decision to open - not because they demanded the store to be open on Thanksgiving. They don't like it either, but don't want to miss out on getting items that are limited.
Gas stations I put in another category.
This is all nonsense. If retailers could be closed on Thanksgiving, and make up in sales on another day, they would. It costs retailers money to be open. Quite a bit of it.
The reality is that if a retailer doesn't open on Thanksgiving, the customers will go shop somewhere else and that retailer will lose out because that's what the greedy consumers want. They want their stuff, and they want it now.
It doesn't benefit a retailer to open on a day they would otherwise be closed and not having to pay wages and keep the lights on.
You're still confused. Consumers follow the deals and will show up whatever the day is, when the store is due to open. A few will show up earlier with chairs, but not many. It's not like the stores were due to open at 6am on Friday and the majority of shoppers showed up at 3am, so the retailers said, "That must be what they want, so let's open our doors!" What happened is that someone got the idea to get a jump on the other retailers by starting their black Friday sales on Thanksgiving, and the others followed their lead.
Corporations are filled with dollar driven people at the top, who have little to no regard for anything else.
I'm not arguing to argue, by the way. Without saying too much, I've been involved in research on this and the stand I'm taking is based on those findings.
I've never someone lie so bad to themselves.
This is total consumer greed. People want their goods now. A few years ago when Walmart opened on Thanksgiving Day, but Macy's and Sears opened on Friday.... EVERYONE went to Walmart and Macy's and Sears had abysmal foot traffic the entire day Friday... because by the time they opened, everyone had gone home and is sleeping. They had the choice to shop on Friday, and they chose not to. They chose Thursday over Friday. This is a consumer choice. And stores must meet this consumer demand.
Is is RIGHT to fire somebody for not working Thanksgiving? No.
Is it LEGAL to fire somebody for not working Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, yes.
It has been pointed out that many other professions (police, fire, etc.) work on the holiday, but many of those professions are essential to the safety and well-being of the public. Additionally, these men and women are very likely to receive holiday pay (2 1/2 x their normal rate), and/or receive a floating holiday. Retail is neither essential to the safety and well-being of the public, nor is it likely to pay holiday pay or even overtime for working the holiday. A good union would change that quickly.
The people who are indifferent to people having to work on Thanksgiving ("if the company wants to do that, then let it") are also those who object to the same company telling its employees to say, "Happy Holidays," ("it's Merry Christmas, dammit!").
Thanksgiving is already becoming the forgotten holiday, and over time it will slide into oblivion and it will just be another minor holiday like Veteran's Day or Columbus Day. Everything will be open, and we'll name a sale after it.
Why is is not right for be fired for not showing up on the most important work day of the year?
This is all nonsense. If retailers could be closed on Thanksgiving, and make up in sales on another day, they would. It costs retailers money to be open. Quite a bit of it.
The reality is that if a retailer doesn't open on Thanksgiving, the customers will go shop somewhere else and that retailer will lose out because that's what the greedy consumers want. They want their stuff, and they want it now.
It doesn't benefit a retailer to open on a day they would otherwise be closed and not having to pay wages and keep the lights on.
So being closed one day hurts an employer? Remember they don't also have to have as high of hourly expenses that you would have if the store was open. I remember when only rest stops and gas stations were open on Thanksgiving and this was not even 10 years ago.
Why is is not right for be fired for not showing up on the most important work day of the year?
Was ther3 any proof Grey Thursday is actually more profitable than Black Friday, Super Saturday or Cyber Monday? The only other place of business that should really be open Thanksgiving is a movie theater, families actually enjoy seeing movies as a family on Thanksgiving. I've seen at least two on Thanksgiving in 2008's Role Models and 2011's The Muppets.
So being closed one day hurts an employer? Remember they don't also have to have as high of hourly expenses that you would have if the store was open. I remember when only rest stops and gas stations were open on Thanksgiving and this was not even 10 years ago.
If being closed that one day means you went get the holiday rush traffic, then yes it hurts a retailer. What happened to Sears and Macy's when they stayed closed on Thanksgiving? That's solid proof right there.
Yes... especially when working is in the business's best interest. In retail, it's widely known that there are a few big shopping days that make or break the revenue for a particular quarter. When you work in retail, you have to accommodate these major shopping days. If a particular retailer cannot meet the demands of consumers on these big shopping days, they will lose a large amount of revenue to a competing retailer... which would result in a bad quarter.
Deciding to work retail without participating in the industry's most important days is just not an option.
There is no reason why an employer should not be able to force someone to work on a shopping day as important as Thanksgiving night (or any other holiday night, religious or not), given how important the day is to the business and industry as a whole.
Did you miss the part where all these big companies claimed that the only employees working on Thanksgiving were volunteers, and then they were caught lying about it?
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