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Date Posted: 12:51:23 11/06/13 Wed
Author: New CeebŪ
Author Host/IP: 64.132.210.51
Subject: So that's it, then?
In reply to: 5280 's message, "That's fine, but..." on 12:32:45 11/06/13 Wed


>My daughter works in the retail industry. Why doesn't
>she deserve to be able to take the holiday and spend
>it with her family? For retail workers, there is no
>choice. There is no, "take the day off". There is
>"be here or be fired".

There's no alternative than shaming campaigns, boycotts and legislation?

Here's what I did, when I was pulling holiday shifts twenty years ago:
(Mind you, there were other reasons why the noon-to-4:00 window was difficult on Thanksgiving Thursday...like divorce-split families and travel time. In other words, this situation is nothing at all new...nor is it outrageous and egregious.)

First, at retail, we split shifts into 4-hour increments. Or some of us bargained for Christmas over Thanksgiving in a "rotation" sense. There was flexibility to a certain extent. We worked together to help each other. (Plus it was a double-time wage day! I requested the Turkey Day shift on occasion.)

Next, our family simply postponed the meal or held off desserts. We played around with timing so everyone could be included in the "gathering" sense of it one way or another. A few times (and again this year, consequently) we held a Thanksgiving feast on Friday to accommodate schedules.

Finally, and most importantly, we didn't forget the spirit of the thing. If we missed the first helpings, we were still thankful for the re-heats. Somebody making you a plate and warming it for you is perhaps the most gracious behavior of all. People choosing to sit in the kitchen whilst I ate over the sink, to converse with me, was every bit as important a Thanksgiving moment as any.

Hell, a carload of us took a dinner plate to a working relative one year! Is that not, in its own way, even more memorable?

Radical capitalism can't take away any of that unless you somehow let it. It can be made to work. I've seen it.

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