Life of Guangzhou - Holidays - Take it or Leave it

In many foreign companies - notably those from Europe - July and August are months when busi-ness almost comes to a standstill. And during this time, it seems our overseas colleagues "disappear" for at least two weeks.

In fact, they are on annual leave. However if you ask many Chinese workers why they don't take their own entitlement to annual leaves you can expect to hear some of the following reasons.

"Yes, I want to take a break. But who will do the work during my absence? I don't feel comfortable off-loading my work onto colleagues while I'm on holiday. And I have to do a lot of overtime when I come back in order to catch up." In this instance the person feels helpless and that they have no alternative.

"I want to save the days, just in case I have some urgent, personal matters or fall sick. So I'd rather take a day or two each time throughout the year instead of taking a whole week off for a holiday."

This is a cautious attitude where the worker often fears having deductions made from their salary during personal leave or other unpaid leave.
"I can't take time off. The office will be out of control if I'm off for even a few days." This is somebody who micro manages every aspect of their job and feels everything will grind to a halt in their absence.

According to a recent survey, around 36 percent of workers in Shanghai don't take annual leave, even though in January 2008, the Chinese government issued the Workers Annual Leave Regulations to mandate paid holidays for workers. Under these regulations, employees are entitled to five days, 10 days and 15 days paid holidays when their accumulated service year reaches 1 year, 10 years and 20 years respectively. Untaken leave is treated as "overtime on a public holiday" and should be compensated with three times the salary if the employer doesn't arrange or approve time off for an employee. Foreign companies normally offer more holidays (starting at 15 days and up to 20 or 25 days is not uncommon) and encourage employees to take their entitled paid holiday. But there are still many employees who lose their paid holidays "voluntarily" for the above reasons.

This can also become a headache for HR departments because the company is required to give triple pay when their employees work on public holidays.

It is going to take a long time for Chinese workers to change their mindset towards annual leave. Even in a developed country like Japan employees don't use all their paid holidays. But it's also the responsibility of employers to create polices that allow employees to take leave without worrying about the consequences.

(By Joy Zhang)

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