What to do about a holiday issue

[Anonymous]

I was told when hired for my job I have been working since April I would get federal holidays off as well as two weeks vacation my choosing .

I did not get a contract , mistake but this is first real issues to come up since April. I am now being told both parents are working Veterans Day and I will be working . I have already made plans to go away for weekend and not be back till Monday afternoon. (I was off Columbus day so assumed I would be Veterans Day as well)

The dad had mentioned he has back up child care through his work if I was ever sick try would use . I'm thinking of asking him to use it and ill use a vacation day as a compromise.

Dose this sound reasonable to ask ?

[Anonymous]

I think so yes, but you better ask ASAP because backup childcare fills up fast on Veterans Day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think so yes, but you better ask ASAP because backup childcare fills up fast on Veterans Day.

+1 Your idea sounds perfectly resonable, but it may be too late. My employers are pulling the same crap with me, except we have a contract, they just left Veterans Day off the list of holidays even though we specifically negotiated all federal holidays. I'll be working Monday because I agreed to the contract like a sucker without checking to make sure all the federal holidays were listed. Its definitely leaving a bad taste in my mouth when we previously had a decent relationship. Get your agreement in writing, and double/triple/quadruple check it!

[Anonymous]

Op here I will have to get a contract going forward I have worked 57 hours week before last 58.5 hours last week and going to be about 56 hours at end of this week I need a long weekend but will have to see if they can find back up or not.

[Anonymous]

This has happened to me too in the past. Parents told me I would have all federal holidays off, but then expected me to work the lesser holidays such as Veterans Day! This is why from now on I always request a contract from families with specific holidays written out. I would just tell the family you already have plans since they told you it would be a holiday for you, and that they will have to make other arrangements for childcare. I would expect to be paid but they probably won't since they have to pay for backup care. Good luck OP.

[Anonymous]

Veterans Day is NOT a lesser holiday, a lot of Americans served in US armed forces and made the ultimate sacrifice so that selfish assholes like all of you live in freedom. OP, you have only yourself to blame. Nrxt time READ your contract. Mind you, you do work for assholrs and I hope you were smart enough to make sure you are paid OT.

[Anonymous]

Agree with PP. Veterans Day is one of our more meaningful holidays.

[Anonymous]

I remember getting a job offer with all federal holidays and then during negotiation, realized that my bosses had forgotten to include Veterans Day, MLK day, and President's day since they didn't get them off work. It wasn't intentional, they just forgot since they were just listing the holidays they had off. I wonder if that is what happened here.

Off topic, unfortunately Veterans Day is a "lesser holiday" in the sense that many people, including my husband who served two tours in Iraq, do not get it off. Same with MLK and Presidents Day. I think some Fed holidays just aren't observed the same way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I remember getting a job offer with all federal holidays and then during negotiation, realized that my bosses had forgotten to include Veterans Day, MLK day, and President's day since they didn't get them off work. It wasn't intentional, they just forgot since they were just listing the holidays they had off. I wonder if that is what happened here.

Off topic, unfortunately Veterans Day is a "lesser holiday" in the sense that many people, including my husband who served two tours in Iraq, do not get it off. Same with MLK and Presidents Day. I think some Fed holidays just aren't observed the same way.

15:47 here. It was definitely an intentional omission on the part of my bosses, that I failed to catch. All of the other federal holidays including MLK and Presidents Day are in my contract, and I specifically negotiated to exchange Columbus Day for the day following Thanksgiving. This is how I know we specifically discussed all federal holidays. I caught the absence of Veterans Day in the contract earlier this week, and brought it up. Turns out, it wasn't a mistake. I'm going to work that day because I signed the contract and not double checking was my own fault. But I am not happy that they quietly slipped that detail into the contract despite what we talked about. Its underhanded in a way I wouldn't have expected from them.

[Anonymous]

Red flags are important clues. Don't ignore their behavior, or you'll be sorry down the road.

[Anonymous]

I would not see it as a red flag PP unless they are otherwise bad. Most people that do not work with the government in some way don't get veteran's day off so they likely need to work. If not, then yes I agree it is not in good faith.

[Anonymous]

We're a military family. Our nanny does not have Veteran's Day off. I did make that clear in her contract, though.

[Anonymous]

Nannies - you must all be working for gov't employees bc as a private sector employee in IT, I can tell you unequivocally,
I have NEVER had this day off. My nanny gets the 10 holidays that I get.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nannies - you must all be working for gov't employees bc as a private sector employee in IT, I can tell you unequivocally,
I have NEVER had this day off. My nanny gets the 10 holidays that I get.

That's your particular situation. I see nothing wrong with offering your nanny the holidays that you personally get off. The issue arises when a nanny and family agree to federal holidays, and then families realize their error and try to backtrack, or like another PP, they say one thing while sneaking something else into the contract.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This has happened to me too in the past. Parents told me I would have all federal holidays off, but then expected me to work the lesser holidays such as Veterans Day! This is why from now on I always request a contract from families with specific holidays written out. I would just tell the family you already have plans since they told you it would be a holiday for you, and that they will have to make other arrangements for childcare. I would expect to be paid but they probably won't since they have to pay for backup care. Good luck OP.

This is my post. I did not mean to imply that I thought Veterans Day was a less meaningful holiday. I understand and respect it's importance. What I meant was there are some holidays (Columbus, Veterans, MLK, Presidents) that come to mind as holidays that many people do not get off from work, and are not as widely celebrated. They are not as big as say Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years for example. Did not mean to offend anyone. Just a lot of times I am not offered those "lesser" holidays as paid days off.