Stealing public holidays!

Of the many things that are considered the simple pleasures of life for the average and below average Jordanian are the public holidays. When you take into consideration that most private sector employees are abused and offered the worst deal possible, with no insurance, no health-care, no proper benefits, employment-at-will, and nothing tangible or worthwhile apart from the under-water salaries a tad better than our "neighbors" and by neighbours I mean Egypt and Syria which shower and drown the employees there with more holidays than Jordan does despite being worse on the economic front, or at least so we think in Jordan.

What is so wrong with employees getting some time off? I always believe that "A happy employee is a productive employee" That can't be proven any more than looking at Europe and USA, The French, and German have shorter work hours, and more holidays than the US, while their production levels are way higher. Japanese have power naps at work and same goes for Spanish employees. And on corporate America front, just look at how Google completely Pampers it's employees, making it the best company to work for in the USA, and arguably the world.

Why is it such a Taboo that Jordanian workers have some -extra- public holidays?
We all know that this only helps the business owners/Aka Capitalists and NOT the employees. Governmental jobs already have better holidays and more vacation time, and lets not even start talking about "hidden unemployment" there. The private sector suffer from this apparently more, where employees work longer hours, and have less -down- time. Leading to more and more resentment!

You know, everyday, I have to deal with our subsidiary in India, and for some reasons. India seems to have a ton of public holidays that are observed by our subsidiary and you know what? People come back to work energized and make it up. They even work better (yes better) than people who have been burned out by the over slavery of long hours and the money hungry corporate business tyrants.

A few months back, some stupid report circulated that employees getting 130 or so as vacation time. What a bunch of junk I can't stop doubting the validity and accuracy of the collected data and the conclusions.

As if the weekend is a gift, a grant, a privilege that someone is granting and that people should be grateful for it. The truth is, Weekend is a PAID WORK DAY. Yes, People should be paid for weekend. As long as someone is on the Job, relaxing and taking some time off is NOT a privilege, it's a RIGHT.

And don't let me start on PAID vacation time, that's also a RIGHT, and not a privilege

The insane part is that people somehow looked at that report and thought, yeah, all our problems are because of public holidays and people taking vacations. Instead of looking at corruption, misuse of influence, underemployment, hidden unemployment, employment based on relationships and loyalties instead of competence. Anyway, those are issues we can discuss later.

The report failed to mention the number of employees in Jordan who have not had a single vacation for YEARS, why? Because they simply can't afford it. Or worse, they fear for their position if they did take the vacation. Leaving their families to suffer, in silence.

So what's the solution to all of this? Unions! Yes, Unions. Or at least better unions, better organised and better managed and action taking unions stepping in to even the playground

In a democratic society, every segment should have it's own union. Students, Engineers, Laborers, Doctors. Not only have these by name but they need to have the authority to make swift change and make sure that Human needs are catered for. They are the Amiable part of the collective mind and conscious of the society. There must be employee unions that will stand up to this and demand more rights for the employees.

An unfocused and burned-out employee is a danger to himself, his peers, the job, the corporation and at the end of the day to the whole national economy. Making more preventable mistakes is probably more costly to our economy than all the public holidays, combined.

The sad part is that, some company citing this report and following in the footsteps of the government have went ahead and considered this their green light to abuse the employees even more. What's worse is that some have even went ahead and removed the 2 day holiday weekends even without providing their employees with alternatives or a pay increase. Which is unfair not only for the employees but also to their families, and work/life balance

Happy vacations/holidays... may you continue to have them