Christmas is a normal workday for some

    While nearly all public buildings and shops will be closed Christmas Day, there will be a select few public servants who?ll go to work Friday just like any other day of the week. Police officers, deputies, dispatchers and firefighters have to staff their positions or go on patrol to ensure the safety of the city for the holidays.

    Not everyone minds the fact that they have to work on Christmas. Michael Powers, a part-time dispatcher who works in Washington, said he is particularly fond of the holiday pay. Dispatchers get paid 2.5 times their normal rate for working holidays.

    ?There are a lot of dispatchers who fight to work on the holidays,? said Powers. ?People will give up family time to get that double-time and a half pay.?

    Powers will go to work from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. Friday, and then go back to work at midnight. The fact that Powers has to work on Christmas morning won?t deter his family from celebrating the holiday on that day. Powers and his family will celebrate Christmas before he goes to work.

    ?I?ll wake up at about 4 a.m. Christmas morning and drive to my parents? house in Pleasant Plain to celebrate Christmas,? said Powers. ?It is disappointing to my family that I don?t get to be there all day long. But we?re not celebrating this early because of me. My family would be up at 2 a.m. waiting to open presents if I had to work or not.?

    Powers said he was not originally scheduled to work on Christmas. A full-time dispatcher asked for the day off, and Powers was more than happy to fill in.

    ?I will work any holidays they give me,? said Powers.    

    Holidays are normally slow days at the dispatch center, said Powers. Powers worked on Thanksgiving, and said he got one or two calls the whole day. However, he did note that dispatch centers tend to receive more suicide calls around the holidays.

    Police officer Chad Huschka has been a police officer in Washington for 10 years. He said his feelings about working holidays changed when he got married. He said that when he was single, he looked forward to the extra pay that holiday work entailed. Police officers are paid 1.5 times their normal rate on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  Now that he?s a married man, he?d rather spend the holidays with his wife.

    ?When I was single, I didn?t mind working holidays because I didn?t have anyone to go home to,? said Huschka. ?I have a family now, so I?d much rather spend it with them than to be out patrolling.?   

    This year, Huschka is working on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Huschka?s wife Melanie is a dispatcher in Washington and is also working those two days.

For the full article, see the Dec. 23 print edition of the Washington Evening Journal.