Originally published December 6, 2019
My favorite holiday is easily Christmas. The lead-up to it is a month long, and there's no holiday that has more decorations, more songs about it, or more closures of businesses. Sure, there's a bit of stress that goes along with it, such as the shopping, decorating, wrapping gifts... but in the end, it's all worth it. At work, decorations can be seen across a wide variety of businesses, and many workplaces have employees exchange gifts.
At my last job, we didn't really exchange gifts, especially since there were so many of us. However, a couple times some of us that were closer (and hung out outside of work) exchanged gifts. I remember getting a long-sleeve Star Wars shirt from one of my friends/coworkers that I still wear to this day. I also exchanged Christmas cards with some of my co-workers as well.
But my favorite part of the holidays at work was the feast we had. Every year on Christmas Eve, we would have a large amount of food in the break room, from ham to turkey and vegetables and rolls. We'd usually have some deli food to go with it like Jo Jo's, chicken tenders, and/or chow mein. On a couple of these occasions, our supervisors would even let us out (or get backup to let us out) on unscheduled breaks to enjoy the food, which was nice. These feasts would also happen on the day before Thanksgiving. I'm not sure if they ever happened Christmas Day because I never worked it. I don't think so, from what I heard from my co-workers that worked Christmas Day.
As I said in my "Dressing up for Holidays at Work" post, I did just that. I liked to wear red and green whenever possible in the days leading up to Christmas. Our store would usually get decorated to a limited extent. I remember one year wrapping empty boxes to put up on top of the aisle end caps to make it look like Christmas gifts. We also would have a Salvation Army bell-ringer outside our store starting shortly after Thanksgiving. But my favorite part (sarcasm) was trying to sell Hunger Bags. The bags represented a $10 donation that our company would make to the local food bank. We were often encouraged to ask customers if they wanted to "buy a bag", which I was never too keen on. I did, however get a few donations that shocked me. One guy donated 10 bags ($100 worth) and someone else donated over 30! ($300!) Seeing the joy of giving at work was something special.
I wonder what we do here, if anything. I'm curious. Ever since seeing Secret Santa's done on TV shows (Friends, The Office), I've wanted to do one either with friends or coworkers. But I feel like if we were going to do that, we would've picked names by now. I can't say I know everyone here extremely well, but I know most of them well enough to know what sort of gift they'd like and appreciate.
The thing that is best about Christmas is it's a day to forget your troubles and enjoy time with family as you not only get to see what they got you, but see their reaction to what you got them. I have never worked Christmas Day and I don't plan on doing it ever. I certainly empathize with those that have to work Christmas. It's perhaps the one day out of all the year that work just stops for 24 hours. I honestly feel like all non-essential businesses should be closed.
I sure miss the says of the two-week long winter break that I had in school. That went from a week before Christmas to a day or two after New Years Day. It would be cool if my place of work did that, but I understand the loss of revenue/sales/business would cause it to be too detrimental. As I write this, Christmas is less than three weeks away. It always seems to sneak up on us. Can't wait!
Showing posts with label Holiday. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Holiday. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 4, 2020
Dressing up for holidays at work
Originally published November 1, 2019
Whenever I get the chance to wear something unique to work, I take advantage of that opportunity. Who wants to wear the same boring old outfits every single day? Holidays and special occasions are a good way to break up the monotony of the work day, and it also works as a conversation starter. I am going to discuss my history with dressing up for certain occasions, and how I take advantage of different holidays and special occasions.
Dressing Down: At my past retail job, we were given the opportunity to dress down on certain occasions. The first time this happened was when we donated a certain amount of money to our current fundraiser (usually around $10 each) and wore a button saying we are dressing down to support that fundraiser. It showed customers that we cared about the fundraiser at the time, whether that be breast cancer research, muscular dystrophy, or prostate cancer research. Unfortunately my place of work stopped doing that; I think because too many people weren't donating and also dressing down, and it was too hard to keep track of. And also because our store wanted to be a bit more professional, and too many people weren't even abiding by the dress down dress code. The second opportunity was for employee appreciation week. Management allowed us to dress down so long as our store was doing well enough on the customer satisfaction surveys, which it always was. I again took advantage to get out of my work uniform. At my current job, just like at a lot of places, we have casual Friday's, so I wear my jeans on Friday's and so far Seahawks gear on every Friday as well (see below).
Seahawks/College football games: Also at my old place of work, they allowed us to wear football jerseys and shirts during football season. Fridays were "Blue Friday" and we could wear Seahawks gear. Saturdays were for college games so we could wear the gear of our favorite local team, whether that be the Washington Huskies or Washington State Cougars. Sundays were usually for Seahawks games and we could again wear Seahawks gear, although this day was sometimes on Monday or Thursday if the Seahawks played on those days. I always took advantage of wearing my plethora of Seahawks gear, and usually took advantage to wear something Huskies or Cougars related on Saturdays. At my current place of work, since I work Monday through Friday, I can really only represent on Fridays for the Seahawks and I have every Friday so far. However, the Seahawks already played a Thursday night game, and I happily supported them then, and they play a Monday night game in just a couple weeks so I will support them at work yet again.
Halloween: Halloween is tomorrow as of me writing this and I am planning on wearing a costume. I wore a costume every year at work with varying degrees of effort put into them. A couple times I was Harry Potter. I have also been a Seahawks player, Spider-Man, Darth Vader, Kylo Ren, Star Lord, and a nerd. I had to stay work appropriate and I couldn't wear masks. I am a huge fan of dressing up for Halloween, and I love shopping for costumes.
Christmas: Christmas is my favorite holiday. I've never had to work Christmas day fortunately, but I have had to work Christmas Eve almost every year. Around the time leading up to Christmas, I love to wear Christmas colors; wearing red and green every chance I get. I have both a green and red sweater I can wear around that time. This year I plan to do the same.
Patriotic Days: I love my country and I do my best to support it whenever certain patriotic holidays roll around. On the 4th of July, I've been known to wear patriotic wristbands, undershirts, and red and blue beads. Those days I would recognize would be Memorial Day, 4th of July/Independence Day, 9-11/Patriot Day, and Veteran's Day. I have had to work all of those days at my previous job, and always did my best to show my patriotic colors, even though I still had to wear my work uniform.
St. Patrick's Day: I don't think I have ever not worn green for St. Patrick's Day. As long as I have been dressing myself, I have worn something green on March 17th. Just like with patriotic holidays, I do my best to show off my colors by wearing wristbands, undershirts, and necklace(s) of that color, in which this case would be green. Now that I don't have to wear the standard work attire as everyone else, I will definitely try to wear even more green next St. Patrick's Day.
There aren't really any other holidays you can "dress up" for, but as you can tell I always did my best to recognize certain holidays and occasions, and I took advantage of any opportunity to dress differently.
Whenever I get the chance to wear something unique to work, I take advantage of that opportunity. Who wants to wear the same boring old outfits every single day? Holidays and special occasions are a good way to break up the monotony of the work day, and it also works as a conversation starter. I am going to discuss my history with dressing up for certain occasions, and how I take advantage of different holidays and special occasions.
Dressing Down: At my past retail job, we were given the opportunity to dress down on certain occasions. The first time this happened was when we donated a certain amount of money to our current fundraiser (usually around $10 each) and wore a button saying we are dressing down to support that fundraiser. It showed customers that we cared about the fundraiser at the time, whether that be breast cancer research, muscular dystrophy, or prostate cancer research. Unfortunately my place of work stopped doing that; I think because too many people weren't donating and also dressing down, and it was too hard to keep track of. And also because our store wanted to be a bit more professional, and too many people weren't even abiding by the dress down dress code. The second opportunity was for employee appreciation week. Management allowed us to dress down so long as our store was doing well enough on the customer satisfaction surveys, which it always was. I again took advantage to get out of my work uniform. At my current job, just like at a lot of places, we have casual Friday's, so I wear my jeans on Friday's and so far Seahawks gear on every Friday as well (see below).
Seahawks/College football games: Also at my old place of work, they allowed us to wear football jerseys and shirts during football season. Fridays were "Blue Friday" and we could wear Seahawks gear. Saturdays were for college games so we could wear the gear of our favorite local team, whether that be the Washington Huskies or Washington State Cougars. Sundays were usually for Seahawks games and we could again wear Seahawks gear, although this day was sometimes on Monday or Thursday if the Seahawks played on those days. I always took advantage of wearing my plethora of Seahawks gear, and usually took advantage to wear something Huskies or Cougars related on Saturdays. At my current place of work, since I work Monday through Friday, I can really only represent on Fridays for the Seahawks and I have every Friday so far. However, the Seahawks already played a Thursday night game, and I happily supported them then, and they play a Monday night game in just a couple weeks so I will support them at work yet again.
Halloween: Halloween is tomorrow as of me writing this and I am planning on wearing a costume. I wore a costume every year at work with varying degrees of effort put into them. A couple times I was Harry Potter. I have also been a Seahawks player, Spider-Man, Darth Vader, Kylo Ren, Star Lord, and a nerd. I had to stay work appropriate and I couldn't wear masks. I am a huge fan of dressing up for Halloween, and I love shopping for costumes.
Christmas: Christmas is my favorite holiday. I've never had to work Christmas day fortunately, but I have had to work Christmas Eve almost every year. Around the time leading up to Christmas, I love to wear Christmas colors; wearing red and green every chance I get. I have both a green and red sweater I can wear around that time. This year I plan to do the same.
Patriotic Days: I love my country and I do my best to support it whenever certain patriotic holidays roll around. On the 4th of July, I've been known to wear patriotic wristbands, undershirts, and red and blue beads. Those days I would recognize would be Memorial Day, 4th of July/Independence Day, 9-11/Patriot Day, and Veteran's Day. I have had to work all of those days at my previous job, and always did my best to show my patriotic colors, even though I still had to wear my work uniform.
St. Patrick's Day: I don't think I have ever not worn green for St. Patrick's Day. As long as I have been dressing myself, I have worn something green on March 17th. Just like with patriotic holidays, I do my best to show off my colors by wearing wristbands, undershirts, and necklace(s) of that color, in which this case would be green. Now that I don't have to wear the standard work attire as everyone else, I will definitely try to wear even more green next St. Patrick's Day.
There aren't really any other holidays you can "dress up" for, but as you can tell I always did my best to recognize certain holidays and occasions, and I took advantage of any opportunity to dress differently.
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