many Walmart workers are glad to work on T Day and overnight into Friday...

[SheilaT]

51. A lot of hourly workers are happy to get more hours.

I'm working all day today, 9am to 8pm, and I volunteered for this shift. I'll get paid regular pay for the 11 hours because I'm only a part-timer and normally work 20 hours a week, so I still won't go over 40 hours in the week.

But here's the rest of the story. I am in a place in my life where I can manage just fine part time. I work the information desk at my local hospital, 4p-8p Monday through Friday. From 8a-4p volunteers staff the desk. The volunteers understandably don't want to work the holiday, so this is the third year in a row I've volunteered to do the whole day. More to the point, I don't have any family here, and so I'm not missing out on a family gathering. The only trivial down side to working so long is that it gets a bit boring and tedious. I'll bring a book, I'll work on my novel (I'm getting an amazing amount written on the job because I have so much spare time), probably bring some crocheting. But it's not difficult work, people are glad to see my smiling face when they walk in the door. Plus, I get a free meal in the cafeteria. What's not to like?

But it's inexcusable in my opinion to open stores on Thanksgiving Day itself. You can be totally certain that the managers who made that decision are home themselves today, and most likely have the entire four day weekend. Anyone who works retail understands that they'll work odd hours, weekends, and many holidays. But Thanksgiving Day? I'm appalled.

Personally, I have not shopped at a WalMart in years. Personally, I don't shop the day after Thanksgiving.

Just one other note. I have good benefits in my job. I'm a permanent part time worker. So I accrue leave time, I get five holidays a year, of which Thanksgiving is one. So in addition to the extra hourly wages I'm getting today, I'm getting another 12 hours of pay. So my next paycheck will be about half again as large as usual. In sum, I'm perfectly fine with working today myself, and by this point all of the retail workers at all the stores that are going to be open today are themselves okay with (or resigned to) working. Extra money is always nice, we all get that. But how many retail workers get benefits or paid leave time? Not very many.

At least Papa John's, where my son is a pizza delivery guy, is closed all day today.