Merry Christmas! From: Work...

I hope the following does not make me sound whiny or ungrateful to have a job given the current state of things in the US (I do understand how fortunate I am - I was laid off for a week a couple months ago which was a good wake-up call and my dad has been unemployed since March), but I am truly beyond frustrated right now.

I've written before about the lovely little company I spend my time at each week, and lately I've been putting a lot of energy into focusing on positive things and how I can make the best of a less than great situation that may present itself any given time during the week. Today, I need some serious help finding the positive and making the best of the most recent turn of events.

The vacation policy here is 5 paid holidays (New Years Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day), then 5 vacation days from Jan 1-Jun 30 and 5 vacation days from Jul 1-Dec 31. If you do not use your 5 days they disappear.

Well I used my vacation time for this half of the year for my honeymoon, leaving me nothing for the holidays (I took a chance hoping I wouldn't still be here for the holidays - looks like I don't have a future in Vegas). I submitted a request earlier this month to take Christmas eve off without pay. As much as we are trying to save now, a day without pay is more than worth it to be able to travel and see my family for our Christmas traditions. Having heard nothing, I assumed no news was good news (which is usually is until you hear otherwise around here) and I've grown increasingly excited about the trip next week... until this morning.

In our morning meeting our president decides to get our input (read - get us to agree with him without objection) about changing our vacation policy to 1 week at Christmas (effective 09) and 1 week total whenever we want during the year. Hardly anyone said anything because it would be like purposely walking into a minefield that could destroy you without a seconds notice. One of the managers (his daughter) spoke up and said she didn't want to say what she really thought of the situation because she valued her paycheck, but asked about making the days around holidays OPTIONAL to be taken without pay. This wouldn't really hurt the company considering it would prevent it from having to pay people to sit around bored when all our customers are closed. He says absolutely not. End of story.

So up until about 10 minutes ago I have been in limbo as to whether or not I will have to be at work on Christmas eve (every single one of my accounts will be closed and I'm in sales/customer service). Well the president's daughter just came in and said that in order to have Christmas eve we have to sell 4 loads of Product A by Friday. Product A is a waste product that used to be land filled until a couple years ago the president decided we needed to sell it. We have not successfully sold a load of Product A in the 18 months I've been here and we generate ~ 1,000 lbs of it a day. So basically I get to be at work Christmas Eve. And even if I leave right after work to head to my hometown... all the family events will be over by the time I could get there (4 hours away).

I could take a sick day, but then I run the risk of going against his policy and being told not to bother coming back. It's honestly a 50/50 gamble at this company.

Can anyone out there help me see something good in this situation?