Just after the "Qingming Festival", it was followed by the May Day holiday. And with the May Day holiday, there is also a holiday that people hate.
Recently, the "May Day holiday" has become a hot topic on the Internet, and the "National Holiday Office", which is responsible for holiday arrangements, has become the "key target" of netizens' verbal criticism.
Many netizens complained that May Day actually only had one day off, but it ruined the normal three-week vacation of "migrant workers". Even the central media personally went down, saying that the May Day holiday "can't bear to look at it directly". So, why is it that people are "deeply disgusted" about compensatory leave, and why is the state reluctant to abolish the compensatory leave system?
The "May Day" holiday of verbal and written criticism
Observing the May Day holiday arrangement, it is not difficult for us to find that although there are five days off on May Day this year, May 4 and May 5 are weekends themselves, plus two days of "compensatory holidays" before and after May Day.
As a result, the seemingly beautiful May Day "Golden Week" has only one day off in fact. This kind of holiday method of "cultivating the road in the open and Chen Cang in the dark" naturally aroused the anger of the majority of "workers".
In addition to the actual shortening of the holiday time, netizens also listed a number of crimes of "compensatory leave". You must know that the five-day vacation is not "given" by the state, but is seconded from the two-week vacation before and after.
This also means that in the two weeks before and after May Day, the "workers" have to live a miserable life of six days off and one day off, and if the company only has a single day off, the "workers" even have to work for 14 days in a row. This makes the already tight holiday time even more stretched.
We all know that during the "Golden Week", traffic congestion, scenic spot price increases are the norm, and the phenomenon of pit people and stealing customers is not uncommon. Even if they want to be held responsible, they also have a series of justified and high-sounding reasons such as "holiday period" and "market regulation", which shows that during the Golden Week, people's holiday experience is actually not increasing but falling.
For the masses, the holiday means rest, means a temporary break from busy work, and has the function of leisure and entertainment.
But when the holiday is noisy, when the long holiday becomes a time game, when the people can't even guarantee a normal weekend rest, the holiday loses its original meaning.
People sacrifice two weeks of vacation time before and after in exchange for a worse rest experience, and this huge disparity between the investment and the result makes people hate the vacation even more.
On March 25, in response to the complaints of netizens, CCTV commented on the May Day holiday, which mentioned in the article: The holiday plan involves a wide range of people, and it is often difficult to reconcile in practice.
We can't blame netizens for being "hypocritical", but we must take a serious look at and correctly analyze the reasons behind everyone's sensitivity to the holiday and even their calculations.
Through this social sentiment, we need to see the pain points behind the "opposing opinions", listen to their voices, and maximize the function and role of the holiday.
In addition, the central media also said that the key to solving the "difficulty" of compensatory leave is to implement the paid leave system, give people more freedom and space to travel, make tourism and vacation more independent and balanced, and further enhance the "value" and "gold content" of vacation.
The origin of the development of the compensatory leave system
When it comes to compensatory leave, people naturally hate it. What many people don't know is that the compensatory leave system, which is now being complained about, is not only a very young system, but also has historically played a key role in reviving the economy and promoting development.
The tradition of Sunday rest comes from the myth and legend of the creation of the Christian 7th. On the seventh day of creation, God finally finished all his work and ushered in a time of rest.
Therefore, in the eyes of Christians, Sunday is a time of rest prescribed by God, and if people work on this day, they will be suspected of transgressing God and will be punished by God.
In 1929, during the Great Depression, in response to the crisis, the U.S. government began to adopt a 40-hour, five-day work week, which has been used ever since.
You must know that for a long time after the founding of the People's Republic of China, China implemented a single-rest system, working 8 hours a day, 6 days a week.
Since only Sundays are available for rest during the week, office workers at that time are mostly at home cleaning, repairing electrical appliances and furniture, visiting the elderly, spending time with children, etc., and they can't have a good rest on weekends.
In the past, mainland workers have faced many challenges in their work and rest patterns. At that time, the popular saying was "Sunday of battle, Monday of fatigue", reflecting the scarcity of holidays for laborers at that time, and even traditional holidays such as the Spring Festival were not enjoyed.
The process of the mainland's transition from a single-day holiday system to a two-day holiday system is closely related to the influence of the international community. In the 90s of the 20th century, China actively promoted the process of joining the World Trade Organization (WTO).
In this process, the WTO has raised concerns about the working hours of Chinese laborers, pointing out that domestic laborers work too long hours and need to be in line with international labor standards, and implement a two-week, eight-hour work system.
In the face of the suggestions and demands of the international community, although we had reservations in our attitude, in order to achieve more extensive international cooperation and exchanges, we finally adopted the WTO's proposals.
On 25 March 1995, an important regulation on working hours was officially promulgated, and from 1 May 1995, the system of weekends and weekends was officially implemented, establishing a five-day, eight-hour working week. Subsequently, in order to better arrange the rest and working hours of workers, the compensatory leave system came into being.
In the history of the world economy, the Great Depression of 1929 had a profound impact on the United States, one of which was the introduction of the two-day off system. In 1997, the Asian financial crisis also brought considerable challenges to the mainland's tourism and service industries.
In the face of this challenge, in 1999, the state adjusted the holiday system, combining the Spring Festival, National Day and Labor Day with adjacent weekends to create a continuous long holiday, which is known as the "7-day Golden Week".
The reform of this system aims to stimulate domestic demand, promote the recovery and development of tourism and related service industries, and also marks the initial formation of the compensatory leave system, laying the foundation for the optimization and improvement of the subsequent leave system.
It has to be said that the emergence of "Golden Week" is a wonderful move to boost tourism consumption and promote economic development. It gave people who were suffering from the holiday at that time a chance to take a concentrated rest, artificially created a "golden window period" for tourism, and boosted the development of the domestic tourism industry that was affected at that time.
With the continuous development of the economy, the mainland's "Golden Week" holiday system is also facing new challenges. Due to the concentration of holidays, many people choose to travel during this period, resulting in a peak flow of people in many tourist attractions in China, which is overcrowded, which brings great pressure to the service coordination of the tourism industry.
In order to better meet the leisure needs of the people, optimize the holiday arrangement. Since 2008, the relevant departments have adjusted the May Day and Eleventh long holidays, splitting the original 7-day holidays and arranging them to traditional festivals such as the Mid-Autumn Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, and Qingming Festival, so as to supplement and form a number of short holidays.
This reform finally built a holiday system of "multiple small long holidays + Spring Festival and National Day two long holidays". That is, we are familiar with the "compensatory leave".
The state has set up "compensatory holidays" to disperse the peak of tourism, reduce the pressure on tourism services, and at the same time allow people to arrange leisure and work more reasonably and enjoy a richer and more diverse holiday life. However, like the "Golden Week", today's "compensatory holiday" has also fallen into people's endless complaints and complaints.
Who will solve the dilemma of rest?
Looking back at the development of the holiday, it is not difficult for us to find. The history of holidays is, in essence, the history of social and economic development.
The introduction of the compensatory leave system was initially aimed at alleviating the impact of the 1997 Asian financial crisis on the mainland's economy. Through this measure, it was aimed at stimulating domestic consumption, however, with the passage of time and the further development of the economy, the Golden Week and the compensatory holiday system gradually exposed some problems and were no longer generally welcomed.
In the eyes of some, "Golden Week" and "compensatory holidays" are blamed. In essence, it is a problem of contradiction between the "superstructure" and the economic base. Is that the current holiday schedule can not adapt to the current economic situation.
As we mentioned earlier, the history of holidays is essentially the epitome of economic development. The modern "two-day off" system originated in the United States during the Great Depression. At that time, in order to liberate and develop the productive forces, the United States adopted Roosevelt's New Deal, overhauled infrastructure, and implemented "work for relief".
In order to mobilize more labor in the market and improve the living standards of the American people at that time. The United States adopted the "two-day off" system, which increased the rest time and reduced the working hours by "one plus one subtraction" to enhance people's enthusiasm for labor and create more jobs, so as to solve the problem of unemployment at that time.
A closer look at the history of "holiday" in the mainland shows that we do not attach much importance to the rest attribute of "holiday". Before the 90s, the country was suffering from internal and external troubles and needed development.
In such an economic environment, we have adopted a single-day off model, and there has been a "fighting Sunday, fatigue Monday." "At that time, it was generally believed that labor was the most honorable and rest was a sign of weakness.
Even in 1995 and 1997, the WTO and the Asian financial crisis brought more holidays to the Chinese. However, holiday managers still fail to pay attention to the "leisure" attribute of vacation, but to the economic benefits brought by vacation.
"Golden Week" and "Small Long Holiday" have never been days to celebrate festivals and leisure and entertainment, but to carefully prepare and carefully regulate the "consumption window". ”
In the eyes of these people, the most beautiful posture of "beating workers" is to work hard to earn money on weekdays and spend "small long holidays". But what they don't see is that with the development of the economy, on the one hand, with the rise of consumption power, the previously rare "Golden Week consumption" represented by tourism and leisure has lost its scarcity, and on the other hand, the improvement of consumption levels has made the "Golden Week consumption" with insufficient quality lose its attractiveness. After going back and forth, the economic benefits brought by "compensatory leave" have been greatly reduced.
At the same time, the drastic changes in the social environment are also an important reason why people have a lot of opinions on "compensatory leave". In the context of the economic downturn just after the epidemic. At the same time, society has entered the two seemingly contradictory circles of "involution" and "low desire".
On the one hand, involution makes people tired and just want to find a good rest. On the other hand, the three years of the pandemic have emptied many people's wallets, leaving many people unintentional and unable to afford more consumption.
Therefore, it is not surprising that the policy of taking a break and encouraging consumption is tantamount to going backwards on the lane of the times, and in this case, it is not surprising that it is blamed and criticized.
Epilogue:
At first, the compensatory leave system was designed to give everyone a coherent holiday, which in turn boosted consumption and promoted economic development. However, with the development of society. The compensatory leave system, which began with the "financial turmoil" of 97, can no longer keep up with the pace of the times in 2024.
In order to solve the "difficulty" of compensatory leave, the most important thing is to adjust the holiday orientation and establish a more people-friendly and relaxed leave system. Only in this way can holidays be the "welfare" of the people and can they truly play a positive role in promoting the economy and promoting production.