Usually retail workers only get the luxury of having two or three guaranteed days off during the year, Christmas and Thanksgiving always  a part of that list. This was until mall managers and corporate offices decided that Black Friday should start a little earlier this year.
Major media groups such as NBC and ABC have been covering stories of people in states who are petitioning to lift the trend that some malls and department stores are to open their doors at 6 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day.
Even malls around Florida Gulf Coast University are going along with the trend and ignoring the idea of being with family on national holidays. Coconut Point Mall off of Corkscrew and U.S. 41 announced its calendar for the months of November and December for holiday hours, and the mall itself will be open for business at 6 p.m.  Thanksgiving. Some stores have the option to open while other stores are required to open when the mall hours begin, which means some people will have to cut their holiday short to meet the demands of over-eager holiday shoppers.
What corporate offices should be considering is their employees. Who wants to miss, out on time with their families to go to work? Then return to work 12 hours later to do it all over again.
Most shops have to heavily prepare for Black Friday business by rearranging their stores and working late to tend to floor sets to prep for the launch of sale merchandise. These preparations usually take place the day before Thanksgiving so that whenever the store does open for business on Black Friday, everything is set in place. With these new mall hours for the holiday, this is going to require that employees either stay extremely late on Nov. 26 after the store has closed for the night, or managers will have to schedule employees to work during the day on Thanksgiving to prepare the store for business at 6 p.m.
For the employees, it is a no-win situation for the benefit of the business.