The dilemma is simple: I get next Tuesday off for Christmas (thanks, Christians) but I don’t get Christmas Eve off. I have a Monday gap. The same goes for New Years and New Years Eve. These floating days off in the middle of the week sound like “well you’d take those weeks off anyway.”
Wrong.
What if I don’t want to take the time off? What if I want to get lots done while everyone else is at home? What if I don’t celebrate Christ-related or late-night-binge-drinking holidays? I’m forced to shut down along with the rest of the country?
Okay, fine.
But I have no work to do on Monday. I have no clients to work with on Monday. Why don’t we just get Monday off, too? Hmm, I’m faced with the following:
- Go to the office and sit there, alone, refreshing my email and trying to find something to do that will help develop my career.
- Take the vacation day because I’m essentially forced to since everyone else is.
- Work from home even though it’s not permitted and even though there will be nothing to do. Oh, and nobody would be around to notice.
What would you do in this situation?
Hmmmmm…. that’s a tricky one!
If you don’t have anything productive to do on the Monday, it would probably be better to just take the vacation day and enjoy an extra long weekend.
The last time I was in this situation though, I ended up going to work and did a lot of the menial stuff that I never manage to get to normally – stuff like re-organising files, throwing out junk, and generally making everything ready for another new year.
Happy holidays!
Dude, take the day off! Everyone needs less work in their lives. Read a book. Post about what you can do when you don’t have anything to do ;) It’s always good to have some down time.
BTW, nice holiday theme you’ve got going on. I really wanted to do that with my business site[1] but I just dont have the time.
[1] http://bajooter.com
I can’t identify with this problem since, as a public sector employee, I have 5 paid days off in the next two weeks. However — if you don’t want to take the days off, don’t. It seems to me that it’s not your problem if you don’t have enough to do those days since a lot of the rest of the business world is working sporadically. Plus, let’s be honest, in the cases where there’s only a small minority of staff in the office, a majority of the time is spent on extended coffee breaks, chatting, and what not. Maybe you could organize a small potluck for that day to pass the time.
In conclusion, vacation days are a precious currency, and you should use them as you wish.
I don’t celebrate these holidays, either, but since I’m self-employed, it’s not an issue.
Vacation days are always good for marathon sex.;-)
Haha it sounds like I’ve got a vote for one of each. I guess I’ll let you know what I decide on Monday.
I’ll be in the office New Year’s Eve as well. It’ll be a very exciting day browsing through RSS feeds, reaching voice mails and complaining while my friends watch the bowl games and prepare for the night at hand.
It’s not looking to fun, but hey I think I am going to brush up on some research, send out some quality emails and make some connections with people that are in the office and looking to advance their careers so they will no longer have to worry about these middle of the week holidays. Sounds very Gen-Y to me!
I was in a similar situation. I opted to come in to work, bring something to read, and work on organizing e-mails, files, etc. and making a day out of it.
I know I won’t get bombarded with e-mails and phone calls so it’s the perfect situation.
So there’s my dilemma, if I’m not doing anything all that useful for the company why go in at all? And the e-mails and reading? That I can do at home for a few hours.
Have I earned that little bit of flexibility? Hmm…
Organizing files and work e-mails is doing something for the company. It saves time later does it not?
I would say you’re obligated to go in unless you’ve been there a year.
Will there be other people in the office?
I try to do that stuff as I go, personally. And no, nobody will be there…
If you’ve got vacation days and nothing to do at the office, enjoy your long weekend. I have the opposite problem. I work at a 24/7 printing facility and while we’re getting the 25th off paid, I have to work on Monday to get that holiday pay. The same goes for the following week.
That’s what I’ll end up doing, LaDonna–I will take Monday off. I would rather use it as a Friday later in the ski season but… hey, I guess we can’t win them all. ;)