Holiday work and holiday pay.

It is Turkey Day. The general world at large, as I am typing this, is sung in their blankets, maybe thinking about getting up and starting a pot of coffee in order to prepare for the day. Turkeys are thawed and ready for roasting, or smoking, or frying, or whatever form of cooking suits the fancy of would-be culinary experts across the country. Millions of casseroles are going to be prepared, and potatoes-a-plenty are going to be peeled (or at least there should be; there is no call for potato skins in mashed potatoes).

So why, oh why, am I at work? It’s a funny thing, you know, working shift work. About 10 years ago I started working this line of work. The application process is quite lengthy, and the application itself if long and overly wordy (much like me and my explanations of things). One of the things required to apply is the acceptance that you are required to work rotating shifts, night shifts, weekends and holidays. In fact, should you choose to mark this as not being willing to work these rotating shifts, your application will be stopped and you will not find yourself employed by your prospective employer.

So here I am. Its Turkey Day. It’s not even my shift. I am here because I don’t have a lot to do this Thanksgiving. My son is with his mother, my parents are out of town, and my sister lives in AZ. Wife’s parents are home, however we get paid a bundle if we work overtime.

A normal day of overtime nets me “time and a half.” Should you work a holiday, you get an extra 8 hours of “holiday pay.” On top of that, you get 8 hours of “bank time” put into your holiday bank account. So, was I to add all of that up, I actually get over double time. Not a bad gig.

So I am here. I am sipping a cup of coffee. We are telling war stories, and generally having a good time. The best thing about working a holiday here, is we all get the fact that there are probably other things we would like to be doing. Visiting with family. Watching football. Eating a large home cooked meal. Taking a nap. Playing bocce ball. Whatever suits your fancy. But instead, we are all here. So we stick together. We are here for each other.

So we have a veritable feast of a potluck. We are going to be watching movies and football games. We are going to sit around and tell ridiculous stories about each other and have a good laugh at our own expenses.
What more, being here at work, could we be more thankful for?