Which holidays should we continue?

What could you replace them with, indeed…
How about 4 weeks of legally guaranteed paid vacation?

It’s not the holiday, it’s the timing.

After New Years Day, there’;s Presidents Day a month later. But then NO holidays until Memorial Day – three months later in May. (My company doesn’t do Good Friday or anything like that.)

Then after July 4, there is Labor Day (early September) but no other days off until Thanksgiving – and Christmas is 3 weeks later, and New Years a week after that.

What we really ought to do is distribute holidays evenly – January 1, March 1, May 1, July 1, September 1, November 1. Or something that approximates that.

@KNOWITALL: “Since theists are decreasing in numbers, is it time for Christmas and other religious holidays to no longer be a National holiday?”

It’s not really a religious holiday. It’s an economic one. The current economic system depends on this holiday to whip up the population into a fever so they consume. Any nods to the supposed religious roots of this holiday are for show.

@KNOWITALL: “Should we celebrate Thanksgiving since we basically discovered and stole land from natives and sublimated them?”

Sure. But I suspect people aren’t really celebrating genocide when they get together for Thanksgiving. I think it’s worthwhile to shed the mythology. It probably won’t stop people from wanting to continue to see their family.

@ragingloli is correct. We should have paid 4+ weeks of legally-guaranteed vacation.

I sort of like all of them. I’m thankful for plenty of stuff, including my life so I would keep Thanksgiving. I wasn’t here when the Europeans first arrived so I sort of resent the iimplication that I am included in the word “we”. I didn’t do anything to anybody back then, but I like the holiday.

I like Christmas. It’s fun. There is a distinct secular element to it, and it steals a lot from Roman pagan traditions anyway. And whether or not you are theistic, or whether or not you think that Jesus Christ had divine connections (personally, I don’t believe any of that) , his fingerprints are all over the Western civilization and probably worthy of some level of respect.

If paid holidays went away, hourly wage earners would be plenty pissed off, so it won’t happen.

I say keep them all!

No way can Christmas be changed, Santa Claus is the only dude who should be grafting.

@ragingloli @hmmmmmm So you’re saying that instead of holidays off, add another 4 weeks of paid vacation onto your existing paid vacation?

The major holidays don’t add up to 4 weeks/ 20 days a year. Federal holidays are 10 total.

^ Can’t speak for @ragingloli. But I was just agreeing that we should have guaranteed vacation. I only mentioned this because a) it’s what should be done, even if we still have the 10 federal holidays, and b) some people feel holidays are to be maintained only to give workers a break from their constant work. There are other ways to do it that don’t require the traditional holiday schedule. It’s an answer to the “what could we replace those with”, while noting that 10 days is insufficient.

@KNOWITALL
According to what I have read, you do not actually have mandated paid vacation, neither at the federal nor state level. It is all at your employer’s discretion.

@ragingloli Correct, it is not mandatory. Hmmm, let me think about that and do some calculations.
Even McDonalds offers a week’s paid vacation after one year, then it increases based on time worked, like most jobs.

Oh wow, a whole week. How gracious of them, lol.

@ragingloli Oh, do ALL employers offer paid vacation in your country? Is it mandatory there?

Oh you bet they do.
Mandatory at the federal level since 1963.
And that includes contractor/client relationships.

@KNOWITALL – Here is a list of minimum annual vacation by country. Note the anomaly that is the US.

@hmmmmmm Very interesting, thanks!

I think election days should be holidays. I’m cool with Christmas, New Years, Thanksgiving, I think we should merge Memorial Day and Veterans day though. The key to Thanksgiving is being honest about the history of the us settlers and their treatment of native people.

Here’s a nice quote from Columbus regarding the native people he encountered:

“They… brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks’ bells. They willingly traded everything they owned… . They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features…. They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane… . They would make fine servants…. With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want. ”

I like the randomness of the timing of the holidays. Yes, some months have more than others, but so be it.

For me, Thanksgiving is a time to enjoy family and friends and reflect on what I have to be thankful for. I can do that any day and every day but it feels nice with everyone doing it together, even if we’re not physically together.

@gorillapaws Ugh, see, that’s what I’m talking about. I hadn’t read that quote, thanks for sharing.

I’d keep Thanksgiving, Memorial Day.Independence Day,Veteran’s Day…Valentine’s Day :)

I vote to keep them as is. Add more too so we can get off work more.

Thanks @KNOWITALL for that countries link. I had no idea the US sucked so bad when it comes to being off LOL

@Coolhandluke That was @hmmmmmm, not me.

And yes, very interesting read.

I don’t know, I think we have a few too many now personally.

What I would like is a few more flex days off. I only get one personal day per year, when businesses are all open, to take care of official business like for instance, registering your vehicle or things like that. I hate to burn a vacation day for things like that.

We should continue them all because I’m still a kid at heart and I love holidays. This time of year still gets me excited. :)

@KNOWITALL my bad.

I’ve been with my company for only 5 months. I get 2 weeks vacation and 40hrs of sick leave. Not too shabby really just starting out.

@Demosthenes What do you like about them? Family time, off work, food, what?

@Coolhandluke Not shabby at all. You get one week the first THREE years at mine unless it’s unpaid.

@KNOWITALL All of the above, really. Family time, time off work, the food, the traditions…while I know a lot of people have negative associations with holidays, that’s never been me.

My job (government) gives two weeks the first calendar year, plus a week personal, plus 12 holidays, plus 12 sick days. Now, for me, after such a long time there, I have more than a month vacation, plus 5 personal, plus 12 sick and 12 holidays. Plus we all have a 7 hour work day and an hour for lunch, meaning 7 hours on the clock.

I used to work for a major American electronics manufacturer and we had way, way less paid time off than I do at the government. Plus we had an 8 hour work day and a half hour for lunch.

Here, you are guaranteed 6 weeks of sick leave per illness.

@ragingloli: Are the taxes higher there?

Might be.
But either way, it is so worth it.

@ragingloli Each illness? Like a flu you get that much paid time? Wow!

Here you get two days, third day you must have a doctors note to stay out.
Plus you can get job abandonment if you are gone too long without invoking Family Medical Leave.

I think the problem with so much time off per illness is that the others have to pick up the slack. Unless the company/employer has so many other people on staff, the coworkers may have to do the work of two or three people. with everyone out sick for extended periods.

Wait ‘til you read about our “Elternzeit”.

@ragingloli I did hear last night Berlin has the best tech for evaluating art fraud.

Whats elternzeit?

It is the time off, up to 3 years, you can get for raising your child as long it is less than 3 years old.
During that time, you can not get fired.
Your employer does not have to pay you during that time, but you can get compensation from the state for that.

Here we have FMLA, Family Medical Leave Act, where if you are sick or out for yourself or family member’s illness, you can’t be disciplined for it (which of course includes termination).

@ragingloli Interesting. Does that translate into something productive, such as low crime stats or anything quantifiable to justify it?

My neighbor stays home with her child but her husband works really hard to support the family.

It helps the general effort.

@ragingloli Glad it works for you. :) I wonder if your govt enacted that elternzeit due to low birth rates? Seems to have worked!

Germany in 2016 recorded its highest fertility rate since 1973, the Federal Statistics Office reported on Wednesday. The latest figures are part of an upward trend for Germany, Europe’s biggest country by population, which has suffered from low birth rates since the 1970s.

https://www.dw.com/en/germanys-fertility-rate-hits-43-year-high/a-43163756

@KNOWITALL – Here is a chart of paid parental leave by country. Note the anomaly that is the US.

@hmmmmmm You know the world is overpopulated right?

Most contemporary estimates for the carrying capacity of the Earth under existing conditions are between 4 billion and 16 billion. Depending on which estimate is used, human overpopulation may have already occurred. Nevertheless, the rapid recent increase in human population has created concern.

^ Wrong thread?

@hmmmmmm Oh sorry, I was interrupted.

No, I was actually trying to say that I’m not a parent, childfree by choice, so none of this affects me.
And honestly, I don’t think it’s the employers, taxpayers or govts responsibility to give paid parental leave aka to pay for your personal life choices.

^ I wasn’t making a judgment on having kids or not having kids. I was just passing on the stats showing what other countries do. It seems that you weren’t aware of labor laws and practices in the other industrialized countries, so I was passing on more data specific to parental leave.