Is it bad that I can't work holidays?

[alieu4]

So I kind of got a job as a CNA at a Nursing and Rehab facility, and I really like it. I'm excited to gain a nursing home experience since I'm used to working Assisted living/home health. Everyone there is so nice and the DON is also. Would it be unprofessional on my part if I can work holidays though? Unfortunately, my dorm closes during Thanksgiving/Christmas break and I live an hour and some minutes away.

[Horseshoe, BSN, RN]

So,......in the hospital's I've worked,......nurses are NEVER allowed to take a weeks vacation from the week of Thanksgiving until after New Years. This is an utterly draconian policy! Essentially, they are a saying that if you have, say, parents who can't travel and they live a fair distance away, you will never, ever, be able to spend the holidays with them again. Even if it's not your holiday to work, you can't get the time off to travel. How can the hospitals even consider this fair?!!? I'm not saying everyone can take the week between Christmas and New Years off every year but every few years it should be an option. Nurses really need to take back their rights and dignity.

If you are not scheduled to work, how are they to know you spent your Thanksgiving with relatives? Do you have any say at all in your scheduling? For example, if you work 3 twelves and you request to work Sat, Sun, and Tues in Thanksgiving week, you could presumably be off, travel to your parents, and get back for the next week with no one knowing how you spent your off time.

I was very lucky that when I worked in a hospital, we did self scheduling. We did have holiday requirements, but we were expected to be adults and get the unit staffed on our own. Our manager always told us, "Make sure the unit is staffed, that you are fulfilling your responsibilities, because if I have to get involved in the schedule, you might not like how it comes out." We made sure to do this, because it gave us all better odds of getting what we wanted.

[Harveyslake]

If you are not scheduled to work, how are they to know you spent your Thanksgiving with relatives? Do you have any say at all in your scheduling? For example, if you work 3 twelves and you request to work Sat, Sun, and Tues in Thanksgiving week, you could presumably be off, travel to your parents, and get back for the next week with no one knowing how you spent your off time.

I was very lucky that when I worked in a hospital, we did self scheduling. We did have holiday requirements, but we were expected to be adults and get the unit staffed on our own. Our manager always told us, "Make sure the unit is staffed, that you are fulfilling your responsibilities, because if I have to get involved in the schedule, you might not like how it comes out." We made sure to do this, because it gave us all better odds of getting what we wanted.

We don't have 12 hour shifts. The full time people generally work 5 days a week. It has been the policy that even if you have, say, Thanksgiving Day off, you still are scheduled to work 5 days that week. It's crazy! That's how short staffed they keep us. If you have to work the day before Thanksgiving and the day after Thanksgiving with no chance of getting time off approved, you stay home for Thanksgiving.

[Julius Seizure]

If you are not scheduled to work, how are they to know you spent your Thanksgiving with relatives? Do you have any say at all in your scheduling? For example, if you work 3 twelves and you request to work Sat, Sun, and Tues in Thanksgiving week, you could presumably be off, travel to your parents, and get back for the next week with no one knowing how you spent your off time.

I was very lucky that when I worked in a hospital, we did self scheduling. We did have holiday requirements, but we were expected to be adults and get the unit staffed on our own. Our manager always told us, "Make sure the unit is staffed, that you are fulfilling your responsibilities, because if I have to get involved in the schedule, you might not like how it comes out." We made sure to do this, because it gave us all better odds of getting what we wanted.

At my first job, the policy was that during the "holiday season"(roughly thanksgiving to new years), no one could take off more than 6 days in a row. I had no family in the same state as me (actually, in the same region of the country even). Well, a flight home to see my family would have been $500+ (because they live in a remote area away from any major airport).....I couldn't spend that much to go home for only 5-6 days. I would visit in the summer when flights were cheaper and I could stay longer, but it WAS a little hard to always be alone for the holidays. And it was doubly hard that my family didn't understand what the big deal was and why I couldn't make the trip.