My employer makes us take days off

Move to a first world Country

Bad company policy, my former employer told us three months before the end of the year that the office was closed between christmas and new year in 2016 and we either had to use vacation we had or work extra (bank time) to use on the 4 days.

Everybody complained but I didn't really care. I guess it isnt totally uncommon.

You always have the option to work elsewhere(as I did), as they have the option to encourage it with bad policy.

-RS

Become self-employed.

I guess I'm thankful that I get 6 weeks vacation. A job where you get one week? It can't be a very good job, because you don't attract "talent" with those sorts of benefits.

Lol 5 days.

I assume you have known about this since at least July (when you had to use a vacation day on July 5th).

Your situation is not uncommon in certain industries, particularly small businesses. They want to close on those days (maybe it makes no sense to be open) but can’t afford to pay you.

They may be breaking the law if they are telling you to work now and bank time to pay you later. They should be paying you now for work you do now. They should also be paying overtime rates if you are working overtime on Saturdays. (Assuming you are non-exempt)

Your remedies, if any, will depend on where you live and the size of your company.

Get a new job. With the successful Trump economy, there is lots of new opportunities.

Paul2432 wrote:

I assume you have known about this since at least July (when you had to use a vacation day on July 5th).

Your situation is not uncommon in certain industries, particularly small businesses. They want to close on those days (maybe it makes no sense to be open) but can’t afford to pay you.

They may be breaking the law if they are telling you to work now and bank time to pay you later. They should be paying you now for work you do now. They should also be paying overtime rates if you are working overtime on Saturdays. (Assuming you are non-exempt)

Your remedies, if any, will depend on where you live and the size of your company.

Not quite, they pulled the Dec. 26 on us the day I posted this thread. Pretty much sucks, because I was flying out of town this weekend, and coming back on Dec. 25 to be at work the next day. Oops.

Back when I was young, the option was military duty or Canada....

I guess it is all how you see it.

At my previous job the office was closed from Dec 24th to Jan 2nd. You could come in if a client specifically needed you to work those days, otherwise you were required to take vacation days or no pay. And I was exempt from overtime, but that is pretty standard in many lines of work. Oddly enough, I frequently regret leaving that job. The work was great.

I don't think this is great policy but it's not that uncommon and you need to consider it in the context of your overall work experience. If you receive 5 total vacation days per year and they tell you you have to use them on those 5 days that's one thing. If you get 25 vacation days that's different.

Pretty much anything you do will have some people who don't agree with it. You have people on all sides. Some who always seem to have more vacation saved than they want to use and some that are always using it as they get it.

There's also other factors like if one person decides to work on Christmas eve them maybe that forces their manager to also come to work.

Honestly, if this is the worst part of your job then you probably have a pretty good job. If this is just one of many things you don't like then maybe you should look elsewhere.

Personally I wouldn't like to be forced to use my vacation on certain days, but it wouldn't bother me that much in this case because I'd take most of those days off anyway and there's no guilt about taking the day off if the office is closed.