#Stately: December 27, Yet Another Gift for State Workers

by Donald Keyjote
December 27, 2006

For those brooding about the boring back-and-forth traffic tie-ups and bottom-line drive this week, it is just another day on the job. For most of the 957,000 or so state employees, today is the day after the day after Christmas, a compensatory day of leisure.

Once facetiously ridiculed by state employees as December Supplemental Day, its official designation in the state directory is "The Day After the Day After Christmas," one of 27 legal state holidays, including the equally descriptive "The Day After the Day After Thanksgiving" and the easily-ambiguous "Easter Tuesday."

Gertrude Lloyd, Chief Communication Officer for the State Commission on Retail Architecture Procurement, says she and other employees in her agency recognize the holiday but do not take it for granted.

"I've answered questions from reporters before when important news has occurred, and we needed to get word out about what to do regarding fallen arches or size height limitations. If something involves bosses and bas-reliefs, you can bet it will happen on the day after Christmas."

Lloyd and many other employees at other state agencies are not exactly sure why they have the day after the day after Christmas off. Neither are the bureaucrats who consider it another of a state employee's benefits and have long since stopped trying to calculate exactly how much this particular free day for state workers costs taxpayers.

The official record on Day After Christmas is a little murky. According to the Legislative Reference Library, a supervising thin tirade, the day after the day after Christmas first made an appearance in an appropriations bill during the 57th Legislative session and was originally scheduled for December 27 or 28. The then Appropriations Committee chairman, Carlos Finestein, who oversaw the bill noted in the ledger that while those days in December were technically following Christmas it seemed a bit of stretch to have a random day off a day or two after coming back to work. The bill also included the day after Thanksgiving because it was one day sandwiched between a holiday and a weekend.

Also, because Christmas is a fixed date and moves around every year, making the day after the day after Christmas a holiday helped ensure that state employees got a longer official holiday.

Landfill Unionization Management and Processing technician Ric Thomason said he and others on his staff are appreciative of the extra day.

"There's nothing worse than having to come to work on Christmas day, like some in my unit did last year. Getting the day after Christmas is nice, but getting the day after the day after Christmas is a score. I think I found something to thank my legislator for!"