Everyone Deserves a Holiday... from Being Judgmental

I'm sure most of you have seen this pledge floating around the internet. 

I am really bothered by the last statement, "Everyone Deserves a Holiday" because I don't think that most of the people posting this picture really believe that. What they mean is "Everyone who isn't making my Thanksgiving better deserves a holiday."

Now I think we can all agree that there are certain lines of work where there is an expectation that you will have to work on holidays in the name of public health and safety. Essential workers. I have no doubt that every police officer, firefighter, hospital and prison worker wants to be home with their families. And of course we cannot forget the men and women serving our country in the military. These are the people that have to work not just on Thanksgiving but every holiday.

Then the line seems to blur on "essential" workers. Many people have taken up a crusade to give retail workers Thanksgiving day off. The concept is that retail workers are not essential, they often earn minimum wage or not much more, and therefore deserve a day off, corporate greed be damned! But how many other workers have we deemed essential who really aren't?

How about hotel staff? I bet the maids and the people who heat up your included with the room rate free breakfast would rather be home. Sure, you don't have to put up your in-laws for the weekend and no one has to sleep on the pull out couch with the bar in the middle of their back. It might make it harder for some families to get together, but are hotels really essential? How about all those people in the airport making sure you get from point A to point B. Why can't people fly the day before or after?Flying on Thanksgiving day is usually cheaper than any other day that week so people do it. So let's open up airports and have gate attendants, baggage handlers, security, janitorial services, car rental desks and all the restaurants and shops open so a few people can save a few dollars. Hmm... that sounds just like the sanctimonious response people give when proclaiming how terrible it is for retail stores to be open. I actually had someone tell me that workers in the travel industry "take one for the team" so that the rest of us can have a nicer Thanksgiving. Apparently, as long as those workers, many of whom are paid minimum wage just like retail workers, are making your day better it is fine that they miss Thanksgiving with their families.

And what about the entertainment industry? There are lots of minimum wage workers staffing movie theaters, casinos, bowling alleys, bars and restaurants. Are they essential? If you don't want to cook, you might feel restaurants are essential. Do those people deserve a complete Thanksgiving dinner prepared, served and cleared by, wait for it, lots of people who would rather be home with their families than earning minimum wage (or even less) to make someone else's Thanksgiving better?

Do we even have to talk about Disney World? The travel and entertainment industry brought to you in one very expensive package on the backs of thousands of minimum wage workers. Where are all the Facebook pages demanding "Boycott the Mouse?" Nowhere. Why? Because the same people who are appalled that Target is open probably have jobs that give them vacation time and two days off for Thanksgiving. If they go to Disney Thanksgiving week they only have to use three vacation days for a week long vacation. And since they are paying a lot to be there, Disney had better not ruin their family's Thanksgiving by allowing employees to be home with their own families.

The last argument I hear trying to shame me into supporting a ban on retail shopping on Thanksgiving is that "they've never been open before." I call bullshit. I am a Thanksgiving shopper. Not because I am out to score a deal, or because I don't care about the plight of the retail worker but because it has been a tradition in my family for more than 25 years. Yes, retail stores have been open at least that long on Thanksgiving. I'm not talking drugstores or supermarkets (although no one seems to care that they are open), but the regional department and discount stores that existed before Wal-Mart came in and put them out of business. Instead of sleeping in front of the television we walk around the store, as a family, and enjoy a lot of laughs together once the dishes are done.

It would be nice if everyone who wanted to be home on Thanksgiving could be. I thank all of the essential workers who eat turkey on Friday so others can eat it on Thursday. And I also thank ALL of the non-essential employees who work not because they want to, but because our society demands to eat, drink, be merry and yes shop on Thanksgiving.

But, please, stop saying that "Everyone Deserves a Holiday" when you don't really support everyone.