My Christmas Plans (Working at the NHS)

If you read my post about a month ago, you'll have read how deeply sad and absolutely gutted I was by my Christmas off duty. I was honestly heartbroken and of course, that was immediate emotional reaction. I have since had some time to come around to it so I am now feeling a little bit better. 


I ended up emailing the ward personal assistant, who said she couldn't do anything, then spoke to my family about it. I was working in the hospital one day and trying to work out annual leave, so I went to see one of the lead managers and she was amazing. She sorted out all my annual leave for the the remainder of the financial year and informed me that due to previous rejections, I would be able to transfer by remaining 40 hours to the next year which is great news. 

Whilst I was there, I brought up my Christmas off duty. She also thought it was really poor and profusely apologised for the shift. It was quite interesting to see the overall outlook as shifts are colour coded via a formula. They turn red when it's classed as a poor working pattern and nearly all of my shifts were red. I hadn't realised that on top of Christmas Day, New Year's Day and all the bank holidays, I was also working every weekend. She managed to switch one of my supernumerary shifts from a Friday night to a Wednesday night, which meant that I then had one weekend off, even though I would then be working 4 shifts in a row. 


So what about plans for Christmas? My mum had originally told me she didn't want to do Christmas Day early when I discussed it last year, in preparation for qualified life, but when she found out I wasn't coming for real, she quickly backtracked and said we could do it on Christmas Eve. I was so happy and excited, but of course, as soon as her husband got wind of that, he turned it down. How dare we suggest he miss out on his lads day out of 10 hours of drinking at the pub. God, he is the bane of my existence. 


It turned out my cousin also couldn't come on Christmas Day as she was celebrating with her husbands family, so mum decided she would do two meals, with one being on Christmas Eve Eve for us. It isn't going to be quite the same, because no one else has the day off work, so it isn't until the evening, but nevertheless, it's something. 


Similarly, with Luke's family, his sister also couldn't come on Christmas Day, because they were going to her partner's family so Luke's mum decided to do Christmas Day on Boxing Day instead (my one holiday day off). They're doing a buffet on Christmas Day and then doing the normal festivities on Boxing Day instead, which will be interesting. 


Finally, I tried to arrange to see my dad originally, I was going to go to Wales just after Christmas, but they'd already arranged to head towards London and see my older sisters. So the weekend before Christmas, we are heading up there to spend one day with V and one day with C. Were staying in a hotel overnight and then will drive back and forth in the morning and evening so we at least get a good few hours with everyone. 


Honestly, I'm still not in love with the whole idea but it's better than nothing. I will update you next week to let you know what working over Christmas was like in the NHS! Perhaps it will end up with some stories like Adam Kay

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