Today is apparently a public holiday (Hùng King’s festival). I’m only vaguely aware of it. Because it falls on a Sunday, tomorrow (Monday) is also a national holiday. I’m absolutely not aware of that. Every day is work day for me.
So I was texting my assistant about a work-related matter, and I asked her if she could get it done tomorrow.
She went into full panic mode. She said she thought it was a day off, and that she had already planned to hang out with her friends.
I (in all seriousness) said that the holiday was only for government agencies, and private companies like us would be working like normal. She gave me a “haha” reaction to that message ?.
I double checked and well, she’s right. Everyone gets tomorrow off. If you wanted your staff to work, you’d have to pay them 200% their regular wages. Even though I’m supposed to be the employer here, I’m totally clueless about this.
And I was slightly annoyed to be honest. So. Many. Freaking. Holidays. There’s also the long-ass 5-day 30/4 and 1/5 holiday coming up. How the hell is the economy supposed to function with people resting and playing all the time like this? We just had the 9-day Tet holiday for god’s sake.
Weekends and Holidays
I think I’m a workaholic. I have not had the concept of “weekends” and “holidays” for a long while. Back when I was still working as a regular employee in 2013, I remember looking forward to the end of Friday with all the excitement and plans drawn up for the weekend. I haven’t felt that in years. Now Saturdays and Sundays are absolutely just another day in the week for me. If work needed done then I’d do it regardless of the time. The concept of an “off” day does not exist for me.
I haven’t been on a real getaway trip in quite a while either. Always feel like it’d be irresponsible as hell to go on a vacation and have fun when there’s always something to be done. There’s this pile of problems that needs tackled, and yet I’m going to laze around on a beach munching on seafood? No freaking way.
Back in 2016 my dad invited me on a 4-day Thailand trip with him and his date. I didn’t have to pay. Sounds fun right? Nope. I was more irritated than anything. I only reluctantly agreed to go because I wanted to spend time with my dad; we rarely saw each other as it was. The entire time I was constantly thinking of work and wishing for the trip to be over. There were fun moments during the trip for sure, but I can’t say that I enjoyed it thoroughly.
It’s not like I don’t want to have fun. I absolutely do. I freaking love hiking and being close to nature. It’s just that I don’t see the point of going away for 3+ days. I’d be fine with a day or 2-day trip, but anything more than that is a waste of time.