Thanksgiving is a time of year when friends and family should get together.

Allowing employees to stay home will enable them to enjoy that.

Though it would be beneficial for people who need to do some last-minute shopping if stores stayed open on Thanksgiving, this would come at the cost of store employees missing quality time with their loved ones.

As consumers, this idea might not be at the forefront of our minds. But it is important to realize that store workers have lives outside their jobs as well. Closing stores on Thanksgiving will allow them to live those lives and celebrate the holiday.

Moreover, if we consider some of the reasons why stores would want to remain open during the holidays, staying open is pro-employer instead of pro-employee.

Stores would lose potential sales if they were closed on Thanksgiving. If a competitor stayed open, it would be disadvantageous for closed stores.

These are not good reasons to make employees work during the holidays. Thanksgiving is a time when people are supposed to give thanks and spend quality time with their loved ones, so making a profit should be the least of anyone’s worries.

I am not arguing that people who need to do last-minute shopping should be left to their own devices or that stores should completely stop caring about doing business. But I am arguing that employees should get to spend time with their friends and family.