Seriously? DH has work retreat on Yom Kippur

[ncat]

DH works at a large pharma. It is a major local employer. Our school district and likely most area school districts has Yom Kippur off. I was hoping that DH could take the day off to do something with our boys so they are not sitting at home bickering, playing Xbox, and complaining that they have nothing to do. He has a ton of vacation saved up and needs to use it. But no, he has an all day executive retreat that sounds essentially mandatory. I can't understand how noone pushed back on this. I'm mad at DH for refusing to say anything - he thinks this is totally ok.

Because I work remotely this will be my problem. I wish I could take time off - I have a newish job with subpar vacation and holiday policies.

[georgiegirl]

Is he Jewish? Are there any Jewish employees? If your district has the day off, I assume there’s a decent Jewish population. It’s very insensitive. Last year Our school board had a meeting on Yom Kippur and my friend was super pissed because she couldn’t attend and they were discussing some important issues, like banning books (with LGBTQ characters). Not surprising.

[ncat]

We aren't Jewish, but I assume there are a reasonable number of Jewish employees and many other employees with school aged children.
He had to work on Rosh Hashanah due to his own poor planning. We've lived in this district for 8 years, this isn't new. I'm annoyed at DH and at his employer. And I get annoyed at his employer all over again every time they post on LinkedIn about being family friendly or celebrating diversity.

[bisous]

Oh that's so hard. I'm sorry. I do think something should be said to management about the holidays. I'm sure in a large corporation there are lots of Jewish employees. It is hard to speak out and sometimes I think it is easier for someone on the outside to say something so I can see why you are frustrated that your DH isn't saying anything! Good luck taking care of the kiddos this week. Hopefully you'll be able to get your stuff done! Here's hoping someone says something about the activity so going forward it will be a better plan both for the employees it affects directly and also for working parents!

[Dayzy]

I had to look at the calendar because my husband works for a large pharma company and also has a retreat this week, but his was moved to Thursday. We are also in an area where the schools are off for the Jewish holidays and it always astounds me when so many businesses have events on those days.

[ncat]

It infuriates me that he never speaks up. He frequently has meetings before/during elementary school drop off time. Many of these are scheduled last minute. This just assumes that an employee has a spouse who doesn't work or whose job is more flexible/less important. He refuses to push back in any way. I am always stuck with the kid duty. Even when I worked in an office, I had to negotiate with him if I had an early meeting, usually it was only if I had an all day meeting with out of town visitors. It's not family friendly. I have never seen anything but respect for men who set work boundaries so they can parent their children. That doesn't seem to be the case for women and minorities. Men like my DH need to speak up!

[ncat]

My DH informed me last night that he can't take next Monday off either (Columbus day/Indigenous Peoples Day). I'm exhausted and angry just thinking about the THIRD WEEK IN A ROW with a school holiday and the kids home for a day. This time is again poor planning on his part - he didn't block it off and something important got scheduled and he won't ask to have it rescheduled.