The shutters were down at Oakwell today

I'd expect them to have a day off in lieu of Boxing Day, Wednesday would have been the most sensible day for that. As it is they are closed 4 days out of 5..

 

Chuff me people deserve some time off.

 

Yeah...ruin the match day experience by spending most of pre-match in a stinking great queue.

 

I have to agree with YT, it's all non essential so why not give staff some well deserved time off.

 

Of course they deserve time off. But it's one of those jobs where you expect to work over Christmas as our season doesn't have a break and there will still be customers that need helping. If there is only a minimal staff running the customer facing departments then that raises other issues as there should be enough people cover for staff holidays and ensure that all staff get at least a few days off over the Xmas period.

p.s. This isn't me saying people shouldn't be allowed time off over X-mas. I wish all non essential shops/business/etc closed for at least a few days over Christmas. The fact that the big supermarkets only shut for Christmas Day and New Years Day is a bit of a crime to me...

 

Some folks are only happy when they are complaining.....

 

That’s about the funniest thing I’ve ever seen written on here.

 

Some folks are pointing out that many people don't get christmas off at all: it's not a right it's a privilege.
Today is not christmas.
It's not that big an issue in the grand scheme of things but it does say a lot about the culture of our club, or rather our old club.

 

Be careful Pompey Red. Is that a criticism of the club's match day experience?

 

Other people should also have a rest. I’m glad our club are thoughtful enough to give people time off. Other organisations should be more like us not us more like them.

 

The answer phone message just saying high call volume is still very amateurish though. (If this was indeed the case)

 

Are you having a giraffe. It's worse than I thought. They will have been closed 7 days out of 9 by New Year's Day.

https://www.barnsleyfc.co.uk/news/2017/december/xmas-times/

 

This is my point. I have no issue at all with it being shut but due to the incorrect answer machine message people will keep phoning back and wasting their time. Also, as has been demonstrated in this thread, it may prompt people to make the trip through as they will think it must be open if they are answering so many calls the line’s full.

 

I can assure you it was. In fact I've just tried it again and it's still saying that. 01226 211400.

 

What relevance either have to a retail outlet open at christmas is a mystery.

Are those who work for Next, Asda, etc not giving time up over the festive period as well?

Its par of the course that if you choose your career in this field you will have to work over the holidays.

I worked in retail for 4 years.

One day off a year. Chrismas day.

Always got time back in the middle-end of jan when it was dead.

 

Just a thought, after May I would think that many or most of the Bfc staff would have "extended holidays" until needed for the next season. I could be wrong but if so tell me.

 

And when do we get time off in January, then? Considering most of us work six days a week.

 

The players might bugger off at the end of the season, but I can assure you most of the staff don't.

Couple of weeks in June for me. The one month that's quieter than the rest.

I've worked in so many areas, from factories, to plugging cable, IT, peeling onions (at 16) and I have never worked as many hours than I do now. That's not a complaint, because I love this job. First time in my 20 years working life I can say that. But we still have families and lives away from our job and deserve a few days when we can get them. We've had a couple of extra days off at Christmas, using holiday days we're entitled to, used at the request of those in charge. It was a nice gesture.

I apologise on behalf of us all if this has inconvenienced anyone, that wasn't the intention.

 

I can see the argument for why people deserve time off. I can also see the argument for why a retail outlet should be open in the week between Christmas and New year (traditionally a busy time for retail outlets) and also a day before a home game.

But at the end of the day we all know the reason and it is that Patrick has run the place like a corner shop with a tiny budget, low risk, low return policy. We have next to no staff so everyone including the first team manager is being forced to do, 2, 3 or 4 people's work. I knew we were short staffed but I'm still a bit surprised to hear whitey say that the club shop staff have been working doing other jobs on Christmas Eve and Christmas day as well. Are we really so understaffed that the retail staff are in on Christmas day doing Christ knows what?

As for the telephone giving a false message well that just goes back to what I've said several times. We are excellent at online communication and whitey and the media team do a fantastic job but when it comes to offline stuff we are terrible and I can only assume it is because everyone is stretched too thin and so the quality of output drops drastically

Ps. Not intended as a dig at Patrick. He's run it that way with the best of intentions

 

Purely out of interest do you have any idea how many days off the groundsmen get? Seems like one of those jobs you can't just turn off for a few days