Saturday, April 28, 2012

China's Confusing Holiday Schedule

The upcoming May Day holiday has many workers and students in the country jumping for joy. It also has many foreigners like myself shake our their heads in confusion as we try to understand why we have to work on the weekend to make up for the holiday. I mean it is a holiday after all.

*source* 
It is not unusual to work 6-7days in the week leading up to a holiday to make up for holiday "lost" time. Sometimes the time is made up for the weekend before or after a holiday. Whatever the case is, it is the responsibility of the employer to inform its staff of any changes in the work schedule for that week well in advance. Sometimes employers will "forget" to inform their foreign staff and instead, choose to harass them with a phone call on the Saturday or Sunday they don't show up for work.

So, how does the holiday schedule work?
Alright, so say there's a 3-day holiday coming up, people would have to make up one or two days on the weekend. For example, this May holiday which is from Sunday (April 29th) to Tuesday (May 1st), required people to work on Saturday (April 28th) to make up for Monday's work. And what should have been the third day (Wednesday) is bumped up to Sunday. So really, this "3-day" holiday is ONLY one day!  Very confusing right?


15 comments:

JenJen said...

Say what! That's not a holiday. I would not like to work on days I usually have off.

'Lara said...

in other words no holiday be that...tar, ruling out China from my future countries to work/live in list.

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Curious Kinks said...

haha, they actually have a lot of holidays, almost every month has a holiday. I just wish the holidays aren't so confusing; but then again, everything is complicated here.
Thanks for the blog update, I thought you had closed your blog without notice :)

Curious Kinks said...

haha, that's why many expats in the country don't show up to work on their "off" days.

Natural Nigerian said...

Say what? In Nigeria, if a holiday falls during the weekend e.g Saturday, then the country takes Monday off. For better or worse, we don't play with our public holidays here.

Naija4Life said...

It's a case of giving with one hand and taking with the other, really strange holiday arrangement but if that's the way they do things in China then that's what it is.

Curious Kinks said...

I think it's the same here too. it's just that "they" make people think they are getting 3days off. At least they have a lot of holidays!

Curious Kinks said...

I know oh! we can't change the system, so we join :)

Jill said...

Then what's the point of the holiday?!?! ;)

Anonymous said...

That sounds reasonable to me anyway, to be the best you've got to be very hardworking. That is the reason why china has been a treat to other nations, business wise. Sorry my dear sis

Curious Kinks said...

don't know. very confusing indeed

Curious Kinks said...

that's true. you sound patriotic. perhaps you should move here :) ?

grĂ¢ce au monde said...

Enjoy your holidays! Just take in the frequency :)

Lishylikes said...

lol must i bother to ask if you get time and a half on these makeup days

Curious Kinks said...

nopes, its a regular work day. but people who work during the holidays get triple pay :)