Holiday Scheduling

My employer usually does the schedule for us two weeks in advance so that we can request certain days off if we need them and give us a chance to plan something ahead of time. My wife's employer on the other hand puts out the schedule on a Saturday for the following week beginning on Monday. This week I am off when my wife works and vice verse. It is too bad that some places don't have the staff or foresight to be able to schedule ahead.

Where employers fail I believe in properly motivating staff comes down a lot of the time to their lack of attention paid to scheduling. Service personnel too many times work long hours on their feet for too many days without a day off. Then they get a schedule the last minute and find they are working four shifts before their next day off. Meanwhile laundry is piling up at home , single people need some social time , family people are missing their family and the list goes on.

Service staff come in and are getting bitchier with each passing day making it not easy to serve demanding guests. Co- workers become ornery with each other causing tensions to rise.

I have to say that at my place of employment that is not a problem at all as just last week they had schedules to fill out with request for days off between now and January 1. We were given a choice to work Christmas Eve or Boxing Day. If we closed on New Year's Eve we could get New Year's Day off. All in all pretty fair I would say.

Having the foresight and caring enough about what the employee and their personal obligations throughout the holidays were , I have to say my employer wins hands down compared to anyone else I could work for at anytime.

What about your employer? Have they got the holidays in mind and planning a schedule for the month of December now so you know when you work and any request you may have can be accommodated , or is it going to be left till last with a wait and see attitude?