With the Christmas holidays quickly approaching, many of us are looking forward to spending time with loved ones and taking a well deserved rest from the corporate world. However, whilst some are able to look forward to a change of pace, spare a thought for those who are in lines of work that make it unable for them to take a break. Doctors and nurses, retail and hospitality workers spring to mind when you think of those trying to combat the masses over the Christmas period.
With such an imbalance of time off facing workers in this country, it does beg the question ‘should there be a mandatory break for everyone over the Christmas period?’ I wanted to know how a handful of workers from various fields felt about the varying amounts of holiday and whether, in an ideal world, they would actually want an extended holiday.
Support worker Maarya thinks that giving workers more holidays will prevent burn out and improve productivity; although tricky around Christmas, Maarya believes it can be done.
“Not everyone is fussed with working during the holidays, so maybe finding people willing to work and paying them an extra rate would be the fairest way around the problem.”
Similarly, administrator Lauren said that they believe non-essential retail should be voluntary for the holidays. Essential retail close bank Holidays, Sunday hours for other days and a higher rate of pay in order to motivate staff and encourage more volunteers to put themselves forward for shifts.
Yet with all this seeming easy in a hypothetical world, it would be wrong of us to ignore the facts; essential workers are relied on throughout the Christmas period more so than many other lines of work. A small focus group of people took a poll asking them how much time off they received over the Christmas holidays and unsurprisingly those in nursing, care and retail had the least amount of time. Whereas those based in office jobs and teaching roles had the most amount of holiday.
“Consumerism would have people climbing the walls if they couldn’t shop and shops were closed to give the employees a break. It’s never going to be fair no matter how it’s divvied up.” Explains a teacher. “The world doesn’t stop just because it’s Christmas.”
When a small focus group of workers were asked how long they think an appropriate Christmas holiday would be a staggering 48% said they thought two weeks would be suitable, this included workers from the retail, medical and educational backgrounds.
11% of survey takers suggested that 3 days would be sufficient, going on to express concern for those who don’t celebrate Christmas at all.
Cinematic Artist Chloe Bostock believes that forcing time off on those that don’t celebrate Christmas could be considered unfair, especially for those that would need time off at different points in the year for other festivities. “A mandatory holiday could raise issues as Christmas is traditionally a Christian holiday, it may seem biased/unfair to other religions and their holidays that don’t get the same treatment.”
It’s tricky to come to a definitive conclusion when taking all these circumstances into consideration; although there is a great argument for taking an extended holiday over the Christmas period, for many it is simply out of the question. Do you think that there should be a mandatory holiday for all workers in the UK over Christmas? Leave your comments below.
Note: This blog is written specifically with the UK in mind.