Christmas parties and bonuses

I worked Christmas Day and got paid time-&-half.

 

Friend of mine sells cars. Works six days a week. Unless his day off (Thursday) happens to come on the last day of the month.

Then he works seven days that week.

I don't want any part of that "real world."

 

Over the years, I've actually come to appreciate working the holiday period (although this year I got lucky because of the way my schedule broke and have Christmas Eve/Day and New Year's Eve/Day off). I've generally worked five-day weeks and always gotten either time and a half or a comp day for future use. There was a big difference on news desks -- no late meetings, less crime news than usual and little or no zoning. I've usually scheduled a week off in early January (getting the time off hasn't been a problem because no one else wants it then) and visited the family out West (taking advantage of cheaper and less hectic travel conditions). Best of all, almost everyone in middle management or higher usually was out of the office between Christmas and New Year's. If you screwed something up, it was almost certain to go unnoticed and/or be forgotten by the time the bigwigs returned.

 

I was employee of the year at a shop 15 years ago, awarded $600 at the holiday party, which wad cool for throwing a pretty nice one. Used the money to buy the gf a nice Trek bike.