Hi ya party people,

Happy Friday to everyone whose responsibilities have grown more than their paycheck.

I’d offer you a holiday to recover, but that’s also up for discussion today! 🫠

One reader wants to know whether a company can legally cancel a holiday. I have follow-up questions…starting with: what exactly are we canceling, and who gets to deliver that delightful announcement???

Then we’ve got a reader who’s spent six years watching other people get promoted while their own workload keeps expanding. Leadership says there’s no business need for them to advance.

They like the company, but how long do you keep waiting for an opportunity your employer has already said it doesn’t plan to give you? 🤔

Let’s get into it!

But before you do that…if you have questions of your own and want a chance to be ✨featured✨ please submit them here!

ASK AWAY

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📣 Rosetta Williams, Sr. Director, People Talent & Culture @ Immigrant Justice Corps:

Short answer: in the U.S., generally yes. No federal law requires private employers to give holidays off or pay a premium for working them, so a “holiday” is whatever the company’s policy, contract, or practice says it is.

A few places where it gets less simple:

Contracts and CBAs. If there’s a union agreement or individual employment contract that guarantees specific holidays or holiday pay, the company can’t just cancel it.

Written promises. If the handbook or offer letter promises paid holidays, changes should be made going forward, with clear notice, and not retroactively. Some states have their own notice or pay requirements, so check yours.

Religious accommodation. If the holiday has religious significance for an employee, Title VII may require the company to consider accommodation unless it causes undue hardship.

Hours already worked. Overtime and wage rules still apply, and state law may affect how earned time is handled.

Legal and wise aren’t the same thing, though. For a nurse staffing coordinator, you’ve lived this: healthcare doesn’t close, so holiday coverage is routine, but how it’s handled makes or breaks morale. Advance notice, voluntary sign-ups first, fair rotation, and premium pay or comp time go a long way. Cancel a holiday with no warning and no trade-off, and you’ll pay for it in turnover.

📣 Brittany Ly, People Ops Mgr & HRBP @ TBD:

In the U.S., yes. Is it good practice? No, but sometimes business needs necessitate canceling a paid holiday. Ideally, the employer would offer an alternative day off or provide some sort of additional incentive pay if this happens, but it's up to the company.

Safe Space members can join this discussion here. Not a member yet? Apply to join here.

📣 Christine McCallum-Randalls, Director of People @ Test Double:

That is so rough. Putting your all into a company and having them say you've hit the highest role you are ever going to, especially when you deserve more, is extremely disheartening. IDK if it helps at all, but coming from a situation like that years ago, the move was so incredibly worth it.

📣 Sondra Norris, Founder @ Strategic Culture Partners:

Here's what to see in the other promotions happening across the company: Leadership can easily see the value in those roles in terms of contribution to the bottom line. Maybe these positions are able to improve products. Or acquire and retain customers. Or generate lots of leads who can become customers. It's the norm that HR is viewed as overhead and support to all the other functions, not a functions that contributes directly to any company's bottom line.

So when you make it clear that you want to develop professionally - it's not an easy equation for the company to see when its view of HR is what it is. Or to imagine that as the company grows, or experiences complex problems in its business flow that there would be a need for a "more senior" role in HR - they don't what that would even look like.

On the plus side of that is that the company is looking at the role and not the person, they're focused on "business need," which means people aren't getting promoted just because they've been there for a certain amount of time, which is a common trap companies fall into.

In cases like this, employees need to look at the work they've been doing and demonstrate how what you're identifying as additional responsibilities are something above the scope of your current role, not just more of the same thing.

How have these additional responsibilities increased your measured impact to the company?

Think about the following things:

1. How often are you independently contributing? In other words, you know what to do without direction? If managers feel they still have to direct you, they won't be thinking of you as "promotion material."

2. How often are you contributing through others? In others words, using influence so that more work is getting done by others than what you can do yourself?

3. How has your influence increased in the work you do? In other words, how does your voice affect decisions getting made?

4. How have you increased your perspective? In other words, how do you use synthesized knowledge about the individual problems you see to identify bigger issues? And how do you demonstrate that you understand how the business works on a larger scale - how departments work together, how the finances flow?

5. How do you describe the greater impact of your additional responsibilities than what's scoped in your current role description?

I'd think through those to develop a different case for yourself that you can present to show your manager(s) that the job they described is important, but your performance has now gone beyond that description in the material ways described above.

📣 Brittany Ly, People Ops Mgr & HRBP @ TBD:

Unfortunately, if your employer and leadership team doesn't see or care to provide development and promotional opportunities for you, your best bet is to find it outside the org. I was in a similar situation as you early on in my career, and leaving was the best choice for my career development. Remember this - you are your best advocate and driver of your career. If your current environment doesn't see your value, it's ok to leave and move to an environment that does.

Safe Space members can join this discussion here. Not a member yet? Apply to join here.

🚨 ON YOUR RADAR

🎧 I invited RyanMae McAvoy Pepin and Josiah Hernández back, and we somehow ended up recruiting for a hypothetical cult and defending Michael Scott??? We also get into invasive interview questions and why you need a life outside of work. Check it out on Spotify or Apple Podcasts!

📣 Safe Space Summit VIRTUAL is taking over your screen on March 11th, 2027! Featuring incredible keynotes, puppies (YES, PUPPIES), and a DJ, because I refuse to let this feel like another meeting that could’ve been an email. It’s free and built for YOU and the HR challenges currently testing your last nerve. See you there!

🫠 Done babysitting your payroll software? Warp automates payroll, compliance, and benefits. Get a fresh start this Jan 1st because paying $$$ for software should mean doing less work, not more.*

❤️ From ‘I Hate it Here’ to ‘I Love it Here’: Your Culture Transformation Roadmap. HR can influence culture change in any organization, and this course teaches you how. Join the Safe Space community to access it!

*This one is brought to you by one of my amazing brand partners

📝 RESOURCE OF THE WEEK

Each week I feature a resource I love from the Safe Space library that I believe would be relatable to this week's newsletter topic.

Today, we’re talking about employee/employer trust. Check it out HERE ⬇️

FRIDAY FUN

😂 less than a month into Q4 and WTHCopy anchor linkCopied

HAPPY ALMOST HALLOWEEN.

Spooky szn has been extra spooky this year.

Just me??

That's all for this week! I hope you enjoyed! If you have any thoughts, please let me know. I'm allll ears.

Reminder: Today is FRIDAY. 🙏