Holiday! More would be so nice

Amid the embers of Chinese New Year, the country's media reported a groundswell of public support for Lantern Festival to become a public holiday, while others urged the Spring Festival holiday period to be extended to two weeks. The discussion spilled over to China's microblogging service Weibo, with some people even wondering how many days off work they'll be given for the upcoming Qingming (Tomb Sweeping Day) on April 4. Despite complaints about China's rigid and obscure holiday system, employees and specialists are divided about the advantages of adopting a more flexible calendar in line with international standards.

The holiday math in China seems to be as daunting to local employees as it is to foreign ones. Nobody really seems to know when and how long each holiday is, and they usually find out at such short notice they can't plan their holiday. There are 11 fixed public holidays in China and at least five days of annual leave for most workers. One usually needs to work a decade at a company to be entitled to 10 consecutive days of leave.

Many companies flout the law by not giving their employees designated days off, or workers simply aren't aware of the concept of a "paid holiday." Another common complaint is of the trade-off system that requires people to work weekends to make up for days off they have taken off.

"Our Spring Festival holiday is too short, especially for people who live and work far from their hometowns," wrote a Web user named Ganen Meiyitian. "I think the government should extend the Chinese New Year holiday," he added. Another Web user named Maolian Suiyue resented the give-and-take arrangement of the intricate Chinese calendar. "It's so unfair that we have to work over the weekend to make up for the several straight days off given," the netizen posted.

Not so 'golden' weeks

Disruptions to services seem to be less of a holiday problem in first-tier cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, where many shopping malls and restaurants keep their doors open to cash in on the season and many workers stay in the city for wages that are usually higher than normal. But mass migration remains an ongoing nightmare for authorities and travelers during Golden Week - the name given to the two seven-day holiday periods that fall during Spring Festival and National Day.

"Five days annual leave isn't really enough. I'm not satisfied with it," said a 29-year-old foreign trade company employee who only gave his name as Li. "It makes traveling abroad difficult, and the prices are much higher than normal as everybody travels at the same time."

In a country where some employees don't enjoy annual leave, many people are reluctant to demand more holidays in case their claim backfires and they end up with no holidays at all. "To ask for more holidays is unrealistic, unless you are really irreplaceable at your workplace. Someone who settles for a lower salary or fewer holidays will easily fill your position," added Li.

University students, who get three months of holiday throughout the year, were some of the voices praising the fixed holiday system. Aware of the of Golden Week culture shock, foreign employees usually negotiate for more days off with their employers to return home and celebrate Western holidays. Others aren't so lucky, and leave the country because they can't adjust to what they consider an "unfair" holiday system.

Higher satisfaction, productivity

Some experts propose employers and employees should meet in the middle and compromise on a fairer holiday system. "It has been proven that holiday seasons stimulate consumption, which is a variable of GDP. But China's holiday system is unreasonable," said Yuan Gangming, director of the macro-economic research department at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

"National fixed holidays can boost the economy, but I don't think they rule out the possibility of increasing employees' paid annual leave. It's ridiculous that people employed in China only get 10 days of holiday after 10 years of work."

Although difficult to prove definitively, many economists suggest that paid vacations help boost the happiness index of a country. Yuan agreed, emphasizing that people return to work with renewed energy and productivity after they have enjoyed a paid holiday.

Perhaps then it's no coincidence that developed countries with strong "welfare economies" such as Norway, Denmark and Finland consistently have among the highest levels of happiness in the world. "These countries have very good welfare systems and high tax rates. Workers are given enough time to travel and relax without having to worry about housing or commodity prices going up like we do in China," said Yuan.

Valentina Salmoiraghi, a 30-year-old lawyer who works at a Sino-Italian firm in Beijing, doesn't think the holiday system will change anytime soon. "It seems clear that the government still wants paid holidays to be a centralized decision," she said, hinting that a third solution could accommodate China's reality.

"I don't think that centralized holiday decision-making will change in the short-term. However, I believe that middle-class employees are increasingly gaining contractual power to negotiate additional days of annual leave," Salmoiraghi added.

Annual leave around the world

Workers in most European countries on average have the greatest amount of statutory paid holiday in the world, while employees in Asia fare poorly by comparison, according to a research paper titled Employee Holiday Entitlements Around the World by Mercer Human Resources published in December, 2011. The main absentee from the list is the US, which has no mandate pay for time not worked.

Finland - 30 days

Britain - 28 days

Spain - 22 days

Japan - 20 days

South Korea - 19 days

Malaysia - 16 days

Singapore - 14 days

Taiwan - 14 days

Hong Kong - 14 days

Chinese mainland - 5 days