Remember the days when your mother went to bed early on Thanksgiving so she could be at the store by 5 or 6 a.m. on Black Friday? Remember when, as a retail employee, you could look forward to enjoying Thanksgiving with your family without having to gulp down your food and then go to work? Well, those days are long gone, and it appears that there is no end in site to the lengths retailers will go to squeeze out a few extra dollars of profits here and there.
Abha Bhattarai of the Washington Post makes a good point in pondering the biggest shopping day of the year should be renamed Black Thursday. Each year, the biggest chain stores in the nation start opening earlier and earlier. Last year, Target and a few others opened at 9 p.m. This year, Sears, Target, and Walmart have moved that time back yet another hour and are opening at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving evening.
When does the madness stop? Will stores greedy for your dollars force their employees to work the entire holiday eventually? Whatever happened to Walmart's focus on family? Opening at 8 p.m. on one of the biggest national holidays of the year is far from being family friendly. In fact, it's increasingly anti-family, because they're scheduling workers, many of whom are parents, to work long hours.
Sears Holdings, Inc. recently announced that it would open at 8 p.m. Its workers were not informed of this until very recently, when many of them had already had holiday plans lined up. Carlos Molina, of Cypress, California, started a petition on Change.org to end Sears opening on Thanksgiving. It might not do much good to stop the company from opening, but at the very least, the petition is bringing awareness to the growing problem.
One signer, who is a nurse, had this to say about the early hours:
"Its hard enough for me, as a nurse to work holidays away from my family, but at least that's for an important reason—the care of the sick. To make people work thanksgiving for retail profits? That's disgusting."
Another, whose wife works for Sears, said this:
"My wife works for Sears as a lead and they are forcing her to work two 12-hour shifts in a 30-hour period. She will have no time before or after the holiday to spend with family. This goes out to all employees in the same position."
An employee is required to work two 12-hour shifts within the span of a day and a half? People who work retail are being forced to choose working over spending time with family, and before you say, "Well, they should get out of retail if they don't like it," think about who rings up your sale, and who would ring you up if no one was there. Retail workers are the backbone of the industry, and without them, it would come to a complete standstill. Stores need stockers, they need cashiers, they need managers. They need security personnel. Even truck drivers, who sometimes have to miss holidays anyway, might have their schedules screwed up because of these earlier hours.
Employees aren't the only people affected by these earlier hours. If Sears, Walmart, and Target are opening at 8 p.m., when will people start lining up? At 5 p.m.? 4 p.m.? These stores know full well that serious shoppers intent on getting Black Friday bargains are willing to wait for several hours for a store to open. Is standing in line really more important than enjoying a relaxing day with turkey, family, and football?
As another commenter on the petition stated, enough is enough! Corporate profits should not supersede retail workers' right to spend time with their families.
Photo credit: Craig Dugas
©2012 Reno Berkeley for Gather News. Berkeley can be found on Tumblr, Google+, Twitter.
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Comments: 38
Employees at Walmart (at least here) are getting a 50.00 bonus to work a six hour shift via the "black thursday", it was all sign up and volunteer for that night. They actually had to turn people away.
During the day the employees are working four hour shifts.
I am working black thursday myself with my company which will be at Walmart (folks if you go out there, be nice to the demo lady and remember she isn't an employee of the store...and she/he is giving away Luna bars) I am getting a 100.00 bonus to work four hours...and glad to...it helps pay bills.
also btw, employees get double time to work on Thanksgiving...so those whom are complaining, I bet don't complain while they cash their checks or spend the money.
I used to give out samples--loved it!! ;-) Good luck on Thanksgiving!
They have an alternative...unemployment...
However, in this economic climate, or any other, I tend to believe that people should stop bitching so much & be grateful that they even have a job. Not necessarily as it applies to fair hours, pay, benefits, etc. that needs to change to be more equitable. Per the above, I checked into Walmart's wages & benefits; what I found was a fairly high percentage of people complaining about being made to do the work they were hired to do, & others telling them that it's possible to increase wages & benefits if you put in the effort, & that a good attitude goes a long way.
Call me old fashioned, but I think you should put in an honest day's work if you agreed to the pay. I hated being obligated to do jobs I disliked, & put up with ridiculous people because I needed the money, too; it's incredibly unfair to be at the bottom of a system that favors the rich. But, it is what it is, & I never saw the sense in cutting off one's nose to spite their face. There's just no sense in not making the best of it until change can be affected. It's so much easier to count your blessings & try to be happy. Also, as far as I know, people are still free to look for other work.
I have to disagree with you on the "stop bitching" part. Just because people ought to be thankful for the jobs they have does not give their employers the right to treat them like slaves. It's abusive. I worked in retail in my younger days and experienced my fair share of abuse from managers. I was once made to scrub the floor on my hands and knees by some old sadistic manager when I was 19. I was ordered back to work by my manager only days after my father's death because they were short. Who cares if I was grieving and needed another day or two to pull myself together?
No. Companies have an obligation to treat their employees with respect and dignity. Unless you're an emergency worker, employers need to respect national holidays for their employees so they can relax and spend time with family and friends.
I signed the Target Thanksgiving work petition a day or two ago, but haven't shopped there since they donated to that openly homophobic Republican politician a few years back.
Sorry, Reno, I should have been clearer, but my comment was in no way one-sided.
I've been through my share of abusive employers, too, some that reduced me to crying in the bathroom half the day--the stories I could tell...I agree, every employer has an obligation to treat employees with respect, & provide reasonable pay, hours, etc.--that's what I meant about being at the mercy of people who have the money. Some employers think that because they're paying they have the right to be as unreasonable as they please. It's about holding power over other human beings, not about the job, & it's ABSOLUTELY NOT OK.
When I wrote the comment I had just read a bunch of comments from Walmart employees--some were referring to abuse, & there's definitely a disparity between stores, & managers. The "quit bitching" was in reference to those who clearly have a bad attitude, & make the work harder for everyone--who expect an executive salary in return for sitting around on their fannies; feel they're being ill treated if they're asked to do the work they were hired to do--that feel entitled to start at the top, & wouldn't be happy with any amount of money if it required them to put a smile on their faces & actually do the job.
I ABSOLUTELY BELIEVE that things need to change. Employers should be made to pay a fair wage in relation to profits for the work involved, & family values need to start taking precedence over the almighty dollar.
On the other hand, I also believe that the decline in family values has led us to leave a good portion of our work ethic in the dust. We've lost some of the ability to see the value in hard work on a personal level--the satisfaction of putting in an honest day. Granted, it's less & less possible for people to work their way up, to count on the loyalty of employers to reciprocate when things get hard, & to reward them when the company advances, but it makes me sad nonetheless.
I did not address you directly on your post, & would appreciate it if you would not address me again.
But...then...I don't have to work at Wal Mart or shop on Black Friday to save a few bucks...
My daughter-in-law & I talk every year about how hard it is when others are disappointed with the gifts we can afford. One year, all they had to give me was a sample bottle of horrid nail polish she got from work--they were so happy when I turned it over & noticed that the name was "Love Your Mother." Another year she made gifts, again because of lack of money. She talked about how happy it made her to think about how much people would like the fact that she put so much of her knowledge of each person into the gifts while she was making them--many responded with disgust & disappointment that it wasn't an expensive department store gift. It broke her heart! I've received the same response at times.
I'm very blessed that my children would rather have a bologna sandwich & family game night than some fancy do dad--it's stuff people! Stuff can be lost in an instant, & so can people. Which is more important?