Going to Tenerife on Friday?

What should I do in this predicament? Involves Retail, finding a job, going to see family, and Black Friday.?

• So I gotta work Black Friday in retail. My entire family except for my parents and sister lives like 2 states away. So every Thanksgiving we travel to meet them (usually Wed-Sat). Well I just lost my previous job because the place closed and now found a new one and learned I have to work Black Friday meaning I wont get to go and see my family who I only get to see once a year. Upon learning of this I have applied for several non-retail jobs (mainly clerical/administrative positions for nearby companies) but have yet to get a call. I'm seriously contemplating just quitting this job soon so I can go with my family and then trying to find a new job once we get back. Plus, even though I know a few people who work at this new job (they worked with me at my previous place of employment) I don't really like it. The training is just downright AWFUL and management pays little attention to you. They basically just have the associates "train" you. I understand this is OTJ (on the job) training, but even the associates don't train well. I was supposed to be watching this girl check people out and she literally did not tell me a single thing was she was doing. She was pushing buttons so fast on the keyboard that I didn't know what was going on. The system is nothing like any system I've used before and its old, really old. It literally looks like MS-DOS but another associate said its being run on Linux. One of the customer service heads got onto me for doing something that wasn't priority to something else last night even though the thing I was doing was the ONLY THING I knew what to do up there and they just left me there by myself for a good 30 minutes without another associate. The only experience I have is retail (my past 4 jobs have all been retail but only had to work Black Friday for one a long time ago), but I do have a Bachelors degree in Business and am 1 semester away from getting my MBA (Masters of Business Administration). The type of work I'm doing right now is fine since I'm still a student, but with this company I know for a fact that there will be no room for advancement. What do you guys think would be best? Stay with the company, work Black Friday, and miss out on my family? or Leave, go with family, try to find new and possibly better job when I get back? I could potentially try to find somewhere that needs seasonal help since when I get back the Xmas season is still going on (though training would take up most of it). But I fear most places won't be searching for positions by then. I just don't know. I guess it'd be noteworthy to say the largest city near me is around 60,000 people so its not like I live in New York or something. Also, I'm not concerned about my safety during Black Friday, just about seeing family and trying to find a new job if I do quit this one.

• Answer:

  Only you can make the trade off between your family and your job (for example, how much you really feel you need to see your family and how much you need the money) but you can try to increase your flexibility by applying for other retail jobs now (and not wait) to see if there is any other possibility for which you won't have to work on Black Friday.