Never heard of a company that does not have a request time off system, sounds illegalish. Verizon uses American 3rd Party Call centers for their Customer Services agents. I would have your family member reconsider employment with their third party, because the lack of that system will be on them and not Verizon. As far as your McDs friend, while I understand his position, I do feel bad for any workers who are working on Christmas that now will likely have a hard time finding places open on their lunch. For some of us, the world does not stop turning on Christmas, nor do we have the luxury to worry whether we have Christmas off because of the need of money to pay bills. Personally I will be working Christmas by choice and making some extra money with time and a half Holiday Hours ( also normally offered by most companys as compensation for working holidays. ) So while you say Anti-Christian, I say Pro-Working Man. I am sorry your family member got caught in limbo, but we all have a choice in where we work, so to just blatantly say a Company is Anti-Christian is rather shortsighted and harsh.