Working the Worst Shift of the Year

When children wake up on Christmas morning and see what Santa placed under the tree, everyone knows that Santa has been crazy busy trotting the globe on Christmas Eve. The next day, we might picture Santa putting up his feet by the fire as Mrs. Claus merrily concocts Santa's favorite meal for Christmas dinner. Mrs. Claus works the worst shift of the year, Christmas Day.

Have you ever given much thought to the people who show up for work on Christmas Day? I think about those workers. I used to be one of them.

I worked the Christmas shift for various media outlets for many years, not so much out of kindness for my co-workers, but because I was what is called a per diem; someone who is hired by the day and paid by the day—with no benefits, no sick leave, no union benefits, no extra pay and no predictable work schedule beyond, perhaps, a couple weeks at Christmastime.

Here is what it is like for the some of the people who work behind the scenes on Christmas so that you can watch your favorite local television news. Sometimes, it is what you would expect, with a hearty and festive dinner catered by the management so that those who have to leave their families and forego the merriment are at least well fed. But sometimes, it is nothing like that.

My first Christmas shift was when I was working at the most popular Los Angeles news radio station. I was told that I didn't need to bring my own dinner because the television station downstairs was hosting a huge catering event for their own workers. Don't worry, there will be more than enough food.

I got a 30-minute meal period. Due to gross understaffing, my break had to wait until there was a lull. I trotted downstairs, hungry and ready to dig in. When I arrived, the very last catering tray was being hauled out of the newsroom and into the kitchen. It was empty except for one lonely piece of string that had been holding a roast together. I went into the kitchen and everything was being packed up. I asked was there anything at all I could eat? No. It was completely gone, except for a glass of wine. So, I sucked on the string and toted my wine back upstairs. I was reprimanded by my editor for trying to bring alcohol into the newsroom. I slugged back the wine while standing alone in the hallway, spit out the chewed up string, and got back to work. Can you spell depressed?

My next holiday experience was at a television station. I had worked through the long Thanksgiving weekend and was told I would be paid time and a half. They lied. When I opened that check and was told, no, it was not a mistake, I told my managing editor not to schedule me for Christmas. He had a full month to find someone else. On Christmas Eve, he called me and expected me to be there the next day.

"After all, it isn't your holiday," he said, because I'm Jewish, "and your family doesn't live here. You have nothing better to do. (good natured chuckle)."

I did not go in.

The following year, I was so financially challenged that I volunteered to work Christmas. The holiday dinner provided by management was from the Tick Tock Restaurant. It arrived in individual Styrofoam containers, no longer warm, with the cranberries sloshing on the mashed potatoes and the gravy coating the cranberries. We ate the pressed and formed turkey-like meat sitting silently at our desks, balancing the feast carefully on our laps.

The very worst experience was at another TV station. I had just returned from my brief honeymoon. We were told by the news director that a turkey dinner would be there for us in the kitchen area. When we arrived for the shift, there was a frozen turkey waiting and nothing else. No oven, just a microwave 1/3 the size of the turkey. No untensils, not even a knife. No open restaurant in the area. At that station, we did not even get a meal break; We worked straight through. My first big holiday after getting married was just a great memory.

So as you settle into your holiday routine and smell Christmas dinner taking shape, please take a moment to silently thank the invisible workers everywhere who are grateful just to be getting another shift. Even if it is on Christmas Day.