The Written Podcast: Holiday

As of writing this article, I am on holiday. I’m not anywhere fancy, or abroad, or indeed away from my home. I am writing this article at home whilst on holiday from work. I’ve chosen this topic not to gloat about how my work colleagues are currently at work, dealing with this, that and the other. I’m writing this article because going on holiday away from work is noticeably different from going on holiday from school. There are a large number of you now stating how obvious what I’ve said is, and you’d be right. Of course the two are different. The one big difference is the amount of holiday you get compared to that of school and work.

Here in England, we have what is known as half-terms. They’re pretty much self-explanatory; they’re a holiday which lasts for only a week and happen during the middle of a term. School children gets two half-terms a year, one at the beginning of the year, and one at the end. They also get two weeks off for Easter and two weeks off for Christmas, with six weeks in the middle of the year. If you factor in Bank Holidays as well, school children get a grand total of 64 days off a year. You might be wondering what the problem is. 365 – 64 = 361. Now, that’s not factoring in the two-day weekend, which doesn’t count toward anyone’s holiday because it happens during term time as well. There are 52 Saturdays and 52 Sundays equalling 104 days not at school. 361 – 104 = 259. That’s a lot of days at school, I’m sure any child would say.

Focusing purely on the 64 days of holiday they have, that is a lot when compared to the amount adults get per year. The minimum number of days holiday a company is legally entitled to give you is 20 days, which is four working weeks without weekends. Most companies do give their employees more to begin with, and reward their loyalty to said company by increasing the number of days they can have off. I know someone who has been with a company for 10 years, and therefore is rewarded with 34 day’s holiday. When I was working with him, he was off so frequently it felt as if I was barely seeing him.

Now, understandably, children need 64 day’s holiday, because they’re young, they can’t take the same amount of stress us adults go through at work on a daily basis. We can cope with a certain amount of stress on a regularly continuous basis, it would exhaust the poor children. They complain about the amount of work they’re required to complete at the best of times, when they have absolutely no idea how long my list of uncompleted tasks I have currently on my desk at work, each one with varying amount of importance, and a shed load of responsibility. Yet, I’m currently on holiday, not at all worrying about what I’m not doing at work. I’m legally entitled to take 22 days off work. I can take all 22 at once. The company would prefer if I don’t as it would cause numerous complications what with one of their employees going away for so long, but I can do that. I’d rather not as that would mean a large portion of the year would be holiday free, and that would be tiresome.

That’s one of the big differences between school holidays and work holidays – the mentality. As it nears the six week’s holiday, children are excited. They cannot wait for the final bell to ring at the end of the last day before not having to darken the school doors for six whole weeks. Glorious. I certainly enjoyed every moment not being at school. Waking up in the morning at any time I want, not thinking about school work. And as time approaches normal school hours, and you’re currently sitting in front of the telly in your pyjamas, eating a massive bowl of your favourite cereal, what can be better.

Us adults, when we go on holiday, sure we excited, and sure when we wake up gone passed the time we’d normally wake up for work, and get up when we normally walk in through the doors, and eat our breakfast in front of the telly, not worrying about what’s happening at work, it’s a different kind of excitement. When I was a kid, it was exhilarating to be off school, because I could do everything I wanted: Go running around outside, playing on my PS2, watching my favourite films and TV shows. And then, about a week before going back to school, you get reminded of that fact and get annoyed. You’re going back to school, where you can’t go running around outside, play on your PS2 and watch your favourite films and TV shows.

As an adult, it’s exciting to go on holiday, on a different level entirely. With only 22 days, not a lot can happen. You can relax, finally. You can take a step away from the stressful environment and hit snooze on your alarm as many times as you want. If you’re like me, who doesn’t like lie ins because I’d rather be sitting in my chair watching TV and doing nothing than in my bed – I’ve only just realised there’s no difference between activities other than location. I don’t like lie ins because on those particular holidays where you have to get stuff done, getting up at midday is not beneficial, and I want to make sure I do at least one thing a day, whether that be completing a task I just hadn’t got the time to do due to other responsibilities getting in the way, or getting out of the house just for a walk, or a drive.

With only 22 days, there’s more pressure to make every minute count than with 64 days. That’s not a bad thing in any way, but when it comes to midday and all you’ve done is lounge about the place, something you can do at weekends of which there are 104 days to do just that in, having a day off mid-week, away from the work life, I don’t want to waste that. Getting up at midday will only make me angry that I could have done something during those hours I was in bed. If I accidentally find myself waking up at midday, then I’m not arguing because for some reason or another I needed that amount of sleep.

It would be nice, though, if us adults were allowed 64 day’s holiday. Although, no work would be done. With everyone having that amount of holiday – and I can guarantee at least one person would take the entire package – there’s bound to be some overlapping of employees being off at any one time, and how much work would not be done. Companies would practically come to a grinding halt, wouldn’t they? Or would work productivity increase? There’s certainly a scientific study in there somewhere, but alas, I don’t have the knowledge necessary to deliver my theories on the matter, just point out the impending doom that might befall upon those poor managers who are constantly seeing long lists of incomplete tasks grow ever larger, with practically the entire office almost always empty. But still, 64 days off work… I’d probably get bored, to be honest…

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)