It’s Thanksgiving Day! Here in the US that usually means seeing family, eating too much, maybe watching some football. Everyone celebrates differently, including some people protesting or not celebrating at all but since it’s a national holiday, everyone knows about it and knows businesses will be closed. Not us though! It’s business as usual here. Well, sort of. Our daily walks are mostly canceled but we have people traveling so our cat sitter is always busy and our morning and evening shifts are busier than usual.
I used to love the peace of working on a holiday. Sure I might miss out on some celebrations but I rarely had to do much communications on holidays except for maybe a pic to a client and only did walks. There’s something cathartic about moving through a schedule; getting up early when the whole country is asleep it seems, moving through a quiet world and seeing pups who are waiting for their time. As I’ve gotten older and have a more established family in Colorado, I’m less inclined to want to work all day. I’m fortunate that many of my staff also want to work on Thanksgiving. We stagger it so hopefully no one is working all day, except our kickass cat sitter. We give bonuses for every walk done and we try to make sure that everyone’s schedule makes sense. The business doesn’t make money on Thanksgiving Day but it takes care of its charges just like any other day and staff who are willing to work get a little something extra for giving some of their time.
Are you celebrating this year? Do you have a business that works on holidays? How do you handle it?