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#孟庆伟 Justin 英文随笔集

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Kill tiaoxiu

The scheduling practice with the Chinese characteristics is ill-conceived and ill-functioning

You thought today is Friday because you have already worked four days in a row until someone next to you reminded you that today is actually Thursday. You double checked the calendar and forced a smile. This has happened to countless workers (regardless of the color of their collar) toiling across the country. The culprit is tiaoxiu, literally meaning trading days off or making up work. This is a bizarre convention that has long bedeviled the hard-working workforce.

The essence of tiaoxiu is theft. You are off from May 1st to 4th, or Wednesday through Saturday. It looks like a lengthy and generous holiday, but it's not and is actually worse. To enjoy the four days, you have to work the Sunday preceding May 1st and the Sunday following the break, hence the naming tiaoxiu. By working two Sundays and taking May 3rd off (a Saturday off anyway), you are robbed of three days. In truth, therefore, the May Day break is but a one-day vacation.

The one-day break itself is not a problem; the problem lies in people having to work for six days consecutively. Some may argue that this is no biggie. One extra day of work is indeed nothing compared to the notorious 996 (a work schedule widely adopted by many Chinese startups, according to which employees work from 9 am to 9 pm for six days a week), but it is a lot, physically and mentally, for those unaccustomed to a six-day work week. Worse, the sudden departure from the normal scheduling throws workers out.

Disorientation is a terrible feeling. Throughout the week you keep getting confused as if you just landed on the other side of the world after a 13-hour flight. You mistake Thursday for Friday. An important deadline may have already passed before you take notice. Telecommuting or working with multiple teams scattered in different cities and across different time zones can compound the matter. Not to mention that catching up the work accumulated over the break can inject workers with an extra shot of confusion and anxiety. It's hard to imagine disoriented folks can stay focused and make their office hours count. This is comically known as aggravated "After-holiday Syndrome".

Tiaoxiu had better be scrapped. Public holidays everywhere are for celebration of one sort or another, but if they create burdens and reduce productivity, they are ill-functioning. Sensible holiday scheduling allows people to truly take the time off, forget about work, relax and recharge.

America has a smart approach that can be emulated. Many federal holidays are not on a fixed day according to the Gregorian calendar, which varies from year to year. Instead, they are mostly on Mondays so that the special day can be celebrated in combination with the previous weekend, known as "long breaks". Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, for instance, is observed on the third Monday of January each year, which is around but not necessarily on King's birthday, January 15. In this year, it was on January 21st, and in 2020 it will be on January 20th. Neither of them is exactly Dr. King's birthday but close.

US federal holidays in 2019 and 2020

There are exceptions, of course. You cannot move New Year's Day or Independence Day around to make them fit the ideal planning, but the method largely works brilliantly and displays foresightedness and wisdom. As public holidays are spread by and large evenly across different months, people can truly capitalize on the long breaks after a couple of months of hard work. I remember when I was going to graduate school in Maryland, students craved the long breaks. They took the three-day vacations to drive home or rest, returning to studies fully recharged and invigorated.

America's model is by no means perfect, but it works. We may adjust certain holidays without compromising the Chinese calendar or traditional Chinese holidays. Tiaoxiu should be consigned to the garbage bin, where such ideas as planned economy and one-child policy have long rested. People will take back their long-deserved, hard-earned holidays. Better, they will also be going back to work more productive and happier.

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