I was so proud of myself... I was early. I am generally screeching in right on time, even for things I am excited to do. However, on Wednesday night, the night before Thanksgiving, I was early to pick up my boy. He was scheduled to get off at midnight. Since he'd pulled a 10 hour shift and had a scant 14 hours before he had to be back at work on Thanksgiving (don't get me started... oh wait, this is related to my rant!!), I had decided to save him the 75 minute trip home (and back). I mean, I just have to make some sides cause Hero Daddy is making the turkey. Text: where should I park? where do you come out? I can't believe there are people in tents here camping out. Over the next 20 minutes I get this: we're a bit behind. park anywhere. I come out the front.
I had a blanket, book, and an iPod. I mean, if everyone on staff is in there working, how much longer could they possibly be? Now, if I had to do over again, I would. My son being able to be with us on Thanksgiving and not fall asleep behind the wheel of his car is a priority for this mom. And everyone claims that they think it is terrible that people shop on Thanksgiving, but they won't tell that to their neighbor, cousin, aunt, friend. After all, there are plenty of others who work that day: doctors, firefighters, 7-11 employees. How much longer could they be setting up the store? You know how you send a message to retailers that they shouldn't be open on Thanksgiving Day? DON'T GO! If no one showed up, they would say that maybe it was a MISTAKE to take this day from families. If no one showed up, they would be LOSING MONEY because they have to pay time and a half. If no one showed up, maybe next year they would rethink OPENING ON THANKSGIVING DAY! But people show up. Not me. Never me. I don't do those sales. I get it is fun for some people like it is fun for me to watch football on Thanksgiving Day. I get that it is a fact of life. And I could live with it except for what happened next.
The store did precious little in sales that afternoon and evening, but couldn't set-up earlier. They scheduled all but one employee to work 9 pm-midnight to set-up the store. This isn't the first year that they have to set-up for Thanksgiving & Black Friday. How much longer could they possibly be? I actually don't know the answer to that question. All I know is that after I had been waiting 3 HOURS, my son said to his supervisor that he had to go. He said that he'd worked more than 12 hours and his mom had been waiting in the parking lot for three hours. Yep. So they could set up a store and have their employees work on Thanksgiving Day. If you want your employees to work 8-10 hours on Thanksgiving Day, you probably should figure out a way that doesn't have them working 3-4 hours, prior to their scheduled shift time, setting up the store. Just saying.
My son likes working at his store. But we are sweating his time off for a week at Christmas and he is already worried about getting time off for a family trip next year at Thanksgiving. If he has learned one thing, it is that he doesn't want a career in retail. I'll take it.
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