UK Holidays

[Dod101]

On the news last evening, there was a report that the New York Stock Exchange (or some index from it) was up by a good number of points. They are working again two days after Christmas whilst London has a holiday that will stretch in to four days, and then will no doubt close early again on Friday, followed by another three days of holiday.

When I was in New York on holiday over one Christmas some years back, I was struck by how, on Boxing Day, even without the intervention of a weekend, things were all open again. We in this country seem addicted to holidays.

In Scotland, in the midst of rising numbers of Covid cases, Nicola closed all the vaccination centres over the weekend which was surely ridiculous.

If we ever want to improve productivity we have got to do something about this leisurely way of life.

Dod

[jackdaww]

.

i would like to see bank holidays SCRAPPED.

just add the 6/7 days to everyones total annual holidays , to be taken when they choose , not some controlling belief systems deign .

[CliffEdge]

Being retired I don't get bank holidays which doesn't seem fair.

Perhaps we should get double state pension on bank holiday days?

[servodude]

.

i would like to see bank holidays SCRAPPED.

just add the 6/7 days to everyones total annual holidays , to be taken when they choose , not some controlling belief systems deign .

I never had a job in the UK that worked otherwise (private sector engineering mostly in Scotland)
- working "public holidays" was always pleasant because the clock watchers were elsewhere

Moving to Australia meant I normally took a day off for such ephemera as the Queen's birthday - but I've always been offered the option not to

-sd

[Dod101]

Mention of Australia reminds me of the comments of my stepson when he moved to Perth WA. He said that a Brit could not help but do well there since the Aussies are so dedicated to a laid back way of life. I must say he seems to be doing well although as far as I can see seems to be working hard.

When I worked in Hong Kong, our company Chairman used to be very scornful of what he called the 'English disease', although HK had quite a lot of odd holidays, not only the English ones but also a lot of Chinese Festivals as well. In my early days there I used, as the junior expat, to get the job of going into the office to check on any urgent telexes. It now seems very quaint even to mention telex.

Anyway back on topic, the Christmas/New Year period seems to be riddled with holidays and seems worse this year with the way Christmas and New Year are falling on a Saturday..

Dod

[GrahamPlatt]

On the news last evening, there was a report that the New York Stock Exchange (or some index from it) was up by a good number of points. They are working again two days after Christmas whilst London has a holiday that will stretch in to four days, and then will no doubt close early again on Friday, followed by another three days of holiday.

When I was in New York on holiday over one Christmas some years back, I was struck by how, on Boxing Day, even without the intervention of a weekend, things were all open again. We in this country seem addicted to holidays.

In Scotland, in the midst of rising numbers of Covid cases, Nicola closed all the vaccination centres over the weekend which was surely ridiculous.

If we ever want to improve productivity we have got to do something about this leisurely way of life.

Dod

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/46/46-h/46-h.htm

[swill453]

Anyway back on topic, the Christmas/New Year period seems to be riddled with holidays and seems worse this year with the way Christmas and New Year are falling on a Saturday..

There's no real difference this year in working days. There are always two bank holidays for Christmas, and the stock market is only ever open for two and a half days in between Christmas and New Year.

Scott.

[malkymoo]

When I was in New York on holiday over one Christmas some years back, I was struck by how, on Boxing Day, even without the intervention of a weekend, things were all open again. We in this country seem addicted to holidays.

In Scotland, in the midst of rising numbers of Covid cases, Nicola closed all the vaccination centres over the weekend which was surely ridiculous.

If we ever want to improve productivity we have got to do something about this leisurely way of life.

Dod

In England we have 8 public holidays, you would be pushed to find a country with fewer, as evidenced by this list:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_c ... c_holidays

The US has 12, Boxing Day is not a public holiday.

Whatever is the cause of relative low productivity in the UK, it does not seem to be too many holidays.

[swill453]

Tomorrow's World promised us that by now robots would be doing all the work and we'd all have far more leisure time.

What went wrong?

Scott.

[Dod101]

Anyway back on topic, the Christmas/New Year period seems to be riddled with holidays and seems worse this year with the way Christmas and New Year are falling on a Saturday..

There's no real difference this year in working days. There are always two bank holidays for Christmas, and the stock market is only ever open for two and a half days in between Christmas and New Year.

Scott.

OK but neither this post nor the one kindly offering me a copy of A Christmas Carol help answer my substantive point. By the way, I know and like A Christmas Carol, having a well thumbed copy of it in my bookcase. I don't think I am a Scrooge but I have never understood why we need two days holiday (four this year) at Christmas. Growing up in Scotland, I remember when it was a normal working day for most people which it was until 1958.

Mind you New Year was, as in China today, a three day holiday at that time.

Dod

[swill453]

I have never understood why we need two days holiday (four this year)

This year isn't so different. If Christmas is on a Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday or Monday we get four consecutive days off.

Scott.

[Midsmartin]

I thin it would be better if we evened up the other way, by persuading countries with poor holiday entitlements to take a couple of days off. People would see their families a little more, and the destruction and pollution of our own habitat would be delayed for a few hours.

[gryffron]

Not quite the point of the OP I know, but... I used to love working between Christmas and New Year. Something I learned from my Dad.

Boss not in the office, roads empty for the commute, phone never rings. Why anyone would choose to use their annual leave when it's cold, wet, miserable, dark, and the shops packed with shoppers was quite beyond me.

Gryff

[bungeejumper]

On the news last evening, there was a report that the New York Stock Exchange (or some index from it) was up by a good number of points. They are working again two days after Christmas whilst London has a holiday that will stretch in to four days, and then will no doubt close early again on Friday, followed by another three days of holiday.

Oh, come now, it doesn't really work out like that in practice. A long time ago, one of my regular freelance contracts was to compile the international holiday listings for a Very Well Known UK diary publisher. And it was quite illuminating to get the real low-down on who took holidays and who didn't.

Take hardworking Scotland, for example. The only place in the United Kingdom where Christmas Day is a statutory holiday. (Everywhere else, it's at the discretion of the monarch, who could refuse it any time she wanted to tee us all off. ) And the only place where 2nd January is a statutory holiday, and where both the 3rd and 4th of January are widely taken if New Year's Day happens to fall on a Saturday. By god, those hangovers must be serious.

Scotland is also the only part of the UK where they get both August bank holidays. And where the national day (St Andrew's, 30th November) is an official bank holiday as well. (Since 2008.) Good luck with trying to take St George's Day off down here in slacker England.

Or try the Fourth of July. In theory, America's Independence Day does not move to the following Monday if it happens to fall on Sat or Sun - but, as I was repeatedly assured, there'd have been riots at the Capitol a long time ago if anybody had ever tried to insist on it. No, they all take the Monday off, except perhaps for a few Wall Street whizzes who don't dare to risk it.

Or ask about some of the Islamic countries where holidays depend on a physical sighting of the moon from the top of a minaret in Riyadh. If it's cloudy, there ain't no holiday. Not even in far away Indonesia. Wanna bet?

But probably the world's biggest slackers are in workaholic Singapore, where they actually take the day off for Christian, Muslim, Hindu and Chinese holidays, in addition to national days and International Labour Day. (Hey, those damn socialists get everywhere, don't they?) Who'd a thought it? Except that generally they don't.......

The moral: Don't believe what a published list of public holidays tells you. Most of them have been compiled by governments who say one thing and actually enforce another. In any country, anyone who wants to get ahead in his career will come in to work on days when technically he shouldn't have to. It was ever thus.

BJ

[Hallucigenia]

.i would like to see bank holidays SCRAPPED.

just add the 6/7 days to everyones total annual holidays , to be taken when they choose , not some controlling belief systems deign .

Well the UK gets closer to that than most countries, with relatively few compulsory holidays compared to eg the US which has public holidays for eg Martin Luther King Day, but relatively few days of employee's-choice holiday. And a few Bank Holidays is a good thing for the entertainment and hospitality industries, as it allows them to put on events knowing that almost everyone will be off work. We could really do with one in late June or early July though - I'd trade it for May Bank Holiday which is often too close to Easter (don't get me started...) and the weather is usually not great.

When I was in New York on holiday over one Christmas some years back, I was struck by how, on Boxing Day, even without the intervention of a weekend, things were all open again. We in this country seem addicted to holidays.

Well that's because Boxing Day is not a thing for USians, partly because the Thanksgiving holiday largely takes the place of Christmas in the UK. You won't find too many USians at their desks on Black Friday, wedged between Thanksgiving Thursday and the weekend....

[Bminusrob]

The US has 12, Boxing Day is not a public holiday.

Whatever is the cause of relative low productivity in the UK, it does not seem to be too many holidays.

The US may have 12 public holidays, but most employees (outside the public sector) have a holday entitlement of only 15 days.

The people with a work ethic I really respect are the Japanese. They have 16 public holidays per year, but for all but three of these, if they happen to be on a weekend, they are not carried over.

[UncleEbenezer]

In England we have 8 public holidays, you would be pushed to find a country with fewer, as evidenced by this list:

That comparison is an illusion. England's 8 is worth 11.2 days of most countries' public holidays, based on a conventional five-day working week.

That's 'cos England's holidays are always additional: if the date of a holiday falls on a weekend day, the holiday gets moved to the following monday. And this week, even Tuesday. In other countries you get to serve both sentences concurrently.

[bluedonkey]

The self employed don't get bank holidays.

[GrahamPlatt]

In England we have 8 public holidays, you would be pushed to find a country with fewer, as evidenced by this list:

That comparison is an illusion. England's 8 is worth 11.2 days of most countries' public holidays, based on a conventional five-day working week.

That's 'cos England's holidays are always additional: if the date of a holiday falls on a weekend day, the holiday gets moved to the following monday. And this week, even Tuesday. In other countries you get to serve both sentences concurrently.

OTOH 11th November is “Remembrance Sunday”... never a workday. Whereas in Belgium, it is a day off whatever day it falls on.

[rabbit]

Last time I was in Australia I was impressed with Melbourne's excellent and frequent suburban rail services - on Christmas Day!