We have two groups of workers in general. Those who are salaried or are one person departments (offices), and those who work as part of a team (call centers-warehouses, retail, etc).
I am learning that we only get one real holiday per year. Thanksgiving. This is where the office shuts down for 4 days, and everyone is gone. This is important to distinguish, and I have been looking forward to this weekend for many MONTHS now.
When I take one day off, it is like the end of the world. I have to get my affairs, in order, I have to give someone else who is “filling in” for me every conceivable document in case something pops up on that ONE DAY off. And even then, when I return, there’s a debrief and then I have to catch up on all of the work left for me for my one day off. (If I have to do 2 days of work anyway, why did I waste my PTO????). So all of that could've waited.
That was one day off, now imagine when I have 2 days off, or a week off. I’m understanding why people don’t take vacations now. It’s barely worth it!
But at the end of November, it is the only 4 day vacation all year. There is no preparing, briefing, debriefing, no emails are supposed to pile up, I”m not returning Monday to a weeks worth of work to catch up on. I don’t worry about anything during that period.
Even in other jobs you are part of a team, it’s still a big deal and everyone has to hear about my PTO, I can’t just have a day off. And only a certain # of people can be out, there’s blackout days, etc. You have to bid, compete, etc. We have all of these threads of people complaining about being contacted on the day off. Wouldn’t it be great if they just shut down? Be like Hobby Lobby and give you a predictable day off every week? In the old days in some countries, stores even closed at tea time, it was predictable.
Some years ago I saw that the US and China were the only two countries (in our category) that did not have a state minimum for amount of vacation days. However, China shuts down and has holidays – long ones. I assume they are unpaid, but when everyone does it, it's clearly part of the culture and therefore the budgeted expectation.
You can give me 9 weeks of vacation a year, it won’t make a difference, there’s still either stress or annoyance involved. Give us a national holiday that is a week long. Or expand these days off – like the one random day off in December you keep giving me, and calling it a “season”.
We need several longer national holidays off, give me at least one per quarter.