| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | Annoying national holidays Thread poster: Tom in London
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Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 17:54
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Today is a national holiday here (known in the UK as a "Bank Holiday"); there is no traffic, a great quietness has spread over London, many people are still in bed, and others are getting ready for the Big Day (Notting Hill Carnival).
So I'm in the mood to do nothing.
Unfortunately today isn't a bank holiday in Italy - so I need to get myself out of this mood and into an "available for communication with clients" frame of mind. I find this difficult. I seem to have a ... See more Today is a national holiday here (known in the UK as a "Bank Holiday"); there is no traffic, a great quietness has spread over London, many people are still in bed, and others are getting ready for the Big Day (Notting Hill Carnival).
So I'm in the mood to do nothing.
Unfortunately today isn't a bank holiday in Italy - so I need to get myself out of this mood and into an "available for communication with clients" frame of mind. I find this difficult. I seem to have a biological clock that is telling me "relax, have the day off like everyone else in London".
The same applies in the opposite direction: national holidays in Italy are not bank holidays in the UK so on those days I have to try to *not be* in a "communicating with clients" frame of mind. I know nobody in Italy is going to be contacting me but still, I find myself sitting waiting for my "email bell" to ping.
I keep all these holiday dates, in both countries. marked in my diary but still, I always find them disconcerting.
You? ▲ Collapse
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I have more or less given up taking any notice of bank holidays for the same reason. With clients in about a dozen countries, it's impossible to align with their bank holidays. I could of course take my local ones off, but since I'm an expat, many of the local ones don't have a lot of meaning to me, and shops are open 7/7, bank holiday or not.
The only ones I observe are the Christmas holidays.
If I then need one or more days off, I take them when I need them rather tha... See more I have more or less given up taking any notice of bank holidays for the same reason. With clients in about a dozen countries, it's impossible to align with their bank holidays. I could of course take my local ones off, but since I'm an expat, many of the local ones don't have a lot of meaning to me, and shops are open 7/7, bank holiday or not.
The only ones I observe are the Christmas holidays.
If I then need one or more days off, I take them when I need them rather than when the calendar says I should take them. ▲ Collapse
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Like Thomas I don’t take notice of any public holidays in Portugal or elsewhere with the exception of the 24th and 25th December. When work comes my way (and I accept it), I just do it, regardless of public holidays…
| | | | Samuel Murray 
Netherlands
Local time: 18:54
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
Yes... some days are holidays in the NL that are not holidays in other countries, so it often comes as a surprise to me to discover that my family had planned all-day family activities on a day that I had ear-marked for work.
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expressisverbis
Portugal
Local time: 17:54
Member (2015)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
| Worse than that | Aug 28, 2023 |
There are some much worse things that bother me in our profession, but national or international holidays have never caused me any annoyance.
For many freelancers a bank holiday (national or not) can be just another work day.
Worse than the holidays is the ritual of changing the clock twice a year which is unnecessary, unhealthy and jarring.
| | | | Baran Keki
Türkiye
Local time: 20:54
Member
English to Turkish
expressisverbis wrote:
Worse than the holidays is the ritual of changing the clock twice a year which is unnecessary, unhealthy and jarring.
They've stopped changing the clocks here for about 5 years now.. most people I know are not happy with this (especially during the winter when they have to get up at the crack of dawn to find everywhere pitch black), but personally I don't mind... you have 2 hour difference with Europe and 3 with the UK. It has its advantages, like getting enough time to sober up after a mid-week drinking... not exactly healthy, but necessary...
| | | | | Don't mind me - just reminiscing... | Aug 28, 2023 |
This thread reminds me of the days (long since past...) when I was employed by an international organisation in Geneva.
A colleague from the US took it upon himself to make a list of the public holidays celebrated in the countries of origin of all the staff members.
With over 200 staff from around 60 countries, he worked out that if our employer could be persuaded to close the offices on every day in his list, our working year would be reduced from 220 days to around 100.
The i... See more This thread reminds me of the days (long since past...) when I was employed by an international organisation in Geneva.
A colleague from the US took it upon himself to make a list of the public holidays celebrated in the countries of origin of all the staff members.
With over 200 staff from around 60 countries, he worked out that if our employer could be persuaded to close the offices on every day in his list, our working year would be reduced from 220 days to around 100.
The irony of this lay in the fact that (in those days - it's different now...) the Swiss National Day (1st August) was not a public holiday. ▲ Collapse
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Baran Keki wrote:
expressisverbis wrote:
Worse than the holidays is the ritual of changing the clock twice a year which is unnecessary, unhealthy and jarring.
They've stopped changing the clocks here for about 5 years now.. most people I know are not happy with this (especially during the winter when they have to get up at the crack of dawn to find everywhere pitch black), but personally I don't mind... you have 2 hour difference with Europe and 3 with the UK. It has its advantages, like getting enough time to sober up after a mid-week drinking... not exactly healthy, but necessary...
That's because Turkey primarily belongs in the GMT+2 time zone, but your politicians decided to enact permanent summer time at GMT+3 instead. Politicians should stop messing around with time, harming people's health in the process, and just leave the geographic time zones untouched all year.
https://timeuse.barcelona/ – The global initiative promoting time policies and the right to time
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Jennifer Levey wrote:
This thread reminds me of the days (long since past...) when I was employed by an international organisation in Geneva.
A colleague from the US took it upon himself to make a list of the public holidays celebrated in the countries of origin of all the staff members.
With over 200 staff from around 60 countries, he worked out that if our employer could be persuaded to close the offices on every day in his list, our working year would be reduced from 220 days to around 100.
The irony of this lay in the fact that (in those days - it's different now...) the Swiss National Day (1st August) was not a public holiday.
Likewise, when I was employed by the EU in Brussels (the EU institutions employ over 60,000 people) with 28 Member States (it was before Brexit) and all their different public holidays. So, we only celebrated Belgian public holidays with the exception of the 11th November (Armistice Day) exchanged with the 9th May (anniversary of the Declaration by Robert Schuman in 1950).
| | | | Baran Keki
Türkiye
Local time: 20:54
Member
English to Turkish
| Don't mess with our politicians! | Aug 28, 2023 |
Thomas T. Frost wrote:
Politicians should stop messing around with time, harming people's health in the process, and just leave the geographic time zones untouched all year.
Our politicians know their business. Who are you to judge them? Come the next elections, they'll promise to take the clock back and make everybody (Turkish citizens, of course) 20 years younger and win by a landslide!
They have a long term strategy with that summer time thing. You Europeans just won't understand.
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Baran Keki wrote:
Thomas T. Frost wrote:
Politicians should stop messing around with time, harming people's health in the process, and just leave the geographic time zones untouched all year.
Our politicians know their business. Who are you to judge them? Come the next elections, they'll promise to take the clock back and make everybody (Turkish citizens, of course) 20 years younger and win by a landslide!
They have a long term strategy with that summer time thing. You Europeans just won't understand.
I was referring more globally to politicians. In the EU, people voted with a vast majority in an online consultation in 2018 to abolish the seasonal change of time zone. So far, nothing has been done despite the 60,000 eurocrats mentioned. Some people keep sabotaging it, but I don't know who.
| | | | | @Sandra + Thomas | Aug 28, 2023 |
This “dance” (whether the time change should be abolished or continue) has been discussed at European level since 2018 and as in almost all discussions, there isn't just one side or one argument. And, of course, there is no consensus. Personally,... See more This “dance” (whether the time change should be abolished or continue) has been discussed at European level since 2018 and as in almost all discussions, there isn't just one side or one argument. And, of course, there is no consensus. Personally, I’m in favour of the discontinuation (https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN-PT/TXT/?from=EN&uri=CELEX:52018PC0639). ▲ Collapse
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There is indeed a consensus. 84% of those who participated in the consultation voted to abolish the change of clocks.
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_18_5302
The European Parliament too voted to abolish it. This is the only EU institution people can vote for.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-47704345
The European Commission is appointed by national governments, but many EU citizens in the EU have no voting rights at national elections (the last time I had was in 1990).
We are supposed to be in a democracy (even with some us having few voting rights), so why do politicians, bureaucrats and eurocrats refuse to listen to the population, behaving like dictators instead?
| | | | Lieven Malaise
Belgium
Local time: 18:54
Member (2020)
French to Dutch
+ ...
| national holiday = working day | Aug 28, 2023 |
I always work on national holidays (i.e. if they fall on weekdays).
| | | | Zea_Mays
Italy
Local time: 18:54
English to German
+ ...
Thomas T. Frost wrote:
We are supposed to be in a democracy (even with some us having few voting rights), so why do politicians, bureaucrats and eurocrats refuse to listen to the population, behaving like dictators instead?
Because most countries do not have a well-constructed direct democracy. And that's no coincidence.
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