Daughter Fights KMart So Her Mom Doesn't Have to Work Thanksgiving

Black Friday fucking sucks. It’s bad enough that it attempts to commercialize a holiday meant to make people be thankful for what you already have, but now it’s also begun to spill over into Thanksgiving Day itself, with many big box retailers now opening on Thursday and robbing their employees of time with their families.

Jillian Fisher, the daughter of a long-time KMart employee, has decided to launch a petition asking the chain to give employees the option of having Thanksgiving Day off.

Via ThinkProgress:

Last year, Fisher’s mother called her daughter nearly in tears because she was told she would have to work what is called a “split shift” on Thanksgiving Day, meaning she had to spend two chunks of time at work. “She was not going to be able to spend any real time with our family,” Fisher said. “To hear her on the verge of tears really infuriated me, to think why are they doing this to people, they need time to be with their families.” This is the one holiday where the whole family gets together: her mother’s brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces. “Thanksgiving is pretty much the one time of year we all get together,” she said.

It’s that frustration that sparked the petition.

As of now, Fisher says, employees at her mother’s KMart branch haven’t even been told of the store’s extended holiday hours and have only heard about it through the news. “[My mother] could be hearing about it as soon as tomorrow or she could be hearing about it in a week,” Fisher said. “She doesn’t know and nobody knows.”

KMart claims that special holiday hours are staffed by volunteers, but Fisher says the reality is very different. She also tells ThinkProgress that her mother will likely have to do a split shift (working for two separate blocks) if she’s called in on Thanksgiving Day.

To all you good consumers out there: A discounted video game console is not worth these poor employees’ stress. Stay home and get your Black Friday deals online like the rest of us.