I'm not going to lie I have a good job, after a lifetime of terrible ones I'm very grateful. It isn't perfect, but I'm content. My job is one of the rare ones that actually encourages you to take time off, massive job security, benefits are great and we get every possible holiday I can think of off and paid.
I'm not saying this to gloat, just to put this post into perspective… so here's my point.
We also have a contracted workforce, which I came from before getting hired on. I personally think the contractors get pretty screwed over, but I'm obviously not in the higher up talks about how those business dealings work… Needless to say the contractors get no benefits, any holidays are unpaid, they are seemingly discouraged from taking time off and ultimately the contracts are only for a single year and then that's it (technically they are forced to take 3 months off and are allowed to come back, this is due to a loophole with the contracting company that if the contractor doesn't work over a full year somehow the contracting company does not have to offer them the same benefits of full time employees).
So… given this information I still work with people, full time employees, who come from that older school mentality of, “blaming the victim”… We had to work Monday, but had off for Independence Day, and Monday was pretty slow. There were a number of contractors who were asking people, “well, is it POSSIBLE I can work tomorrow? We have work that needs to be done and I really can't miss a day of work. I don't even have money to celebrate!” Their program manager was firm and direct saying that the building is closed and basically, “tough luck”. This lead to a few people really throwing a fit on Monday and wanting to speak to higher ups about how this still goes on…
If anything, and I agree with this, these “forced unpaid days off” only stress out peoples' wallets AND double down on the amount of work they have to do when they get back to work. Usually in the US it's not like everyone collectively goes, “ah okay it's Thanksgiving time, let's all just chill out a bit and ease back into work in early December” — No it's universally cramming in work before a holiday and then panicking after you get back.
That was a lot of thoughts at once. Guess I just wanted to get that off my chest and into the aether and hear your opinions on things like this.