Management Posts 'Blackout' Notice Forbidding Staff From Time Off Between Thanksgiving & New Year's Even If They're Sick — 'There Will Be No Exceptions'
Not only is this cruel and unreasonable but in some cases it's illegal.
Andrea Piacquadio | Pexels | Canva Pro If you work in a field like food service or retail, trouble taking time off over the holidays comes with the territory.
However, some employers take this to a ridiculous extreme, like one Redditor's boss who is enforcing their holiday time-off policy to a degree that is so draconian it might even be illegal.
Management posted a 'blackout' notice forbidding time off of any kind over the holidays, even for sick days.
A photo of the notice circulated around the internet after going viral on Reddit. Posted in what seems to be a restaurant (there appear to be beverage service items in the background of the photo), it announces a "blackout" on time off of any kind between Thanksgiving and New Year's.
Reddit | Canva Pro
The photo was posted to Reddit by a user who questioned why the restaurant's corporate office would "think this is OK." Of course, if you've worked in restaurants or retail you know that corporate likely has no idea this notice is posted. And they likely know nothing about it because it's potentially legally dangerous.
While not getting time off over the holidays is standard in retail and restaurants, denying sick time is unethical.
"From November 25th, until December 31st, there is a blackout on vacation days [and] time off" the notice reads. It then adds that "there will be no exceptions for calling off, taking sick days, given that these are our busiest days of the year, we will need all hands on deck."
When working in retail and food service, minimal time off over the holiday season is just part of the territory. There's no taking two weeks at the end of the year and a whole week at Thanksgiving like us corporate types — it's just not possible given the demands of the industries.
And you can forget about Christmas Eve, too! When I worked in restaurants, I always had Christmas Day and Thanksgiving Day off, but that was it — whether any time beyond that would be approved was entirely dependent on multiple factors, especially seniority.
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For these obvious reasons, many felt the uproar over this notice was overblown. As one Reddit commenter wrote, "Y’all have never worked a holiday season in retail and it shows!" But others were quick to shoot back that that's not the point — the absurd expectations are.
"I have [worked in retail]," the original poster wrote back. "What’s disgusting about this post is the sick time off. How am I supposed to plan accordingly when I’m going to get sick?" The same goes for "calling off" — what if your child is sick? What if you have a car accident? The notice demands an absurd and impossible level of control over one's life that nobody actually has.
Firing employees for taking sick time, as the notice implicitly threatens, is also illegal in some cases.
There are no federal laws guaranteeing sick days, nor does the law prohibit employers from firing workers for being sick. So the law is on the employer's side in that regard. With the incoming presidential administration vowing to gut worker protections, this situation will likely become even more in favor of employers soon.
However, state and local laws vary widely on this issue, so be sure you know yours. More importantly, there are federal exceptions to the rule, too, most notably when it comes to disabilities, so this employer is putting themselves in legal jeopardy by throwing around the phrase "no exceptions."
If an employee were to miss work because of sickness or medical treatment related to a condition protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act and was then terminated because of it, as this notice implicitly threatens, that could be grounds for a wrongful termination lawsuit.
Surely, no one expects to be able to take entire weeks off from their restaurant job to go to Disney World or whatever during the busiest time of the year, and managers have to enforce these rules, as well as manage expectations, to effectively navigate the business through the holiday season.
However, the dehumanizing tone and tenor of this message, and especially its unrealistic expectations regarding contingencies in people's lives, is cruel and ridiculous. It's also irresponsible to demand sick people come to work and infect their co-workers. There's simply no need to manage like this — and if there is, it's because you're bad at your job as a manager and hired all the wrong people.
John Sundholm is a writer, editor, and video personality with 20 years of experience in media and entertainment. He covers culture, mental health, and human interest topics.