Be Thankful

The last online petition that has crossed my desk, asking me to tell a store that they should be closed, and let their employees have Thanksgiving with their families, has pushed me over the edge. I know that a lot of people feel very passionately about this and are probably thinking me a horrible, unpatriotic, capitalist jerk right about now. Guess what? I don't care. And here is why:

No one is forced to work in retail. Yes, I understand that retail jobs are easier to get than say, Supreme Court Justice, but there are other jobs that have a similar, entry level skill set requirements that don't require you to work Thanksgiving.

The part of this argument that really pisses me off, though, is the entitlement attitude of those people who have jobs in retail that feel they shouldn't have to work because it is a holiday. When you accepted a retail job, you accepted the pros and cons of that job, one of them being that you might be working on a holiday. There are a lot of jobs where working on a holiday is a requirement, and you never hear much about it, because it's an accepted fact, sometimes you have to work on a holiday when you would rather be with your family and friends.

If you set your kitchen on fire making your turkey this year, how would you feel if when you dial 911, there is no answer because the dispatchers are home with their family. Or the fire department decides not to come because it's a holiday, and why should they have to work? The doctors and nurses taking care of your emergencies at the hospital? The tow truck driver who pulls you out of the ditch? The nursing home staff who are preparing meals and taking care of the elderly that have no family to spend Thanksgiving with. The county workers who keep the roads plowed and salted to give everyone traveling a safer trip?

For the majority of my adult life I have worked where there was always the potential of having to work on a holiday. In fact, I have worked every single holiday some years, because the job had to be done, and there was no one else to do it. Did I like it? No, but that's what I was hired to do. To be there when my employer needed me. My mom worked at an assisted living facility for people with Alzheimer disease. Working a holiday was something that she had to do. My dad was a hydrologist, and when everyone else in the plant that he worked at was off, he would still have to go in and do his daily sample testing. So, if you have to work this Thursday, all I can say is be thankful that you have a job to go to, and thankful that you have people in your life who wish you didn't have to work.

As a side note, I would like to add that you don't have to have Thanksgiving dinner at 2 in the afternoon, for it to count as Thanksgiving. Have a Thanksgiving breakfast, or a Thanksgiving midnight supper. The time of the meal, or even what the meal is, isn't a requirement. Being thankful for all that you have been blessed with is.

Happy Thanksgiving.