Holiday proposal

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Hi everyone, I am looking for some advice for our holiday situation. Currently at our facility we are required to work 3 major holidays out of the 6. The issue is for night shift staff. They are required to work the night before the holiday into the holiday. If it isn't your holiday to work, you work the night of the holiday. In essence, you are basically working every holiday. Day shift has the better package right now. They just work the day of the holiday. So the new proposal from the manager is to make it fair for everyone and work the day before the holiday and the day of the holiday. So the following two years you don't work the holiday you worked both sides of. Instead of 2 groups, it will consist of groups a,b,c. Night shift is happy with this proposal because we will be able to spend a full holiday with our family. I know a hospital is 24-7 facility and I knew we would work holidays and weekends, just not every holiday. Day shift isn't happy with the proposal and have a lot of pushback. We have to put in our votes by the end of this month. The issue is that there is more dayshift staff and casuals that make up that side of the pot so I also feel like it may or may not slay to declining this proposal. I think it's fair for both sides that way everyone gets to enjoy time with their family. What are your thoughts?

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Why can't say shift do their own thing and night shift do their own thing?

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Specializes in CMSRN, hospice.

Our holiday system sucks too. There has always been one person who votes against any change that would make things easier (someone decided it needs to be unanimous to change the current system). We all just trade shifts after the schedule comes out so everybody gets something they want. It can be annoying, but for the most part it improves things and we get at least one holiday entirely to ourselves.

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I said the same thing but it didn't fly.

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Our holiday system sucks too. There has always been one person who votes against any change that would make things easier (someone decided it needs to be unanimous to change the current system). We all just trade shifts after the schedule comes out so everybody gets something they want. It can be annoying, but for the most part it improves things and we get at least one holiday entirely to ourselves.

This may be true but doesn't always guarantee it either. Are we wrong to complain about this? Of course I am voting for the proposal to be 3 group rotation.

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That's how we do it on the major holidays. I work dayshift. Whoever works Thanksgiving works thanksgiving day and Black Friday. Christmas works Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. New Years is New Year's Eve and day. It does not apply to Memorial Day, 4th of July, or Labor Day.

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Specializes in Oncology.

We have a very similar system at my job and a very similar proposal was made where working your holiday would consist of the night before and of. The problem came with night shifters who had been there 10+ years and spent the last 10 years getting shafted with their low seniority having to work the night before and night of on their on holidays and the night of on their off holidays and are just now getting enough seniority to be on the good side of that equation and be the shafter versus the shafted. They were (rightly so) very against that. One could argue that years of being screwed on holidays could make you see why change is needed, but people spend time paying their dues to get the benefits that come with seniority later.

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Specializes in Critical Care; Cardiac; Professional Development.
That's how we do it on the major holidays. I work dayshift. Whoever works Thanksgiving works thanksgiving day and Black Friday. Christmas works Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. New Years is New Year's Eve and day. It does not apply to Memorial Day, 4th of July, or Labor Day.

This is how it was on my last floor position too. It worked well. Probably wasn't popular when it first rolled out, but people learned to accept it.

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Specializes in Geriatrics, Dialysis.

We have block scheduling where I work so holiday rotations for us depend simply if the holiday falls on your regularly scheduled day or not. There are some years where a person might end up being scheduled all of them, then there might be a year where a person works none of them. One advantage is with block scheduling we know well in advance if we will be scheduled or not and if there is a certain holiday a person really wants off we just request the day off, if several people want the same holiday off the request is granted by seniority. People are also pretty good about swapping shifts, there's one nurse that always does Christmas on the 24th and she has always found somebody that wants the 25th off so they trade shifts.

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It's not fair to have a specific shift work every holiday, they have family and personal lives too. When we had this issue, some of day shift had to work nights and holidays or they used float pool/agency nurses. We flat out told them we would call in so they had to do something or it was going to cost them extra anyway.

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Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.
That's how we do it on the major holidays. I work dayshift. Whoever works Thanksgiving works thanksgiving day and Black Friday. Christmas works Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. New Years is New Year's Eve and day. It does not apply to Memorial Day, 4th of July, or Labor Day.

I was wondering why most places don't adopt this sort of system. In Canada (the places I worked, anyway) you picked Christmas or New Years to have off (or got assigned based on seniority). Having Christmas off meant being off Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. New Years meant New Years Eve and New Years Day. That way you got to enjoy an actual holiday.

Most places I've worked in the States you choose among Christmas Eve, Day, New Years Eve, Day. How is it a holiday to have New Years Eve off and have to come back in the morning of New Years Day? That never made any sense to me.

For the OP, I'd be in favour of each shift doing its own thing. The whole point is coverage. Each shift has its own issues to work around. Just curious OP, when you start your night shift, are you considered to be working the same day you arrive at work, or the day the majority of your hours falls on? That may be an issue in how holidays are arranged.

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Specializes in psych, dialysis, LTC, sub acute rehab, hospice.

Where I work, there are 6 major holidays, plus Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, and the biggies are Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, NY eave, and NY day. There's not much problem with the first 3, but for the last 6, Nursing staff are asked to choose three of the six, in hopes that everyone will at least get one of their first choices off. Of course, that means schedulers have to look back to previous years, so that you may not get your first choice every year. When I worked nights, I totally recall sleeping through most of Thanksgiving Day, only to go in to work that night, so I empathize with the night shift dilemma.

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