Chinese Work Schedule

One fault with the CCP is their need to control everything. I'm sure there are some smart people in the leadership but when the system is built on ass-kissing, back-stabbing, and political favors, I doubt you have the best and the brightest in control of the country.

I spoke with my Beijing friend today and their work schedule is all jacked up for the next few weeks. This year, the mid-autumn festival (1 day holiday) and the PRC national day (3 days holiday) falls very close together on the calendar. Moon cake day is on Wed 9/22 and I think national day is Fri 10/1. Leaving things alone, people would get Wednesday off next week, and a 5-day weekend if you also give them Mon 10/4 and Tues 10/5 off. Instead, in an effort to string together longer holiday breaks for some unknown reason, the CCP decides to shift official work days around. This happened during some other holiday earlier this year.

To give everyone three days off for moon cake day, Thr 9/23 and Fri 9/24 are days off but you have to work Sun 9/19 and Sat 9/25. For national day, the also decided to give Wed 10/6 and Thu 10/7 as additional days off but you then have to work Sun 9/26 and Sat 10/9 to make up for it. So the work on/off schedule starting Sat 9/18 becomes: 1 day off, 3 days on, 3 days off, 6 days on, 7 days off, 2 days on, 1 day off. WTF? How is this any better than just leaving things alone and let people decide what to do with their own lives? Oh yeah, I forgot... this is the CCP.

There are many problems with this. First you screw up people's weekends. I'm not sure how long ago this was decided and announced but people schedule events (e.g., weddings, birthdays, and other family gatherings) on weekends, which are suddenly (maybe) work days. Also, for churches, services are usually held on Sundays, the traditional day of rest. Now every church has to reschedule their activities... somehow I doubt the CCP cares. Finally, China is not alone in the world but part of a global community and economy. Manufacturers, shippers, and import/exporters need to coordinate around the world to keep businesses running smoothly and now have to scramble to figure out and reschedule due to the whims of the CCP control freaks.

On the plus side, my friend is going to try to come to the US during the 7 day holiday. Since her job requires her to be on-call for surgeries, it's hard to take vacation even though there's a week-long national holiday. If she can get her boss's okay and find tickets less than RMB10,000, she wants to visit before her tourist visa expires in November.