why are people up in arms over people having to work Thanksgiving?

[bradley]

Small list of major retailers refusing to open on Thanksgiving Day: Costco, REI, Nordstrom, Burlington Coat Factory.

The Northeast's P.C. Richard and Son is also closed on Thanksgiving
http://www.pcrichard.com/content/save-thanksgiving

 

[nageov3t]

I used to love working OT on holidays and whatnot. The extra cash was sweet. Now I am salaried, but I still often end up working holidays. :\

KT

salaried + OT-eligible ftw. someone actually fought that battle at my company a couple years ago and got most of the non-management/supervisor teach support people reclassified.

 

[KeithTalent]

salaried + OT-eligible ftw. someone actually fought that battle at my company a couple years ago and got most of the non-management/supervisor teach support people reclassified.

I am management unfortunately. We do pay OT to our salaried non-manager types as well fortunately. Unfortunately I left that group a long time ago now.

KT

 

[Tsavo]

Consumer goods? Walk through Walmart and tell me what percentage of typical, non-food consumer goods are made here.

75%.

But then, I only looked at 4 items.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Aside from the years I worked at various Universities, I've worked every Thanksgiving for the last 35 - 40 years. I like it. We have a family dinner on Saturday.

 

[natto fire]

75%.

But then, I only looked at 4 items.

You must have been in the plastics department. Either that or are very selective, and cannot see the Made in China stamps that invade most of the store. I would gladly take a larger sample if you would accept pictures from my relic dumb phone. I would guarantee it is more than 25% that is foreign sourced. At least you took a fair sample of four items in the million that Wal-Mart stocks...

 

[1prophet]

Blame the people that are out shopping on these days. If the customers didn't want to shop on Thanksgiving then the stores would remain closed. Employers are responding to a shift, a desire, in the market.

Corporations that own the stores create that shift by enabling that desire while pretending it's what the customers want.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Century_of_the_Self

Paul Mazur, a leading Wall Street banker working for Lehman Brothers, is cited as declaring: "We must shift America from a needs- to a desires-culture. People must be trained to desire, to want new things, even before the old have been entirely consumed. [...] Man's desires must overshadow his needs"

 

[HeXen]

So, you're saying that low-wage earning workers don't deserve a day off to spend with their families like everyone else does?

No they're peasants.

 

[natto fire]

Corporations that own the stores create that shift by enabling that desire while pretending it's what the customers want.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Century_of_the_Self

There is no "pretending" what customers want, that is what they want. If it wasn't they wanted then there would not be any customers there to shop, and they would shut it down. Blame the corporations all you want, but the fact is that they are profit driven and only respond to consumer demand. If they opened up and not a single customer went to the store they would not do it next year. Vote with your wallet is a mantra that is lost on many dumbass consumers that are going to buy regardless of circumstances.

Rationalization plays a part when consumers think they are one upping the suppliers, but are really just getting screwed in new ways.

 

[ThinClient]

Consumer goods? Walk through Walmart and tell me what percentage of typical, non-food consumer goods are made here.

Yes, because consumer goods are the only thing manufactured in this country.

 

[bradley]

Corporations that own the stores create that shift by enabling that desire while pretending it's what the customers want.

Quote:
Paul Mazur, a leading Wall Street banker working for Lehman Brothers, is cited as declaring: "We must shift America from a needs- to a desires-culture. People must be trained to desire, to want new things, even before the old have been entirely consumed. [...] Man's desires must overshadow his needs"
[/URL]

Great quote. Let's not forget, Madison Avenue's job is to manipulate the needs and desires of consumers, of which they are extremely proficient. In the last decade, advertising has gone into hyperspeed mode and dug even deeper into the primal brain.

 

[Bateluer]

Shrug, I've worked every TG since I left the USAF, same with most holidays. At least at my current employer, I'm hourly and get holiday overtime. At my previous job, I was salaried and didn't really get any extra, would be the same pay whether I worked or not.

I actually rake in the OT at holidays now because other people like to take it off so I pick up several extra shifts. On Thurs/Friday, I'll work 16hrs and get paid for almost 40. Sweet.

 

[nageov3t]

Depends on whether families or corporations are the framework of the US. I am personally rooting for the American family, as it seems like a dying breed.

why are they mutually exclusive?

I just had dinner this past weekend with more family than I'm going to see on Thanksgiving proper... I don't think the fact that I'm working in the afternoon before dinner at my parents' house takes anything away from that.

 

[Exterous]

I'd love to see how outraged they'd be if they lost their internet on Thanksgiving morning and it was down until the start of the business day on Monday because all the techs were off for the holiday weekend to spend time with their families.

What's the difference? Grocery stores and theaters aren't exactly mission critical, but all of their low income employees are working holidays too. What makes retail special?

Again - the hours worked by the average retail employe during Thanksgiving\BF is going to dwarf the hours required by the average support tech\grocery clerk\theater employee unless you think Comcast is making 99.8% of their support staff work on Thanksgiving and BF

 

[OverVolt]

Hospitals are open on thanksgiving day.

Lots of places must be open during holidays.

Suck it up.

 

[BoomerD]

I've worked every major holiday at least once...and all the "minor holidays" many times. For me, it was almost always voluntary and paid at overtime rates. (mostly double time, but some double and a half time)
Could I have refused? Sure...and let someone else make the bucks...but fuck it...I can eat dead turkey almost any day.

HOWEVER, I DO understand why folks working retail get pissed. It's rare that they get any sort of premium pay for giving up their holidays...and for the most part, people chasing the Black Friday deals are usually a bunch of assholes.
"MINE-MINE-MINE-MINE!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNiR5ZTb_MA

 

[Cuda1447]

Black Friday (and now Thursday) brings out the worst in people. The event is a disgrace. There are more fights associated with people wanting more shit at questionably discounted prices. If your industry isn't essential to the well being of our country (Police, ER etc...) than you should be given the holiday off. It's a very important family day in our country and it should be treated/respected as such. Not thrown away for more money

 

[OverVolt]

Black Friday (and now Thursday) brings out the worst in people. The event is a disgrace. There are more fights associated with people wanting more shit at questionably discounted prices. If your industry isn't essential to the well being of our country (Police, ER etc...) than you should be given the holiday off. It's a very important family day in our country and it should be treated/respected as such. Not thrown away for more money

I actually do agree. But the blame is equal parts the stores and the people willing to shop there. I personally don't get it and never shop on black friday.

 

[ultimatebob]

Black Friday (and now Thursday) brings out the worst in people. The event is a disgrace. There are more fights associated with people wanting more shit at questionably discounted prices. If your industry isn't essential to the well being of our country (Police, ER etc...) than you should be given the holiday off. It's a very important family day in our country and it should be treated/respected as such. Not thrown away for more money

Right on, Cuda! I'd do all of my shopping from you if I knew that there would be food in those Luckyloot boxes

 

[Perknose]

This thread is rife with posters who literally can't conceive of one or two days a fucking year with no commerce, essential services aside.

That's unbelievably pathetic.

'Murica. Land of the free, except for voluntary bondage to the almighty dollar, a neat trick fostered by cynical advertising (you need this), fear, and insecurity.

 

[BoberFett]

Yes, because consumer goods are the only thing manufactured in this country.

They're the only things that retailers sell. Do you know a lot of people that will be out shopping for Black Friday deals on fighter jets, industrial equipment, or bulk containers of hazmat Thursday.

Now think very hard... What is the topic of this thread...

 

[BoberFett]

Great quote. Let's not forget, Madison Avenue's job is to manipulate the needs and desires of consumers, of which they are extremely proficient. In the last decade, advertising has gone into hyperspeed mode and dug even deeper into the primal brain.

And yet I and many others don't partake in Black Friday foolishness. I guess we're just superior human beings. The rest of those advertising driven boobs are free to shop on Thanksgiving if they want. The people working on Thursday are clearly inferior marketing driven drones themselves and deserve to work on holidays. Let's face it, if they weren't working, they'd be shopping with the rest of the morons.

 

[BoberFett]

Again - the hours worked by the average retail employe during Thanksgiving\BF is going to dwarf the hours required by the average support tech\grocery clerk\theater employee unless you think Comcast is making 99.8% of their support staff work on Thanksgiving and BF

Really? So all of those Thanksgiving dinners at restaurants around the country are going to cook and serve themselves?

 

[BoberFett]

This thread is rife with posters who literally can't conceive of one or two days a fucking year with no commerce, essential services aside.

That's unbelievably pathetic.

'Murica. Land of the free, except for voluntary bondage to the almighty dollar, a neat trick fostered by cynical advertising (you need this), fear, and insecurity.

This country is rife with consumers who drive it. It's what this country wants, or it wouldn't happen.

 

[WhipperSnapper]

Are the CEO's and upper management of those same companies going to be working over the holiday?

"I've got mine, F-You!"

The free market dogmatists should be coming into this thread soon to explain how if people don't like working on Thanksgiving they should find better jobs from the mystical magic jobs tree.