It's around mid-November, sometimes earlier, than animal care managers are often faced with one of the most daunting chores of the year - setting the holiday schedule for the keepers. Assuming that the facility is closed for the day (which is not a given, as some zoos are open on Thanksgiving and Christmas), someone still needs to come in and take care of the animals, to at least to the bare minimum of checks, feeds, and basic cleaning. But who's it gonna be?
There are, to be fair, some keepers and aquarists who enjoy working the holidays. I know because I'm one. I find being at the zoo pretty much just me and the animals to be a real treat. That being said, most folks want to go home. Keepers with small children want to be there for their kids on Christmas morning. Folks who have family out of town/state/country may want to travel to be with them. And so it goes.
How the schedule is set varies from institution to institution. At some places, seniority is the clear priority - the longer you work, the better your day off options are. At others, it's first-requested, first-granted. At some zoos, a deal is made - half of the keepers get Thanksgiving off, the other half Christmas (some folks being less attached to one holiday or the other, such as non-Christian keepers having no particular plans for Christmas). At one zoo I worked, the arrangement was for everyone to work both holidays, with the understanding that, by all working together, we could get in and out in no time. Everyone at that zoo was a local, and as the one person who did not have family within a ten minute drive of the zoo, I found that system to be less than satisfactory.
I've never found a system that makes everyone happy, nor do I ever expect to encounter one. To be sure, there are sacrifices that are involved in working with animals, and an easy schedule is one of those. It is nice, however, when facilities are able to do what they can to accommodate keepers to the best of their abilities.
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