Mail & Guardian reporter
If you are going to be at work on the night of December 31 1999, then cash and how to get lots of it will be uppermost in your mind. Bonuses are likely to be low, however, where demand for places is high. So the first trick is to make sure you and your colleagues look non-committal.
Staff in British banks have been advised to examine the cash on offer, but to resist telling their line managers how poor they are or the sad state of their personal life, and what a boon it would be to spend New Year’s Eve at work.
Even if it has always been your practice to work over the holiday period, now is the time to talk about family commitments, the importance of the historic day and how much the president wants everyone to have a nice time. Make the speech a three-hanky weepy with lots of references to the “special day”.
Employers must also be reasonable in the way they pick out staff, according to leading employment lawyers. If your employer picks you out and says millennium eve is your night to be on call without any extra pay or benefits you can argue they must ask for volunteers first, then take into consideration your personal circumstances and finally come up with a decent offer comparable to other offers in your industry. Without this protection the employer is open to attack and would be likely to lose an employment tribunal case.
A survey by the British Institute of Personnel and Development reveals that workers who have been offered an incentive are twice as likely to work on millennium eve (47%) as those who haven’t (26%).