Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Employees requesting off for Christmas

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Posted by Brandon Willis (Member # 2345) on 12-06-2004, 03:13 PM:

For anyone who manages a theater that's open on Christmas Day, how are you handling employees asking off for Christmas?

Posted by Jason Black (Member # 684) on 12-06-2004, 03:42 PM:

What can you do if they are going out of town?

If they aren't there, they aren't there. The flip side is that you remember who helped you when you needed it and when hours get cut, they are the last to get cut.

Hire replacements, I do. I have just learned over the weekend that I have a total of 6 employees either leaving or otherwise unavailable for Christmas. Just great... there's no feeling in the world like waiting until the last minute to learn that your staff pulls a fast one on you. I've never had this much of an issue with staffing... [Frown]

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 12-06-2004, 04:36 PM:

Something that has worked well for me over the years is the mandatory holiday shifts. For example "every employee must work a minimum of one primary holiday shift, and one secondary holiday shift (or two primary shifts)".

I define primary shifts as:
Thanksgiving day (open shift)
Christmas eve (closing shift)
Christmas day (opening shift)
New Year's eve (closing shift)
New Year's day (opening shift)

I define secondary shifts as:
Thanksgiving day (closing shift)
Christmas eve (opening shift)
Christmas day (closing shift)
New Year's eve (opening shift)
New Year's day (closing shift)

Obviously your mileage will vary depending on how many people you need on staff per your business as well as how many people are actually ON your staff. Sure there will always be that one employee who throw a temper tantrum over this, but I just remind them that this is part of the job (I actually would do this during the interview/hiring stage) and that it was expected of them or they would no longer be working there. In the end, most people were VERY happy with this solution, because each employee got to cherry pick which holidays they worked...and I've never got caught shorthanded on any particular day either. [Smile]

Posted by Phil Hill (Member # 371) on 12-06-2004, 06:55 PM:

Having worked in the TV newsreel biz for many years, those "holidays" are *just another day*...as it should be for a 24/7 job. One might luck out and get it off, but mostly it was always the regular schedule for everyone as a rule. NO "favors".

If ya don't like the conditions...find another line of work.

Posted by Randy Stankey (Member # 64) on 12-06-2004, 07:47 PM:

When people are hired at Cinemark they are told that the theater is open 365 days a year. They are expected to work holidays, just like Brad said, or they wouldn't be working at all.

Just to make it official, some time around the end of October our managers would pass around a holiday sign-up sheet. The number of holiday shifts to cover in each department was divided by the number of people working in that department to come up with a number of holiday shifts each person was expected to work. The way it worked out in the booth I ran, each person had to take two shifts.

There was a cut-off date. Usually a couple days before Thanksgiving. If ALL of the shifts weren't covered, the manager assigned shifts. Once your name was on that sheet, your ass had better be there. As you may know, Cinemark has the "No Show - No Job" policy. If you don't show up for one scheduled shift, management gets to assume that you quit.

Nine times out of ten, there were no problems getting all the shifts covered because everybody knew that all the other people were putting in THEIR share of the work. Furthermore, there were people who perfered to work certain holidays.

We had one guy who would work any holiday except Thangksgiving. He liked to work all the Christmas shifts. There was another guy who liked to work all the Thanksgiving shifts. We even had one guy who would work any holiday, any time except Halloween because he claimed he was Wiccan. (Halloween was a religious holiday and Christmas was just another day to him.)

I think the key to the question is: "Get the saddle on the horse before you let him out of the barn." Lay down the law right from the start. That way, there's no call for whining later on.

Posted by John T. Hendrickson, Jr (Member # 849) on 12-06-2004, 07:51 PM:

You try to accommodate as best you can. My people are hired with the understanding that they will have to work some holidays.

I put out a request chart, but make no gurantees.

Then I spread the misery as fairly and equitably as possible. If someone has a problem after that, then I have to think of them as "not being a team player" and treat them accordingly.

Brad, I like your idea of "primary" and "secondary" designations.

Bottom line is that you have to be fair with employees, and also fair with the company.

Posted by Mark J. Marshall (Member # 1409) on 12-06-2004, 08:50 PM:

Someday I'll open my own theater and we'll be closed on Christmas day.

Posted by Dean Kollet (Member # 1789) on 12-06-2004, 10:29 PM:

yeah....mgmt at our place does this too. They won't hire you unless you can work weekends and holidays....but then they keep changing their "rules" saying that you have to work 2 holidays (kinda like brad's system) and whatnot....but people go smart and took off ALL days but those. I've yet to see a theatre that actually plans this out a month in advance, it would work SO MUCH better....instead of waiting two days before Christmas to see if you can go see your family....

Posted by Jarryd Beard (Member # 2543) on 12-06-2004, 11:21 PM:

We always did a signup sheet that worked quite well. Thanksgiving wasn't usually a problem because it's a lot of evening business and employees weren't hard to find. Christmas was also very slow, not many people come to the movies on these holidays at our theatre. It's usually the days around the actual holiday that are nuts. I'm not sure if it's corporate or district policy, but our theatre (a Carmike) always got permission to cancel the last shows of Christmas Eve and the first shows of Christmas Day. This allowed for some extra time off for employees. Also, all employees were warned of holidays at the time of hiring.

Posted by Jeff Akin (Member # 1198) on 12-06-2004, 11:46 PM:

I write my holiday schedules at least 2 weeks ahead of time. Takes some stress off of me, and lets the staff know what's going to be going on for them as well.

As far as requests go, they are requests, and that is all. When I interview candidates, I ask, "Are you available for weekends and holidays? Those are our busiest times of the year."

If I need them, I schedule them. If they don't show, we suck it up, and write them up, and move to terminate them. It's no secret that Thanksgiving and Christmas fuel this business. Expecting to have the day off would be like McNabb asking for Superbowl Sunday off when his team is playing in it.

Posted by David Yauch (Member # 2754) on 12-07-2004, 12:13 AM:

We do two things to help with this. For one it's asked on your application if you can work weekends and holidays, if you say no then there are plenty others who will take the job. The second thing is that we hand out holiday sign-up sheets with paychecks in early october. They order from 1-6 the importance of each holiday. We include halloween, thanksgiving, christmas eve/day, new years eve/day. Pretty much every employee gets their number one choice, and most of the time they get their number 2 also. If it's lower than that you are probably working.

We do cancel our last shows of christmas eve too, but christmas is always incredibly busy so we have to show every showing.

Posted by Chase Hanson (Member # 2779) on 12-07-2004, 03:52 PM:

We ask on our applications...

We remind during interviews

During "paperwork session" you sign an agreement to work during the holidays.

Than we go to system similar to what David mentioned, with a memo where you order holiday (shift) periods by importance 1-8. If you dont turn it in by a certain date (November 15) they assume you are available to work all shifts. We also have a request off log book, if you request off more than 3 days between a certain period (I think Dec. 24-Jan. 1) than your employement is terminated. People who are terminated in this fashion are always elgible for rehire after the holiday season is over.

As for show cancelings, ive never heard of us canceling any shows so people can go home early or come in late, but Christmas is usually scheduled as a very short day, open at 11am-noon close by 10pm.

Posted by Paul Rosenberry (Member # 2870) on 12-08-2004, 12:20 AM:

What's worked well for me is to let them know *before* Thanksgiving that A) we're open on holidays and B) holiday requests-off will be thrown out. Then I explain that they can let me know which holidays they *want* to work... the nastier the holiday (i.e. Xmas matinee as opposed to the evening of Jan 1), the more likely they'll get the remaining ones off... and they're encouraged to include the ones they'd really like off. Some people feel very strongly about one or two holidays... no problem if they offer to work the rest. They all end up working their fair share, regardless of the requests... and people that don't make any requests don't end up working more (or worse) holiday shifts. The important part is making sure they understand it because it's probably something they've never heard of before... also that you start the process before Thanksgiving because that counts as a holiday shift worked. You might end up with a couple of people that take the entire xmas/new-years week off because their family goes away, but they for-sure get scheduled for Thanksgiving.

It seems to make the staff happier too because they know nobody gets screwed. They don't feel like they have to make a big struggle out of it.

For the management/projectionists/supervisors, we do the same thing and I lay out the holiday schedules before Thanksgiving. No surprises.

I imagine this wouldn't work well if you run a small theater and only have 10 people on staff, just because some years you'll get everybody wanting the same holidays. Most theaters have enough staff that there's going to be *someone* who would rather have off New Year's Eve than Christmas, for example, and that's what makes it work.

If I get someone who just didn't listen and asks for all the holidays off, I just hand it back to him and explain he didn't give me anything to work with. He *is* working some holidays and he can help me pick which ones if he likes... or not.

Posted by Alan Dallas (Member # 2537) on 12-08-2004, 07:25 PM:

quote: David Yauch
We do cancel our last shows of christmas eve too, but christmas is always incredibly busy so we have to show every showing.

Pretty much the same for just about all Harkins in AZ David. Even us at the Prescott Valley 14.

Posted by Gordon McLeod (Member # 33) on 12-08-2004, 08:39 PM:

At least up here you can't compel someone to work on a day that is violation of there religious beliefs and since you can't discriminate employment hiring on grounds of religion if someone wants a specific holiday off they usually get it

Posted by David Yauch (Member # 2754) on 12-08-2004, 11:08 PM:

quote: Alan Dallas
Pretty much the same for just about all Harkins in AZ David. Even us at the Prescott Valley 14.

It's good to see a fellow Harkins employee around.

And how is the weather down in prescott Alan?

quote: Gordon McLeod
At least up here you can't compel someone to work on a day that is violation of there religious beliefs and since you can't discriminate employment hiring on grounds of religion if someone wants a specific holiday off they usually get it

Oh you'll see that in some states, but in Arizona they can and will do whatever they need to run a business, and get away with it too. They being everyone, of course, not just the theatres.

Posted by Thomas Procyk (Member # 1170) on 12-10-2004, 11:15 AM:

Most every theater I've been at had a system like Brad's and it worked very well. Some people may value Christmas Eve more than Christmas Day, or may not be doing anything for New Years so it balances out in the end.

I agree, a theater has always been one of the places you can count on being open during a holiday. (In some places, it's the only thing open other than gas stations) So when you apply for a job at a theater, that should be understood.

The most irritating are the people whom you hire around the end of October or early November specifically for the holiday rush, and they want Thanksgiving and Christmas off because they're leaving town. Great! Then why did I hire you? [Roll Eyes]

It's like a mall Santa asking for the week before Christmas off.

=TMP=

Posted by Dominic Espinosa (Member # 2122) on 12-10-2004, 12:21 PM:

Another approach is to use your holiday staff to pick up the slack for the good ones you have off but simply work everyone a shorter shift. Primary, Secondary, and mid-shift. This way everyone gets time with their family and their work schedule is rather short.
I had to come in xmas eve of '03 to build up some dumbass movie opening xmas day. It worked out cause I closed the booth, the projectionist closing got off early and spent time with his family, I had already had dinner and didn't have a problem going in. Short shifts rock!

Posted by Robb Johnston (Member # 239) on 12-11-2004, 12:16 PM:

I don't know if they still use this, but the theatre that I started out at took the regular schedule and converted it so everyone's name ws listed down the left side, and instead of Fri-Thursday listed for the days, they listed the following 7 shifts:
Thanksgiving Day shift
Thanksgiving Night
Xmas Eve Night
Xmas Day Day shift
Xmas Night
New Years Eve Night
New Years Day Day

All staff could list their preference 1-7. they did not have to use all 7, if you had no need to request off for Xmas they would use 1-4 and only pref Thanksgiving and New years.

Management would do their best to not schedule anyone on their first and second pick, and work from there.

It was very successful

Posted by Dan Lyons (Member # 1454) on 12-11-2004, 02:19 PM:

quote: Thomas Procyk
I agree, a theater has always been one of the places you can count on being open during a holiday

Nope. My theatre is going dark on Dec 24,25, and 31 since no one would want to work those days. Nice to work for an independant! [thumbsup]

Posted by Robert E. Allen (Member # 1351) on 12-11-2004, 02:58 PM:

My GM told me that, when he was at another theatre, they scheduled employees to work short shifts on holidays (2-3 hours) and, that way, everyone had most of the day off.

For me, after 25 years in the business, I understand we provide entertainment for the public when THEY are off work and we should expect to work holidays and weekends.

Posted by Bill Gabel (Member # 1105) on 12-11-2004, 06:00 PM:

We go dark from December 18th. thru January 2nd..

If you were on the extra board as an operator during the holidays, you could pick-up many shifts for projectionists that wanted time off on those days.

Posted by Paul Mayer (Member # 355) on 12-11-2004, 07:02 PM:

Same with stagehands. I don't care for the holiday season at all and prefer to work through it. When I was on the local IATSE "bounce" list I used to get a lot of work during what used to be a slow time here. During the years when I held a full-time crew position, I used to volunteer for all of the holidays.

Weekends here are peak times of course, so no one gets those days off. I used to try to get Thursdays off myself--it gave me the ability to attend and teach at the local USAF Auxiliary (CAP) squadron meetings.

When I was with Hughes Aircraft the company used to shut down between Christmas and New Year's; depending on the calendar it could be as much as two weeks off. The spacecraft controllers had to remain of course, but we could choose which of the two holidays we wanted off. During the break we went to a 12-on/12-off shift schedule to give the crew at least half of those days off.

Posted by Thomas Procyk (Member # 1170) on 12-13-2004, 09:02 PM:

quote: Dan Lyons
Nope. My theatre is going dark on Dec 24,25, and 31 since no one would want to work those days.

Nobody comes to your theater anyway! [Razz]

=TMP=

Posted by Scott D. Neff (Member # 185) on 12-14-2004, 10:53 AM:

Yeah. What's yer theatre playing anyway? First Daughter?

When I worked for Cinema West it was usually up to me to poke the owner with a fork until he agreed to shut down some of the theatres early on the holidays. He was pretty realistic about each location though, and knew which would do well on holidays and which wouldn't.

Cinema West is the only theatre company I've heard of that pays overtime on holidays. I don't know if it's the same now, but when I was with them it was overtime on Thanksgiving (all day), Christmas Eve (after 6pm), Christmas Day (all day), New Years Even (after 6pm), New Years Day (all day) and Easter (all day). It worked well enough to get those borderline employees to work for the holidays, and it also allowed the salaried managers a to take some of the lesser holidays off and let their hourly people rack up a little extra paycheck.

If the o/t didn't reel them in, then I'd have to pull the Brad methodology up above.

Posted by Bill Gabel (Member # 1105) on 12-14-2004, 12:06 PM:

We were always paid overtime during those holidays. That was with all the chains that I worked for.

Posted by Mike Spaeth (Member # 524) on 12-14-2004, 11:59 PM:

We pay Overtime on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter

Posted by Jason Black (Member # 684) on 12-15-2004, 05:06 PM:

Seeing that this industry skirts OT in most states, it is my FIRM belief that we should pay DOUBLE TIME on the following holidays.
Thanksgiving - Christmas - New Years

The extra $2000 annually isn't going to BREAK anyone and I woudl rest assured that I wouldn't have ANY problem staffing these days..

When I own 'The Movies Inc', I will pay DT on the above holidays. If I can't feasibly afford to, I will go dark these days.

Posted by Stephen Jones 1 (Member # 114) on 12-22-2004, 02:02 PM:

I always try to honor every single request off that comes in. Most of my staff has not chosen the theatre as a career so i shouldn't expect them to work every single holiday or never ask off. I just hire more staff to cover what I need; there are always people out there that would love to work at the theatre. If someone asks for the entire Christmas break off and comes back to find out that they are now getting one day a week because I hired someone else that COULD work, then that's their problem.

I know when I ask off, it's for a good reason. And, if they're not in town, then they're not in town. It's my job to make sure I have enough staff to cover the holidays.

Posted by Jim Ziegler (Member # 86) on 12-23-2004, 05:23 AM:

We are dropping our evening shows on Christmas Eve, our 11am shows on Christmas day, our 9pm shows on New Years Eve and our 11am shows on New Years Day.

As for overtime on Christmas, last I knew Cinemark paid it...