Comments on: Rosh Hashana forces big decisions about work

By: Unknown

Unknown — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 19:54:51 +0000

So anyway,
wishing everyone a new year filled with honey
May you start your new year wishing everyone the best, not just your friends and ’sod’ the rest
else next year will be like last yea

By: JenK

JenK — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 18:10:24 +0000

Dustin -

In software, I have been asked to work on Thanksgiving weekend and Christmas. One boss assumed I would work Easter weekend; he backed down when I pointed out I was going to be participating in a 6-hour religious ritual that Saturday. (I was being baptized an Episcopalian, actually, after 6 months of preparation - but I didn’t bother to clarify, I just said I was in a 6-hour religious ritual and left it at that).

By: Esther

Esther — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 03:55:50 +0000

Sigh. The quote that will follow me to my grave…

My context for saying that was that for people who are NOT observant, working at Jewish organizations is a lot of fun because they can take all that time as vacation and actually go on vacation. But for those of us who are observant, RH/YK and Sukkot through to Simchat Torah are NOT vacation days. There’s lots of praying, and too much food, and likely days of being in the house with your family in close quarters–which, depending on your family relationships, can be very good, or very bad, but certainly not vacation.

Happy new year to all…

By: Housing for Life » Blog Archive » When Work and Religion Meet

Housing for Life » Blog Archive » When Work and Religion Meet — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 23:57:28 +0000

[…] us great insight into that all-so-important, and often espoused concept of balancing life and work. In her latest article, she discusses what can be a rather tricky situation - religion. Specifically, what do you do when […]

By: Quasar9

Quasar9 — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 21:18:36 +0000

So anyway,
wishing everyone a new year filled with honey
May you start your new year wishing everyone the best, not just your friends and ’sod’ the rest
else next year will be like last year (again)

* * * * * *
This is such a nice comment. Thanks. Happy New Year to everyone from me, too :)

–Penelope

By: Paula

Paula — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 14:24:14 +0000

Of course, in the service and hospitality industries, it’s quite normal for management to work through Christian holidays, and hourly employees who are willing to work the Christian holiday while scheduling a Jewish or other holiday can earn holiday pay in that way.

By: MS

MS — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 13:05:45 +0000

While it’s nominally a religious holiday, Christmas will continue be a US-wide holiday for practical reasons. Even if a given person doesn’t celebrate, it is likely that too many of the co-workers, vendors, customers, etc. will be OOO to make the workplace fully (or even partially) productive.

Of course, a smart supervisor and a self-motivated employee might work out a day for day swap.

By: d

Fri, 14 Sep 2007 03:14:02 +0000

JR Varga:
You lead to an excellent point. Why should Christmas be a day off? (It’s not in some countries, you know.) It should just be a regular working day. And if someone feels so devout that they need the day off, they can take PTO.

* * * * * *
Yes. I totally agree. I have posted about this before. Here, for example:
http://blog.penelopetrunk.com/2006/12/14/christmas-at-the-office-is-bad-for-diversity-2/

-Penelope

By: JR Varga

JR Varga — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 23:54:58 +0000

The big decision? Answer the following question:

Am I devout enough in my religion of choice to “use” one of my precious VACATION DAYS??!!??

By: tamar

tamar — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 23:43:41 +0000

Sorry, I don’t see anything about Rosh Hashana or religious observance or personal faith convictions and practices in this post, and I think the words “Rosh Hashana” in the title could easily be replaced with “Rose Bowl” or “Groundhog Day” or any time people take off work for whatever their reason.

Rosh Hashana forces big decisions (for someone who observes the festival) about such questions: How have I lived the previous year? What changes in my living are in order?

* * * * * * * *

I think JR nails it (below) that the issue is: Is this important enough to take time off from work. Tamar, we are each capable of asking those questions under a lot of circumstances. But if you take a day off of work to ask those questions then you elevate them. So deciding about the day off is really deciding about how important the questions are.

I should have laid this out more clearly.

–Penelope