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Devin is a recent graduate starting work in public accounting this July. He enjoys burritos, skiing, talking in the third person, and long walks on the beach. Visit Devin's personal website at 
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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:
What would you do in this situation?
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Leave your thoughts here. (29 responses)
- 1 Pingback on Dec 24th, 2007 at 5:01 am
- 2 Pingback on Dec 24th, 2007 at 11:36 am
- 3 Pingback on Jan 3rd, 2008 at 5:00 am
I’m in the same situation only in my case thanks to federal law my department (and all banks) have to work every day the stock market is open. Meanwhile, everyone we deal with doesn’t abide by those rules so they will be off leaving us with nothing to do. Luckily my entire floor is in the same situation but it’d be nice to at least have the choice of whether to work over the holidays. I’d say take advantage of the time off if you can take days and take a trip somewhere, go skiing, something!
D~ Be strategic…go in for an hour, realize no one else is there and leave to ‘work’ from home. No vacation days are wasted, though your time may be. Check in on emails from home, work on anything that needs to be done and then enjoy the rest of the day watching crappy Christmas movies on TV. Or you could have a blog-a-thon and give us hour by hour updates as to how unproductive you’ve been. Mmmmm…that sounds fun!
Me, I’ll be at the ‘rents place when I’d rather be at work. I only wish I had the excuse that there would be no work to do, but as we both know, my life now revolves around a few conferences and events I’m working on.
Keep us posted on what you decide to do. I’m intrigued and may not be able to sleep until I know. ;P
Get down on your knees and thank the God you don’t believe in that you live in the a country that allows you to believe what you want to believe. If that doesn’t work, ‘work from home’ those days and enjoy a little down time.
Btw, if you think the US gets carried away, try going to Europe, many of those countries shut down more than we do.
It must be a slow news day.
OK, it seems like the gist of your post is this: “I want to work, but I have no work to do, because everyone I work with is gone on holiday. Woe is me!”
No man is an island. We all have to deal with others in society. This means dealing with holidays that we don’t celebrate, religions we don’t follow, political parties we don’t belong to, food we don’t eat…..etc.
The world does not revolve around you.
Get a life.
Seriously.
Do you whine this much when Independence Day falls in the middle of the week? Enjoy the paid time off. If you have to, take a vacation day that Monday and do something interesting with your time. Nobody is forcing you to celebrate a Christian holiday with your time off.
Well, I’m in the same boat, since I work in the financial sector as an investment officer. So I took a vacation day, since (a) the markets will close early and (b) we have a lot of family things to do.
Go to the office. The drive will be easier, you can listen to your music, and get work done uninterrupted. I doubt you’ve got nothing on your plate to complete whatsoever. And if that’s the case, then get some marketing material together, since you obviously could take on more.
Work from home. There’s no point in going in if it’s a waste of your time, and you can still do work or respond to e-mails if necessary. Also, if someone does seem to notice you’re gone, and calls you wondering where you are, you can go in late. But you shouldn’t take a vacation day if you truly don’t want to.
Besides: Truthfully, none of the rest of us “Christians” mind. At least I don’t. That’s because we know no one else is around and people who have to work aren’t going to stay past lunch on these days anyway. It’s impractical.
Those who say that he shouldn’t complain about getting a day off from work, I just wanted to share a quote I find pertinent from another blog on the topic:
“I don’t want a day off on Christmas. It’s a great day to work. No one calls. No one interrupts me. And in many workplaces there’s great camaraderie in the office on Christmas because only a few people are there, and they all have something in common: They don’t celebrate Christmas.
I want a day off for Yom Kippur, which I usually have to take a personal day for. Why do I have to take a personal day for Yom Kippur but no one has to take a personal day for Christmas? This is not equal treatment for religious groups.”
Whether this is applicable in this situation, I’m not sure. But I do think that Andy and Scott M are looking at the world with blinders on if they don’t think this is very real situation for a lot of people in this country.
Get a job in the service sector, such as retail or food service management. Then you don’t have to worry about having holidays off that you don’t celebrate, because you don’t really get holidays off, no matter how badly you want them or how far away you live from your family. Once you’ve worked in retail management for a few months, you’ll be thrilled to have a Tuesday off for no particular reason. Much less to complain about that way
(Just FYI, I work in management for one of the best retail companies out there, especially for “Millenials”, which pays well, has great benefits, and amazing opportunities for growth. But in the never-ending quest for sucess, the longer and longer hours we all work every December and the closer we get to actually being open on holidays such as Christmas and Thanksgiving so people can buy the video games and cables they were too cheap to buy the first time they came in, the more sure I am I need to get out of this industry before I decide to have my own family.)
I’m lucky. I work for a Catholic school. We shut this place down hard.
However, seeing as how you obviously don’t have that luxury, I suggest pretending like you do.
Or! you could just come down with a sudden case of the born-agains, and tell your company that they are stifling your religious freedoms by not allowing you to spend the day before the birth of your savior in hopeful anticipation of his arrival.
*note: the born-agains is a relatively minor affliction and usually clears up in a day or two.
I guess I’m fortunate in that I freelance on the side and so there’s always something else to do and I never get bored with it. However, it might be a fun chance to try and get away with something silly in the office for the people who are coming back from the holidays. Nothing says camaraderie like a silly prank.
It’s kinda pointless to come back into the office for one day after the weekend when you have both Tuesdays off. That’s why I’m taking both Mondays off. Now I get two 4-day weekends in a row! Who can complain about that whether it’s a holiday or not? I don’t have any other vacation days, so I will be in the office after Christmas but it will be a skeleton crew so I will have plenty of time to get things done.
Nico has the right idea. Construct a prank or two if you go in. We call this ‘tomfoolery’ around my office and it strikes often. Here’s a suggestion…set people’s extentions to forward to other people. This one’s fun as you start to hear talk around the office that the phone system is all messed up!
Save those vacation days for a trip to CA in a few months.
Find a new job with more flexibility, yo.
I say take the vacation day. Its useless for you to go anyway, and I think it would be unethical to do otherwise (i.e. not go to work or work at home since no one else will be there etc.).
This way, your conscience will be ok and your time wont be wasted.
Go in, and do all the administrative stuff you’ve been putting off. Clean your desk, file things (if you have them to file), and draft replies to every single outstanding email you have–which can then be sent on the 26th or whenever.
Sometimes it’s good to have a day where there’s nothing to do, and you have to do all the things you’ve been putting off.
Then, write a couple blog posts, take a lazy lunch, and do things that will help you out personally. Plan a project you’d like to do, or develop a strategy to network with more people on the blogosphere.
Don’t take the day off if you don’t want to. It’s easy enough to find things to fill your day and waste time. Save the day off for when you actually want to take it.
All excellent comments, thanks for your input, everyone (except those who resort to personal attacks rather than conversation).
A comment was made to me in passing by senior management that not taking the week off is “cheating.” That’s the true dilemma. I don’t have ‘administrative stuff’ to take care of, I don’t have extra projects I need to start on, and I don’t want to sit at work just to work on my personal stuff. If I’m going to work I want to contribute and do something substantial. But if that’s not available why is it my deed to ‘voluntarily’ take the time off?
I’m not complaining about the time off, I’m just wondering if the employer is less willing to be flexible can I be less willing to show up?
(PS: I will be taking Monday off.)
Devin, I do sympathize with your plight, and I hope this is the worst moral dilemma you have to face this year. Since the title of your article is Vacation Ethics, I assume you’re looking for the most ethical solution. Many of the solutions I’ve seen offered by other posters really aren’t ethical at all; they’re just different ways to “work the system.”
If you’re looking at ethics, then really, your only choice is option #2 (taking a vacation day). No matter what the reason, I try to take vacation time when my workload is slowest. Otherwise, as I’m sure you already realize, either I have to work twice as hard to catch up before or after my vacation, or someone else in my group is working twice as hard to pick up the slack.
Good luck with this, and enjoy your Tuesday off either way.
Devin, for your own sake, I hope nobody at your accounting firm ever sees this post. I think it reflects somewhat poorly on you.
Merry Christmas!
Sean: That was exactly my conclusion. As mentioned, the day will be taken off.
Scott: Why is that? This is a discussion around flexibility and a question posed to the readers…
Devin- Love the post, enjoy your day off, but my suggestion is unrelated- Don’t bother responding to posters that try to degenerate the excellent dialogue always taking place on here. Just my 2 cents. Nothing reflected poorly on you, your post is an open, honest and insightful point. Sorry for unsolicited advice, but it is eternally annoying that some people try to undermine the blog and offer up ‘responses’ with zero substance.
Devin, great post, great discussion starter.
Mojay - Love the advice. No need to respond to personal attacks on your “ethics.” It’s just not worth your time.
Happy Holidays to all.
-Ryan
Devin, since you asked, I’ll explain…
People at your work who are of Christian faith could easily perceive parts of this post as condescending towards their beliefs.
Also, the phrase “late-night-binge-drinking” has negative connotations in the way you mentioned it. Co-workers who do plan on binge drinking for New Years may feel as if you are passing judgment on them for doing so. Co-workers who plan on celebrating New Years without drinking at all may feel as if you’ve grouped them in with the binge-drinkers as your post seems to assume that all who celebrate New Years will be drinking heavily.
Furthermore, can’t you just see a person of an older generation saying “Jeez, we can’t please these people (referring to millennials). They want more flex time and work/life balance, then we give them a day off and they complain that it’s on a Tuesday or it’s based on a reason they don’t adhere too”
It comes off as whiney, no?
All that being said, I think the question itself was interesting but could have been posed in such a way as to avoid the above mentioned problems.
Full disclosure: I am a millennial, not religious, and I do plan on late-night-binge-drinking for New Years.
Cheers!
Thanks for taking the time, Scott. I see your points and will try to give people a little more credit: I certainly hope they won’t take the few things said here and take offense when that’s certainly not my intention, I exaggerated to make a quick point.
Enjoy your New Year!
What??? A “free” day and nothing to do? What about all those items you’ve wanted to do but have had too many interruptions to do? Personal development? Idea experimentation? Now’s the time……
It depends on whether you have plans for your day off. If you do, take the vacation day. If you don’t, take advantage of the down time to catch up on any unfinished projects, respond to unread emails in your inbox, etc. Those quiet times are great for playing catch up.