'Tis the season: Workers fill important roles on holidays, year-round

Family, food, friends and fanfare. The holidays are a time for families to celebrate together.

But for many, there’s work to be done. Away from their loved ones.

Convenience store clerks. Emergency dispatchers. Health club employees. And all the others who work on holidays.

They all dutifully put their personal lives on hold to provide services we all need—or desire—when festivities flare up at Christmas and New Year’s.

Convenience stores see a definite uptick in business during the year’s most celebrated holidays as most larger supermarkets are closed. Soda, cigarettes, coffee and beer are what’s on the counter.

“People are usually looking to grab something fast,” says Denisse Rucker-Rodriguez, 22, an employee at the Holiday convenience store at U.S. Highway 95 and Prairie Avenue. “But most of them are nice, they see you’re working on the holiday and they’re just a little more patient.”

Rucker-Rodriguez says she doesn’t mind working on Christmas.

“I don’t have much family around here so it’s okay. We do everything in the morning for Christmas before I go to work,” she said.

Rucker-Rodriguez’s co-worker also says he goes with the flow when he’s at the cash register on Christmas mornings.

“It’ll be fun,” said Jonne Larsen, 19, of Hayden, a new employee to the busy store, before she worked Christmas Day. “And it works for me because if I work Christmas, I get two weeks off later this winter to visit my dad. So that’s a win.”

Meanwhile for fitness clerks, well, let’s just say they see a perennial boom in business on New Year’s Day as resolutions kick in. No surprise there.

For those not buying cigarettes, candy or beer, the treadmill is a popular option on New Year’s Day, says Venna Huffaker, front desk assistant at Peak Fitness in Hayden.

Huffaker will be there on New Year’s, and she’s fine with that.

“I think there will be a huge amount of people here,” says the cheerful 25-year-old. “Before I worked here, I actually worked out here, and last year on New Year’s they were slammed.”

Huffaker says she doesn’t mind working New Year’s.

“I’m young, not married, no kids, so working the holiday is no problem,” she says.

Huffaker concedes she sees an influx of wanna-be fitness buffs at the start of every year, only to see those numbers dwindle as the months progress. But she sees a glimmer of hope.

“It seems at least now people are more aware of the importance of health and fitness,” I’ve seen some real success stories—keep it up!”

As for working the holiday? Huffaker takes it in stride.

“The day itself is just like any other day,” she says. “To me it’s about the spirit of the holiday.”

Veteran police and fire dispatcher Linda Lane said for the most part, working Christmas is pretty much like any other day. Calls may dip a bit—to ‘only’ about 300.

“I expect things to run pretty slowly in the morning and then pick up after that,” said the 23-year veteran of central dispatch before her Christmas shift in Coeur d’Alene. The 911 dispatch center handles all fire and police calls for Kootenai.

Working as a team year-round, Lane says while Christmas is somewhat routine for calls, inside the dispatch center there’s a notable lift in holiday spirit.

“The only part about working Christmas is we’re not home with our families, but we’ve got each other,” she said.

Perhaps the unsung heroes to outsiders who phone in, the dispatchers are not forgotten by the first responders they serve. “They’re thinking of us. They bring us treats and check on us,” Lane said.