The Lunar New Year holiday has ended. After 10 days off, work restarted. On the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board, one person listed five pitfalls of the 10 days off.
First, there are two make-up work days. Second, with many agencies closed, many things had to be postponed. Third, regular opening hours of stores and restaurants changed. Fourth, it was difficult to predict traffic jams. Fifth, a massive workload awaited people returning to work.
The list has attracted many responses, positive and negative. As the issue is still under discussion, the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration should conduct a poll to determine what people really want.
The best part of a long Lunar New Year holiday is that people have time to travel for an extended period, which helps ease traffic congestion.
For instance, the Freeway Bureau predicted heavy traffic on the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, but when I was driving north from Changhua County, the traffic was actually not that bad. Apart from a few congested areas, the journey was quite smooth. Fewer traffic issues is probably the advantage that most people would appreciate.
The long holiday has prompted make-up work days. There are two make-up days on the first two Saturdays of this month. For those who are used to a five-day workweek, it could be a bit hard to take.
For workers in the manufacturing and service industries, long holidays greatly affect shifts and shipping schedules, while many would fall behind or even become disconnected from the international market in the exports sector.
Some of my friends found that the holiday was too long and “boring.” Perhaps this was simply because they had not made plans for their time off. The government and civil organizations should educate the public about how to make the most of a long holiday.
They could set up leisure venues and distribute information to facilitate holiday plans rather than leaving it to advertisers to tell people how to fill their time. Government involvement could motivate people to avoid staying home, and eating and drinking too much — gaining nothing from the long break except weight.
I prefer a happy medium. The best Lunar New Year holiday would be one that starts a day before Lunar New Year’s Eve and ends on the fifth day of the new lunar year.
This system would allow people who want more time off to take a day off on the sixth day and the problem of the make-up work days could be avoided. For those who did not take extra time off, after one day at work, there would be a weekend to enjoy.
Compared with a 10-day holiday followed by six days of work, this would be more reasonable and preferable, and it would help with the transition from vacation mode to work mode.
Tsai Jr-keng is a retired elementary-school principal.
Translated by Liu Yi-hung
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