I am a victim of federal holidays. I know that is a bold statement, but ever since I began working I have hated these random holidays. I may just be jealous, I don’t know, but I hate random bankers’ holidays where the whole town shuts down except where I work.

I do love some federal holidays. Apparently the classics are considered federal holidays like Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving and whatnot. You know, the actual holidays people celebrate. I also think Halloween should be a federal holiday because many people say that is their favorite holiday. I don’t know anyone who celebrates Presidents' Day, except Seth who actually remembered the holiday and wore a shirt with Abraham Lincoln riding a dinosaur. I think to justify time off from work, the holiday needs to actually be celebrated.

These random holidays like, Presidents' Day, Columbus Day (I have separate problems with this day, but I won’t get into that in this column), etc., no one really celebrates. I don’t mind MLK day and Juneteenth as much, because these holidays are not silly. My main issue is certain places close while my work remains open. 

When I worked at the shoe store, we had to work on almost all the holidays. The two holidays we got off were Thanksgiving and Christmas. We had to work through all the other federal holidays and the worst part was when people would come in and say, “Happy Labor Day!” or whatever holiday it was. Working on Labor Day, the day literally dedicated to celebrating the workers, feels illegal. Luckily I get that day off now.

My other issue with these random holidays causing banks and government buildings to close is it hinders my job. On Presidents' Day Monday, we needed to contact the courts for something and, since they were closed, we weren’t able to get our work done. 

When I worked at the shoe store, every morning we had to get change from the bank in order to function. Since most of these holidays fall on a Monday, we weren’t able to get change for the store on Sunday (our busiest day) and we had to rely on the change we got Saturday morning to last until Tuesday morning. I don’t know if you know this, but some shoppers treat stores as banks and pay with $100 bills for things under $20 and get angry when these small stores don’t have enough change. 

I also did not love when I paid for a monthly gym membership at the Civic Center and it was closed on these holidays. That is one of the reasons I decided not to renew the membership. Also the fact that I am lazy and inconsistent factored into the decision. 

If you get all these holidays off, great. I have determined I may just be bitter, but I also think the government loves any excuse to take a day off. If you get all these holidays off, please be courteous to those who have to work. Restaurants and stores get the rough end of the deal when everyone flaunts their day off by shopping and being mean to waiters. 

Standard reporter Bethany Porter can be reached at (931) 473-2191.