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Christmas Eve - full or half day?

Jodie

Hi all, 

We have recently decided as a business to close the premises at around 1pm on Christmas Eve and office workers will be working from home. 

Previously Shopfloor staff (who work until 12.30 on Friday's - 37 hours pw) were told that if they wanted to book Christmas Eve off, a full day must be used. This didn't make sense to me due to their contracted hours, so with it landing on a Friday this year it has caused some upset. 

The response from Senior Management was that this was put in place so that it was fair for both Shopfloor and Office staff (office staff work until 4.30pm each day - 38.75 pw). A full day had to be used regardless of your working hours.

One of the Directors has overturned this rule for the Shopfloor this year and now I have office staff complaining this isn't fair as it has been the rule for as long as they have worked here. 

I suggested to our CEO giving everyone Christmas Eve off if office staff are all working from home. As a gesture of goodwill for both Shopfloor and Office for all their hard work through the pandemic and across the year. I'm not sure my Executive Directors will buy into this however. 

Could I get others views? What are your thoughts of the previous policy? How do other navigate the holidays for the Christmas period. 

Thanks 

Jodie 

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  • in reply to Maya
    Our approach has been similar to Maya's. If someone needs or wants the whole day off on Christmas Eve, they need to book it in advance. However, there's generally (not guaranteed) an on-the-day 'happy Christmas, off you go' message circulated by a member of the senior team anywhere between lunchtime and 3-ish on 24/12. It doesn't work for every department so really only applies to the office team. It's appreciated but people know not to take it for granted nor to rely on it. We would not reimburse the x hours' leave back to those who were already off. People understand this on both sides and it's not been an issue. So our approach is lower-key than the one in the OP but maybe an idea for future years, depending on how it would be received?
  • in reply to Maya
    We do exactly the same as Maya.