Holidays are often filled with time with family and friends and, especially Thanksgiving, a holiday over which around 48.7 million Americans travel over 50 miles to be with loved ones, according to American Automobile Association (AAA). And for 151 million Americans, Black Friday consists of shopping.

Yet for some employees, the reality is far different.

Thanksgiving is filled with rushed dinners or completely missed dinners, Black Friday with crazy customers and hectic shifts.

Mo Alsyouf, junior, spent both Thanksgiving and Black Friday working at the Target off of Manchester Road.

“(I worked) from 5 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Thursday and from 4 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Friday ,” Alsyouf said. “I couldn’t eat dinner with the family and couldn’t go Black Friday shopping.”

But even with the timing of the shifts Alsyouf felt that it okay, calm, even.

“Target opened at 6 p.m. Thanksgiving day so I guess that was early. A lot of people rushed in but I was working at the cafe so no one came to me,” Alsyouf said. “And Black Friday was calm for me since I wasn’t cashiering so I just sat back and watched the rest of workers struggle.”

Other students, such as Logan Vangiya, senior, works at Best Buy and  partly agreed with Alsyouf. The timing of the shifts was an inconvenience, but for Vangiya, the shift wasn’t “calm” as Alsyouf’s was.

“I worked on both days, 4:30 p.m. to 2 a.m. on Thursday and Friday I worked 5 p.m. to 11:30 p.m.,” Vangiya said. “On thanksgiving I had to leave my family early to go work which I wasn’t happy about. (Black Friday) was ungodly busy. Every employee that works at Best Buy was working that day and we still had a line across the store.”

Even with inconvenient shifts, some students managed to balance out their family time and thanksgiving traditions with their shifts. Adam Noll, senior, had an early Thanksgiving dinner, in order to make his shift at the Pacsun in the Premium Outlets work with tradition.

“My family decided to have Thanksgiving at 2pm so it wouldn’t conflict with my work schedule, Noll said. “It was also better for my grandparents because they don’t like to stay out very late either.”

Though some like Noll find ways to accommodate regular holiday festivities with their work schedule, many others who work on larger holidays, do not.

Instead of a having a Thanksgiving filled with turkey and mashed potatoes and football and a Black Friday dedicated to shopping, some have a Thanksgiving filled with early Black Friday specials and rushing crowds and a Black Friday dedicated to restocking shelves and helping customers.