For some of us, holidays are work days

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Christmas and New Year’s are here, the holidays where most everyone is at home with family and friends, opening gifts, attending church services, playing with the children, eating together, sitting by the fire, and watching football games or Christmas movies.

But not everyone.

For some, those two holidays — and their respective eves — are routine work days. Law enforcement personnel, health care professionals, farmers, and even some businesses workers find themselves on the clock and on the job when most everyone else has a paid day off.

“Christmas and New Year’s are normal work days for us,” says Siler City Chief of Police Mike Wagner. “And it’s not just for us in police but other public safety as well – fire departments, emergency medical service and hospitals.”

Law enforcement, fire and emergency services personnel can’t take off on holidays. All across Chatham County, Sheriff’s department officers will be patrolling. Jail personnel will be at work. Highway patrol officers will be watching for speeding and drinking drivers, especially around New Year’s. And Pittsboro and Siler City’s police departments will be on the job, doing routine patrols, offering public assistance, keeping an eye out for ways to be of service.

Officer Chris Gallimore of the Siler City Police Department knows that full well. A veteran of almost five years on the force, he’s seen his share of working on holidays.

“I’ve worked on every Christmas Day,” he says, “partly because I’ve changed shifts some and that’s just the way it falls.”

Wagner points out that unless there’s an emergency requiring most staff, officers and other personnel will have part of the day away from work, although it may be early in the morning or later at night.

“You always have a plan,” Wagner says, “and response depends on the magnitude of the event. You can have a plan ‘A’ and even a ‘B’ but, for instance — if the fire department has a structure fire, that may mean everyone is needed.

“There’s one of two things about public safety,” he says. “You either have to stay up a really long time to get it all done or miss family festivities. We try very hard to rotate holidays, so that folks who worked long last Christmas don’t on the next one.”

Gallimore says he’ll spend his holiday shift doing what he normally does — “patrolling downtown, sometimes on foot, and routine patrol into neighborhoods and business districts. It’s just part of the job.”

Line officers and patrolmen won’t be alone working those days. Kriss Hussey will put in her 12-hour shift as a dispatcher.

“It’s just part of the job, what we do” she says.

Another group of workers who’ll be on the job those days are doctors, nurses and hospital support staff. Hospital patients aren’t automatically discharged just because it’s Dec. 25 or Jan. 1. And if they’re going to be there, so, too, are staff.

“We’ll have a full staff on hand,” says registered nurse Megan Moore, Chatham Hospital’s nursing director for inpatient care. “We do rotate our nursing staff so if someone worked last Christmas they can be off this year. Shifts run from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. so some will get off early and others will come in at night.

“Since we still have patients, there has to be a normal full schedule of support. We’ll have food service, therapists, housekeeping, everyone needed to do the job.”

A nurse for 10 years, Moore has experienced her share of work on holidays.

“It is hard being away from your family,” she says, “but we remember that the patients are away from theirs, too. They’re not here because they want to be.”

Chatham Hospital has 25 beds and this time of year, they tend to be all or almost all be filled.

“Christmas is in the middle of the flu and pneumonia season,” Moore says, “so that can account for some of our patients. This is a special time of year and it can be hard on everyone but most families recognize we’re here to care for their family member and they’re typically kind to us.”

In-patients staff members aren’t the only Chatham Hospital personnel who will be at work Christmas and New Year’s days. Across the building from the nurses’ stations and patient rooms is the emergency department — and like insurance policies, you hope you won’t need it but if you do, you’re glad it’s there.

Ashlee Emerson has been an emergency room registered nurse for two years.

“Our shifts are 12 hours,” she says, “and we sign up and work out schedules for holidays. But we’ll have our full staff on hand — three to four nurses, nursing assistants, a doctor and physician assistant.”

Emerson says that while workers hope the days are quiet and peaceful for the sake of the public, if there’s a need, the staff and services will be there.

“Our full range of services will be available,” she says, “CAT scans, x-rays, labs. In many ways, it’s a normal work day.”

As with in-patients, emergency department staff often see a large number of colds and flu sufferers.

“It’s the season,” Emerson says. “We see those folks, sometimes people with chest pains and other symptoms.”

When the days are slower, there’s still work to be done.

“We like to do call-backs,” she says, “to check on people who have been here. There’s always paperwork, inventory checks, even some extra deep cleaning.”

Emerson said even though she and her co-workers may be away from their families for extended periods of time, they feel the work is valuable.

“We knew going into the profession that there would be times like this, working on the holidays, but it was a choice,” she said. “Sometimes you can’t be with your own family but I have a work family. I love this hospital. It’s a great place. We feel like we’re helping people.”

Whether someone is a public safety official or a health care provider or an employee of Waffle House, the local restaurant which never closes, there are sacrifices to be made by working on holidays.

Wagner sums it up this way: “I’ve always believed it takes a special spouse and family to live with this. The jobs, serving the public, can be stressful enough but add in the family dynamics of missing your children’s ball games, school events, concerts, birthdays. Missing all that takes a toll and can be hard to manage. It’s a challenge, especially during holidays. You’ve got plans and something comes up and you have to call home and say you can’t be there.

“During my career, I’ve noticed sometimes you can have a significant amount of serious crime on Christmas Eve. You may have families who have lost a loved one; they’re sad and it takes a toll on their spirit. They may also be facing financial strain and when they come together as a family in stress, it only takes a little something to get blown out of proportion and then you’ve got a domestic disturbance and us in the house, taking someone to jail.”

Wagner said his officers aren’t the only ones facing stress.

“When you look at the Christmas tree in our lobby, the 111 bulbs on it each representing an officer killed in the line of duty, it’s sobering,” he said. “Add in the 93 firefighters and then the military and you see these men and women dying at an alarming rate. It used to be that an officer might lose his life in an accident; now they’re being ambushed.”

Still, life and the work must go on and the chief says there are positive sides to the task.

“Working holidays is a unique time,” he says. “You know as you move through your town or area that you’re the only one protecting the public. It’s an honorable task and makes you feel good. It’s what you want to do but still it takes away from your wife or husband and family.

“It is a time of joy but also a dangerous time. We’re not guaranteed tomorrow.”