Bob’s Blog

Well today is the last day before the May Day Holiday. In years previous, for this holiday, people over here got 7 *cough* days off. However with all the mass migrations that happen during long holidays (ie. National Day, Spring Festival, May Day) where most people travel back home or visit relatives on the other side of the country - pretty much clogging up all forms of transportation (and unofficially probably hurts workplace productivity once the workers come back)- the government has decided to chop them up. So instead of having 7 *cough* days for May Day - It is now 3 plus a day off for Tomb Sweeping Day and Dragon Boat Festival… You maybe wondering why Im coughing Its not to say they don’t get that amount of time off, its just that they have to make up that time…oh yeah…and those times include the weekends…..so lets take the May Day Holiday as an example - They have Thursday, Friday and Saturday off. Now you may be asking “what about Sunday?” - well on Sunday they have to work - to make up for Friday…For China’s 7 day holidays, it usually means, that they have to work the weekend before the holiday - so their 7 day vacation is really a 3 day Vacation (7 days - 2 (weekend days) - 2 days they have to make up = 3 days)

I remember reading something about how even China has better personal leave time than America - “Three weeks off mandated by the government” - however It doesn’t look like they counted the days the workers have to make up on the weekends prior/after those days of leave….I think I would rather much take the standard 10 work days (that I can use anytime) along with the 5 national holidays in the states …However I think I’d rather take the standard German days off - up to 6+ weeks depending on tenure with a a company?