It could be hard to snag extra hours this time of year, when everyone was trying to get a little more cash to cover the cost of Christmas. Working over the holidays themselves was easy to do—the bar/grill Colton worked at stayed open every day of the year—but extra hours before then was impossible.
“How about these days I have off?” he asked the manager before his shift, pointing to the large, greasy paper calendar hanging over her desk. By law they still had to offer time off for all employees this time of year, although it wasn’t specified when.
“Believe me, the regional guys would love to not be paying you half time for no work,” she said, “but I have those days covered and nobody’s going to budge on them this time of year.”
Colton nodded. There was nothing he could do, then, at leas
