Archived How can I get Christmas eve off for religious reasons?

[Bullselle]

I've only been with the store since October, but I will NOT under any circumstances work on Christmas eve. I'll try and swap shifts with someone, but won't it just be easier to say I don't want to work for religious reasons? Or would that actually make things more complicated?
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EDIT

Thanks everyone who replied for sharing your advice! I just want to clear up some things because I'm getting a lot of similar replies.
- Yes, I am now aware I should've put in my request when I just started. I said that in my "huge idiot" comment a while back. To reiterate, I am a huge idiot.
- I understand that I will fare better if I put in a request ASAP. Thanks!
- I have my own personal reasons for not working on Christmas Eve that are both religious and family oriented. If you don't think it's that big of a deal to work on Christmas Eve, that's your opinion and I respect it. Please don't shoot people down for having traditions that are different from yours.
- I never said that I deserve to have Christmas Eve off more than anyone else. Some of y'all are really jumping to conclusions here.
- I'm seeing some harsh judgments of people's religions in the comments. Please keep it respectful.

 

[Goingstrong]

You can ask for religious accommodation, however, you'll need to explain why you won't be able to work even an early shift.

 

[commiecorvus]

That's complicated.
They do close early on Christmas Eve so if you need to make it to a late Mass you should be fine but if you're asking for the whole day off, the fact is Christmas Eve isn't recognized as a holiday.
If you want to say it for religious reasons you kind of have to back it up, do you not work Sundays or work a schedule so you can got to church?
You can't be seen as inconsistent.

And the fact is, while they can't question you about all this, they can performance you out later if they see you as too much trouble.

 

[Bullselle]

Do you think they'll still be irritated though?

 

[redeye58]

Yep.
Count on it.
Did you mention this when you were hired?
If not, it's gonna be a hard sell.

 

[Bullselle]

That's complicated.
They do close early on Christmas Eve so if you need to make it to a late Mass you should be fine but if you're asking for the whole day off, the fact is Christmas Eve isn't recognized as a holiday.
If you want to say it for religious reasons you kind of have to back it up, do you not work Sundays or work a schedule so you can got to church?
You can't be seen as inconsistent.

And the fact is, while they can't question you about all this, they can performance you out later if they see you as too much trouble.

Oh, well that's worrying. Yes, I do come in later on Sundays because of church. But it's weird that they don't recognize Christmas eve as a holiday because it IS an official holiday. I guess that doesn't matter to Target.
Also. Please explain what "performancing me out" means. It sounds hella manipulative.

 

[Bullselle]

Yep.
Count on it.
Did you mention this when you were hired?
If not, it's gonna be a hard sell.

Nope, because I'm a huge idiot.

 

[commiecorvus]

That's complicated.
They do close early on Christmas Eve so if you need to make it to a late Mass you should be fine but if you're asking for the whole day off, the fact is Christmas Eve isn't recognized as a holiday.
If you want to say it for religious reasons you kind of have to back it up, do you not work Sundays or work a schedule so you can got to church?
You can't be seen as inconsistent.

And the fact is, while they can't question you about all this, they can performance you out later if they see you as too much trouble.

Oh, well that's worrying. Yes, I do come in later on Sundays because of church. But it's weird that they don't recognize Christmas eve as a holiday because it IS an official holiday. I guess that doesn't matter to Target.
Also. Please explain what "performancing me out" means. It sounds hella manipulative.

Performancing someone out is applying a strict interpretation of the rules to you until they find enough infractions to get rid of you.
Trust me it's not hard to do if the management puts their mind to it.


And seriously Christmas Eve isn't a holiday per se.
Most stores and businesses are open.
They just close early.

 

[oath2order]

That's complicated.
They do close early on Christmas Eve so if you need to make it to a late Mass you should be fine but if you're asking for the whole day off, the fact is Christmas Eve isn't recognized as a holiday.
If you want to say it for religious reasons you kind of have to back it up, do you not work Sundays or work a schedule so you can got to church?
You can't be seen as inconsistent.

And the fact is, while they can't question you about all this, they can performance you out later if they see you as too much trouble.

Oh, well that's worrying. Yes, I do come in later on Sundays because of church. But it's weird that they don't recognize Christmas eve as a holiday because it IS an official holiday. I guess that doesn't matter to Target.
Also. Please explain what "performancing me out" means. It sounds hella manipulative.

http://www.opm.gov/FAQs/QA.aspx?fid...a6b7&pid=dfe11c35-58a5-429e-8a8f-1d9d5784fc6f

"Christmas eve is not a regularly scheduled holiday"

 

[Bullselle]

That's complicated.
They do close early on Christmas Eve so if you need to make it to a late Mass you should be fine but if you're asking for the whole day off, the fact is Christmas Eve isn't recognized as a holiday.
If you want to say it for religious reasons you kind of have to back it up, do you not work Sundays or work a schedule so you can got to church?
You can't be seen as inconsistent.

And the fact is, while they can't question you about all this, they can performance you out later if they see you as too much trouble.

Oh, well that's worrying. Yes, I do come in later on Sundays because of church. But it's weird that they don't recognize Christmas eve as a holiday because it IS an official holiday. I guess that doesn't matter to Target.
Also. Please explain what "performancing me out" means. It sounds hella manipulative.

http://www.opm.gov/FAQs/QA.aspx?fid...a6b7&pid=dfe11c35-58a5-429e-8a8f-1d9d5784fc6f

"Christmas eve is not a regularly scheduled holiday"

Interesting, so it's a bank holiday but not an official holiday. I never knew that.

 

[oath2order]

tbh I'm surprised too, I thought it was a federal-day-off myself.

 

[Bullselle]

That's complicated.
They do close early on Christmas Eve so if you need to make it to a late Mass you should be fine but if you're asking for the whole day off, the fact is Christmas Eve isn't recognized as a holiday.
If you want to say it for religious reasons you kind of have to back it up, do you not work Sundays or work a schedule so you can got to church?
You can't be seen as inconsistent.

And the fact is, while they can't question you about all this, they can performance you out later if they see you as too much trouble.

Oh, well that's worrying. Yes, I do come in later on Sundays because of church. But it's weird that they don't recognize Christmas eve as a holiday because it IS an official holiday. I guess that doesn't matter to Target.
Also. Please explain what "performancing me out" means. It sounds hella manipulative.

Performancing someone out is applying a strict interpretation of the rules to you until they find enough infractions to get rid of you.
Trust me it's not hard to do if they are trying hard enough.


And seriously Christmas Eve isn't a holiday per se.
Most stores and businesses are open.
They just close early.

You know what, it seems like I'm going to have to swap shifts to avoid all this performancing bullshit. Is there a pay incentive like Thanksgiving?

 

[Bullselle]

tbh I'm surprised too, I thought it was a federal-day-off myself.

Yeah I can forget about getting Boxing Day off then.

 

[sigma7]

Christmas Eve is not an official holiday, just like New Years eve is not an official holiday. The only "official" eve holiday I can think of is All Hallows' Eve (read Halloween) which still isn't an "official" holiday. Places may still close early on Christmas eve, but it doesn't make it a federal/official holiday.

Back to the point, if you were seasonal and told them that you were willing to work Christmas eve as part of the seasonal availability questionnaire, then you might be SOL. If you are a regular hire then you're still going to be under 90 days. Unless you mentioned this during your interviews, then it might be a little tougher to be scheduled off. You can always talk to your leaders about it and put in a time off request. Maybe if you explain to them why you need the day off then they will be more accommodating.

Coming up out of the blue and telling me that you will absolutely not show up for a shift on such and such day makes me tell you that you are free to put in a time off request, but I will be scheduling to the needs of the business.

Come up to me early enough and tell me why you need such and such day off, and that you would really appreciate if I could work with your request, then I will go out of my way to schedule off it at all possible.

But I would for sure lose the attitude that you came here posting with. The hard reality is that you're coming off like an entitled snob. You agreed to work a retail job during the holiday season. You attitude here suggests to me that you already have issues with leadership in your store. In my experience, many leaders are much more open to team members that treat them with respect than those who work there a short time but walk around thinking that they own the place. That said, my team knows that I write my schedule for what the business needs. Time off requests (if reasonable) are approved on a first come first served basis. If I have a tm who puts in an early request off for Christmas eve the I will probably approve it. If you are the third or fourth person putting in a request, then it's probably not going to be approved.

 

[Bullselle]

Christmas Eve is not an official holiday, just like New Years eve is not an official holiday. The only "official" eve holiday I can think of is All Hallows' Eve (read Halloween) which still isn't an "official" holiday. Places may still close early on Christmas eve, but it doesn't make it a federal/official holiday.

Back to the point, if you were seasonal and told them that you were willing to work Christmas eve as part of the seasonal availability questionnaire, then you might be SOL. If you are a regular hire then you're still going to be under 90 days. Unless you mentioned this during your interviews, then it might be a little tougher to be scheduled off. You can always talk to your leaders about it and put in a time off request. Maybe if you explain to them why you need the day off then they will be more accommodating.

Coming up out of the blue and telling me that you will absolutely not show up for a shift on such and such day makes me tell you that you are free to put in a time off request, but I will be scheduling to the needs of the business.

Come up to me early enough and tell me why you need such and such day off, and that you would really appreciate if I could work with your request, then I will go out of my way to schedule off it at all possible.

But I would for sure lose the attitude that you came here posting with. The hard reality is that you're coming off like an entitled snob. You agreed to work a retail job during the holiday season. You attitude here suggests to me that you already have issues with leadership in your store. In my experience, many leaders are much more open to team members that treat them with respect than those who work there a short time but walk around thinking that they own the place. That said, my team knows that I write my schedule for what the business needs. Time off requests (if reasonable) are approved on a first come first served basis. If I have a tm who puts in an early request off for Christmas eve the I will probably approve it. If you are the third or fourth person putting in a request, then it's probably not going to be approved.

I've never had any problems with my leaders (except for forgetting to do things sometimes because I'm new, but they are always understanding and coach me). Obviously I wouldn't use those words to say that I'm unavailable when I'm speaking to my bosses, I just did it here to emphasize that I'm very adamant about not working on Christmas eve.
Also, I disagree that my attitude is "uppity". If I seem annoyed or even outraged, it's because I am. Regardless of whether Christmas eve is an official federal holiday, it's without a doubt an important holiday to a lot of people and it's not unreasonable for people to put their family first and refuse to work on that day. It really bugs me because Target is a multi billion dollar company that can definitely afford to close on Christmas eve, yet we're made out like the bad guys for saying it's unreasonable to not want to come to work that day.
My bosses may be friendly but in my experience, they have not been very accommodating to people's schedule changes, especially if they're new. So if you would give people time off, that's you. Not everyone has it that easy with their bosses. I was just wondering if maybe mentioning that I want off for religious reasons might give me a better chance of getting time off, but based on other replies, it probably won't.

 

[commiecorvus]

Once again I'm not saying they won't give you the time off, I'm just saying it's not a slam dunk and there are factors you have to keep in mind.
As a semi-observant Jew my bosses always knew I would be taking the high holidays off, no matter when they fell and I didn't work Saturdays most of the time.
That wasn't a problem for them because they knew well ahead of time.

I don't know how hard it would be to ask for an early shift or switch with someone to have a better shift but there are a lot of options.
Getting the entire day off though is going to be problematic.

 

[The Dude Abides]

Just tell them you have religious commitments to observe that day. Most stores would work with you on that, and if not it's just Target. There are plenty of other jobs you can find for $8.25 an hour.

 

[Bullselle]

Once again I'm not saying they won't give you the time off, I'm just saying it's not a slam dunk and there are factors you have to keep in mind.
As a semi-observant Jew my bosses always knew I would be taking the high holidays off, no matter when they fell and I didn't work Saturdays most of the time.
That wasn't a problem for them because they knew well ahead of time.

I don't know how hard it would be to ask for an early shift or switch with someone to have a better shift but there are a lot of options.
Getting the entire day off though is going to be problematic.

Yeah I know it's not impossible but it seems like my chances of getting the whole day off, which is what I really wanted, are pretty slim.
I think since Christmas is such a popular religious holiday, that might be another reason they could make taking time off such an issue. They don't want too many people doing it. Anyway, I'll weigh my options, but right now I still feel pretty strongly about not working. Maybe I'll change my mind. Thanks for the advice!

 

[Bullselle]

Just tell them you have religious commitments to observe that day. Most stores would work with you on that, and if not it's just Target. There are plenty of other jobs you can find for $8.25 an hour.

I'd hate to quit so early because I like to stick things out, but I am seriously considering just quitting. Because you're right, there are lots of minimum wage jobs out there. I'm kind of scared to approach them about my religious commitments because they're expecting me to have open availability and I'm sure they're going to get annoyed.

 

[sher]

You know what, it seems like I'm going to have to swap shifts to avoid all this performancing bullshit. Is there a pay incentive like Thanksgiving?

There's an extra dollar for the last few hours, so the answer is no, there's no incentive, because no one cares about $6 before taxes. Last year and the year before, they (idk if every store did this, actually) asked for volunteers past like 5pm or so (whenever the extra dollar starts), so no one who didn't volunteer worked the later shift. I have a new etl hr, so idk yet if that was my old etl being a good guy... Or if this is a real target-sanctioned thing.

 

[Bullselle]

You know what, it seems like I'm going to have to swap shifts to avoid all this performancing bullshit. Is there a pay incentive like Thanksgiving?

There's an extra dollar for the last few hours, so the answer is no, there's no incentive, because no one cares about $6 before taxes. Last year and the year before, they (idk if every store did this, actually) asked for volunteers past like 5pm or so (whenever the extra dollar starts), so no one who didn't volunteer worked the later shift. I have a new etl hr, so idk yet if that was my old etl being a good guy... Or if this is a real target-sanctioned thing.

Wow, no pay incentive? That's weird that they have one for Thanksgiving and not Christmas. Well, it's going to be harder to get someone to cover my shift.

 

[RedMan]

Are you going to ask for Good Friday and the Saturday before Easter also? How about Ash Wednesday? Those are pretty religious and I promise you, Target won't be closed. Perhaps you should have mentioned in your interview that you want all religious "holidays" off. Then you wouldn't have to quit because you probably wouldn't have been hired.

I wish you the best of luck finding an entry level position that will guarantee you all of your holidays off.

 

[Amly_221B]

I'm not available Sundays (I do go to church, I'm not just avoiding work on Sundays). I've always been granted Christmas Eve off, I only ask for the late/afternoon evening though. I can work in the morning if they wanted me to. Talk to your HR if it's a problem, but don't come off harsh or un willing to work. I'm sure they'll work with you.

 

[Bullselle]

Are you going to ask for Good Friday and the Saturday before Easter also? How about Ash Wednesday? Those are pretty religious and I promise you, Target won't be closed. Perhaps you should have mentioned in your interview that you want all religious "holidays" off. Then you wouldn't have to quit because you probably wouldn't have been hired.

I wish you the best of luck finding an entry level position that will guarantee you all of your holidays off.

It's funny that you say that, because there are a lot of entry level jobs that will give you all that time off and more. Are you aware that some people only work a few days a week because of religous commitments? How do you think Muslims who have to pray 6 times a day find work? It would be easier for them to get time off in a retail job than your typical 9-5 because those companies are looking for people willing to work unusual hours. This is not uncommon.
I'm not an orthodox Christian, but there are some people who take their religious holidays much more seriously than I do and would consider it a sin to do any work on those days. To say that these religious observances are not real holidays is not only culturally intolerant, but also grounds for a lawsuit if you're somebody's boss.

 

[Bullselle]

I'm not available Sundays (I do go to church, I'm not just avoiding work on Sundays). I've always been granted Christmas Eve off, I only ask for the late/afternoon evening though. I can work in the morning if they wanted me to. Talk to your HR if it's a problem, but don't come off harsh or un willing to work. I'm sure they'll work with you.

I don't know, working in the morning is only a little bit better than the evening to me. But I think that'll be my last resort if I can't get anyone to cover my shift.