The Christmas Shifts thoughts

Over the five shifts of Christmas there were many feelings, mainly negative.

As posted previously, I am getting sick of always working at Christmas, although I do understand why parents are given priority for the time off.

It’s an industry that necessitates working through the festive season, but that doesn’t make it any easier when others get a long amount of time off, end those who do not have children.

My brother Richard irritated me when I asked about posting a card to him, by saying that he doesn’t like Christmas.

And yet he gets the whole season off…

He has children and indeed grandchildren, and yet he hates the season. 

I would love to get the time off to spend with family, to visit them, to take homemade food, and in fact food that not only Louise had made, but myself as well!

I love the idea of all that, but I can’t do any of that. 

But he can!

Sat in a work van in the middle of the night eating food from a container on some site, probably after having got the settings wrong on the microwave.

Getting home at between twenty past six and twenty past seven, going to bed, having an hour or an hour and a half with Louise before leaving to go back for work.

I won’t go into much more detail really, because it’s all so very sad and would mean moaning more.

That’s life.  I make do with making Christmas from my time off during the period, which not everyone in the industry can, because a lot of people in the industry  actually have to work all of the way through.

But how will that make any difference in the long run?

News tells us that minimum wage, which most in this industry earn, will be going up again this year, but not by anywhere near enough.

Energy bills are said to be going up by 50%, which has a knock-on effect on everything else - food, clothing, council taxes.

Income taxes are going up from a 22% minimum to 30% to make up for the money lost during Covid troubles.

Can’t the government see that this will only cause more problems?

People on low incomes will have to choose if they can afford heating, which then affects hygiene, as the water needs heating up, and that costs money. Lack of heating can cause hypothermia, and lack of cleaning can cause so many diseases, which in the past led to bubonic plague and the like, which wasn’t actually cured by the way!

We live in a world where tough choices have to be made, but those choices are the wrong ones!

You know what I would suggest, and that would never happen - a return to the old system of energy being controlled by the government, which is the opposite to privatisation. Keep the lower rate of income tax for the lower earners, and increase each level until the highest rate has a 5% rise.

Much of the lower paid workforce worked through the Covid restrictions, putting our lives at risk in some cases. I for one had close encounters with potential crime where those perpetrating wouldn’t give a shit if they passed on a killer disease, because of their self serving ways. Our safety isn’t their concern, much as it’s quite often not the police force’s concern a lot of the time nowadays either.

In a lot of instances the police do not respond, because for the most part they are understaffed for the needs. 

Many of us will encounter crimes in our everyday lives, and then ring the emergency service to be give. A number for the clients to call the police and quote, and then the police will possibly send someone after the event if they have the staff available.

This world is bat shit crazy, and we may well be going to hell in a hand basket as the saying does. 

So how was my Christmas?

Let’s see what Tuesday the 28th and Wednesday the 29th of December are like, followed by working through another new year. Woohoo!