A young woman who boasts that she will work during the holidays outraged the Romanians: “After she stopped the camera, she was crying”

The message of a female employee in a cafe, satisfied that she will be at work for the holidays, has caused a small riot on social networks. For many Romanians, Christmas and New Year's have remained “holy” in terms of rest and free time, although in the past they were obliged to work on these days.

Many cafes will remain open for the holidays. Photo: Freepik.com

A young woman caused a wave of reactions on the TikTok platform after she answered in a video clip that working during the holidays brings her only advantages.

The young woman's message upset many Romanians

“I am paid twice, all the money comes to my pocket, I work because I want to and I can”, she said, responding to a message telling her that working on holidays is “slavery for employees”.

Many Romanians declared themselves outraged by the idea of ​​working on Christmas days.

“There is no work on holidays! Only money hungry patrons work”, one of them relayed.

Everyone should have their share of the holidays, someone else thinks, while other Romanians think that for a day spent at work on Christmas, employees should be paid at least triple. Others explain the need to work on holidays through low wages or fear of the boss.

“May God forgive me, but during the holidays there is not much work except at the gas stations and the hospital… Isn't the whole year enough? Perhaps the Christmas holidays are spent more in the family”, someone else thinks.

“We are hard at work, especially during the holidays. So what does it mean to stay with family or friends, to party? We don't need it. We want work. We don't need Christmas, Easter, New Year's Eve, we are hard at work. We come bonus without money”completes another Romanian.

Every employee has the right to rest and feel the holidays, not just the patrons, adds another netizen. Someone else feels sorry for the young woman.

“It's not worth it… there are a few days of celebration in a year. Someone who worked during the holidays says it… but it's good that you have a positive attitude. Double paid money doesn't matter anymore when you want to be at home with your family. Moments are rare and pass. All our life we ​​run after money, but nothing is chosen”. he states.

Between ironies and “sins”

Another Romanian ironizes the young woman's choice.

“I am convinced that the poor girl would not have wanted to stay with her family or friends for the holidays, go caroling or do anything a normal person does. That was her dream: to serve coffee to 20 people who have nothing to do at home, to put money in the patrons' pockets. I would like to see at least one patron at work in a mall or cafe on Christmas day until 10 at night”, believe this.

Some think it is unusual for a man to want to work on holidays.

“Dear young people, don't accept to work for pitiful wages anymore. Romanian employers have the wherewithal to offer good wages, even higher than in the West”, forwarded to him by another internet user.

Someone else thinks working on Christmas is a sin.

“If we lose traditions, we lose ourselves. And that's how we end up, unwittingly, slaves to money… In addition to faith, we also have this: legal holidays. Too bad… There is no such thing — holidays must be given to all employees”, he states.

If everyone stayed at home, no one would work in cafes on holidays, adds another Romanian.

“After he stopped the camera, he was crying…”, someone else adds.

The world gets lazy during the holidays, wakes up late, spends time with loved ones, and anyone knows how to make a coffee, says another Romanian, recommending the young woman to take time off. Another says that, being in Spain, he preferred to resign rather than go to work on Christmas Day. Another Romanian says that he had a business, but he offered them freely to his employees on holidays, because he wasn't going to get rich in three days anyway.

“Not all the money ends up in your pocket. You make half of it with the state,” concludes someone else.

The holidays bring more days off than in the past

In Romania, labor legislation has undergone major changes since 1990, when, by Decree-Law 95/1990, the working week was reduced from six to five working days. Over time, more and more legal holidays have been added to Saturdays and Sundays, their number reaching 15 today.

In 2025, they are: January 1–2 – New Year; January 24 – Day of the Union of the Romanian Principalities; Good Friday – before Orthodox Easter; Easter Sunday and Easter Monday (2 days); May 1 – Labor Day; June 1 – Children's Day; Pentecost – Sunday and Monday (2 days); August 15 – Dormition of the Mother of God; November 30 – Saint Andrew; December 1 – National Day of Romania; and December 25–26 – Christmas (2 days).

Before 1990, employees in Romania worked six days a week, with Sunday being the only day off. Religious holidays were not considered non-working days, and the legal holidays that could be enjoyed were, in the communist decades, only three: May 1 – International Workers' Day, August 23 – National Day of the Socialist Republic of Romania and December 30 – Proclamation of the Republic (1947).

Moreover, on May 1 and August 23, many Romanians had to spend part of their day at the parades and public events organized on the occasion of these holidays. Other times holidays were celebrated through work and overtime.

Holidays celebrated through work in communism

A memo kept in the archives of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) showed how the work was going on at the August 23 Plants, with 15,000 employees in the 1950s.

“In the former Malaxa factories, people work in three shifts of eight hours each. The work is carried out continuously, without breaks, and the employees work much more than 48 hours per week, without receiving additional income. The additional work is done to fulfill the “norm” imposed by the management or to complete some so-called “voluntary” works, carried out for free for the purpose of the so-called “celebrations through work” of various communist festivals: the October Revolution, the Anniversary of Stalin, the Day of the Romanian People's Republic, May 1, August 23, etc.”the 1952 report showed

Its authors mentioned that each worker worked 10-12 hours a day, to which were added two hours of political education, collective reading of the party newspaper and its commentary.

“Through this terrifying daily schedule established for the workers, the communists managed to keep them away from any other occupation, even personal ones, because every employee, as soon as the work schedule ends, has no other desire than to relax and prepare for the new day of work.” it showed another archival document, from 1952

At the end of the year, many workers did not escape their tasks, being called to work to fulfill the plans drawn up by the party. In the early days of January, some were even mentioned in the press, in glowing accounts of the intense activity in the factories.

“On New Year's Eve, as in the shifts that followed on the 1st and 2nd of January, the conductors and masters of the unquenchable fire acted with skill and dedication to keep the generators running at their designed capacities. On duty in the closing seconds of the year and the five-year anniversary, the team of furnacemen, steelworkers and rolling mills welcomed the new year in full and fruitful activity. We recorded loads of cast iron in those moments and steel whose work began before midnight and was completed in the early hours of 1981,” wrote the publication “Munca” in January 1981, in a report from the Galati Iron and Steel Plant.

Tens of thousands of miners in the Jiu Valley were, in turn, forced to go underground on holidays to ensure the coal supply of industry and cities, which was often insufficient during the winter.

“In Aninoasa, the miners' life was not easy. You didn't have Easter, you didn't have Christmas, you also worked on New Year's Eve, and two shifts each, because Romania needed coal. Every morning you got up and went downstairs. You went underground and you didn't know if you would come out again”. recalled Laurentiu, a former miner at the Aninoasa coal mine.

Religious holidays, banned in the 1950s

In the early years of communism, newspapers frequently praised the “determination” of employees of certain institutions to work on December 24 and 31.

The Stalinist regime established after the Second World War tried to make Christmas forgotten, turning it into an ordinary working day. Santa Claus was replaced by “Guerrilla Santa” and the Christmas tree by “winter tree”, while many churches remained closed.

“Christmas was a working day in Romania. The few remaining private shops were forced to remain open, and on Christmas Eve all civil servants and workers in state-owned enterprises were warned that absence from work on Christmas Day would be considered 'sabotage'. The sale of poultry between December 24–25 was banned—apparently to prevent any attempt to celebrate Christmas with the traditional meal; people were told that the measure was taken to to ensure that there would be enough birds in the market for the New Year's festivities. Schools were opened on Christmas Day and only on December 26 were the students allowed to go on holiday. The very few children who dared to go out on Christmas Eve to carol were arrested and roughed up by the police,” according to a particularly well-informed source. recounted a Greek refugee who left Romania in 1952, in a note kept in the Archives of Radio Europa Liberă (RFE).