KEY POINTS:
As many people enjoy their summer break at the beach, they should spare a thought for those for whom the holiday season is just another day at work.
Senior fire-fighter John Geboers says it doesn't bother him to work the holidays. In fact, he prefers it.
"As a general rule, being on duty in this job over Christmas is not quite as busy as normal. But someone has to be here, given the nature of the industry. Somebody has to be on duty," Geboers says.
Many jobs are not as busy over the holidays. Perhaps that is one of several perks holiday workers are entitled to.
Geboers is stationed for duty in Auckland and says that as people head out of town for the holidays, his workload generally drops off.
"The number of people that go stealing cars to burn over the Christmas/New Year period is a lot less than normal," Geboers says.
People also aren't home to burn rubbish, let barbecues go out of control or otherwise cause problems for the Fire Service.
"The other advantage of working over Christmas/New Year or any other statutory holiday is the fact that you don't have to fight traffic to get to work or from work. It's nice. It suits us," Geboers says.
Fire Service workers are allowed to take their four weeks' annual leave whenever they wish, as long as it can be accommodated.
For Geboers, it works out well to be able to choose what time of the year to be away, rather than take off the same dates each year.
"I do volunteer work for the Department of Conservation (DOC) on a fairly regular basis.
"I enjoy the flexibility of being able to go and do some projects at other times of the year that suit me."
Geboers helps out DOC by doing things such as island restoration, lizard surveys and kakapo feeding for at least two weeks each year.
"I can avoid the busy times where everyone else is on holiday, do my required hours at work and then pick and choose what projects I get involved in at a time which suits me," Geboers says.
With many workers forced to squeeze all of their annual leave time into the end of the year holiday period, Geboers is relieved he doesn't have to take his holidays all at once and face the hordes of holiday-makers on the roads and at the beaches.
"You just get to the stage where the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. In February and March when everybody else is back at work, I have the ability to go anywhere in the country ... without having to worry about crowds and traffic," Geboers says.
For people who work the holidays, the time often takes on a different sense of significance for them.
"While it's a family thing, I pick and choose my times to spend with the family. But I'm a little bit different than most in that I'm not married."
Geboers says the importance of Christmas is highlighted for him in terms of the time he spends with the fire crew.
"We try and involve our families in dinners or lunches on Christmas day or Christmas night at the stations," Geboers says.
They will often join stations together to have a larger celebration.
"We'll generally try and involve two stations. So we'll move one appliance from one station to another.
"The families of each of the crew members would come in and spend two or three hours at the station and have lunch."
Lunch for the firefighters on Christmas or New Year's Day often involves organising a hot roast lunch or salad lunch with turkey and ham.
But they have to remember that they are still on duty.
"For those of us that do enjoy a beer or an alcoholic tipple, obviously when you're scheduled to work the night shift, there is no way that during the day you can have a barbecue and have a beer.
"But you get used to that. You know that you're meant to be at work and obviously you can't have a drink," Geboers says.
Any type of call-out could easily mean the party is over.
"If we get a call, we get a call. We obviously have to go."
On a normal roster, firefighters are scheduled to work two 10-hour days and two 14-hour nights. Monday and Tuesday they might work 8am till 6pm. Then Wednesday and Thursday night they'll be rostered on from 6pm till 8am.
Then the shift rotates to start a day later each week, giving them four days off between work weeks.
"Somebody is still going to cop Christmas, but we have the ability to swap leave cycles to have your holiday at a time that's more convenient," Geboers says.
The Holidays Act 2003 requires employers to pay time-and-a-half for holidays and give their employees time off in lieu. So some workers might actively seek to work the stat holidays in order to earn extra money or be able to shift their holidays to a more suitable time of the year. For Geboers, the real benefit is the days he earns in lieu.
"Whether I work on Christmas day or any other day of the year, the amount of money I see in my basic pay is the same. It's like a normal shift.
"But then I get a day in lieu for working on the Christmas holiday," Geboers says.
For firefighters, the "four on-four off" cycle is demanding enough at the best of times, not to mention the holidays.
The overnight shift must be manned whether or not it's Christmas Eve or New Year's Eve.
But fire-fighters on the overnight shift are allowed to sleep after 11pm through until 6:45am - if they can.
"Your sleep is severely disrupted. A night's sleep at a fire station compared to a night's sleep at home is like chalk and cheese."
Geboers has been doing this for the past 30 years and, for most of that time, he has chosen to work almost all of the holidays.
"You just know that it's a 24/7 industry and the luck of the draw is the luck of the draw in terms of when you're rostered to be on and when you're rostered to be off," Geboers says.
It's a job that does not suit everyone.
"The younger 20 to 35-year-old married guys with young families find it more problematic to work over Christmas or New Year or any public holiday than the older guys that are more established in their lives."
The 51-year-old Geboers says younger firefighters who are starting up families of their own can quickly get a guts full of working in a 24/7 operation.
"If it becomes too much of a burden family-wise then people leave."
* www.DavidMaida.com
