"Only 4 days of work this week" is the top trending topic! Why is "compensatory leave" constantly controversial? Methods | Proposals | Disputes

The arrival of the Dragon Boat Festival holiday has sparked another round of debate about compensatory time off. Although we only have 4 days of work this week, we need to work continuously for 6 days starting from Sunday. This news has prompted many netizens to call for "refusal of compensatory leave".

Small and long holidays allow people to have a longer period of vacation, but with it comes a slightly chaotic period of compensatory time off before and after the holiday. Employees and students who are taking compensatory time off need to make up for the missed work and courses on weekends.

In an interview, Zhang, a sophomore in high school this year who originally only had one day off per week, stated that if he were to take a day off, the day off would be occupied and he would face the situation of having to attend 14 consecutive classes.

"I've made up for all the holidays on Saturday and Sunday, so why don't we take any more leave? It's better not to take it anymore!" Xiao Zhang said angrily.

The "compensatory leave" system: from its emergence to constant discussion

Historically speaking, the development of China's holiday system can be roughly divided into three main stages.

From 1949 to 1978, the country generally implemented a single day off, with a total of 7 statutory holidays including New Year's Day, Spring Festival, Labor Day, National Day, etc. During the special period from 1960 to 1979, there was basically no rest throughout the year.

After the reform and opening up, the country began to study and implement a 5-day workday.

Starting from 1999, the statutory holidays for Labor Day and National Day have been extended to 3 days, and the total number of holidays throughout the year has been extended to 10 days. In order to promote consumption and tourism, the country combines statutory holidays with weekends before and after through compensatory leave, forming three "golden weeks": Spring Festival, Labor Day, and National Day.

In December 2007, the Decision of the State Council on Amending the Measures for National Holidays and Commemorative Days was issued, announcing that starting from 2008, weekly weekends would continue to be implemented, and the Golden Week of May Day would be changed to a 3-day short holiday. At the same time, three short holidays, Qingming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival, and Mid Autumn Festival, would be established.

At present, the system of weekends and 11 statutory holidays is generally implemented nationwide. Putting together the weekends before and after holidays to form a 5-day or 7-day short holiday is a common method of compensatory leave in many units.

In recent years, there have been increasing discussions on the relationship between compensatory leave and the overall holiday system in China. Many people express dissatisfaction online, saying that taking a day off is even more tiring than not taking a day off. We selected a hot search term related to compensatory leave, "Why does compensatory leave make people more tired", and crawled 5999 first level comments on the top Weibo related to this term published in China Newsweek.

After analyzing the frequency of expression usage, it was found that expressions such as "Doge", "Smile", and "Yunbei" were more commonly used. On social media platforms, these expressions often express feelings of helplessness, ridicule, and other meanings. The accompanying text is mainly based on phrases such as "Can we take a day off without a break", "Working overtime on weekends for 11 consecutive days is really great, so taking a break is great", and "Why do we need to take a break? Isn't taking a day off enjoyable?".

Through word frequency analysis, we found that words such as "vacation" and "unable to afford it" are also frequently mentioned.

However, during the interview, we also found that not everyone is dissatisfied with the current vacation system in our country.

Mr. Zhu, the management of a certain construction machinery company, has a relatively neutral attitude towards the compensatory leave system. Due to the special nature of his work, Mr. Zhu often goes on business trips and runs outside all year round, rarely sitting in the office. He also enjoys the working state of "running around" very much, and does not find it difficult or tiring. Mr. Zhu is not concerned about problems such as "compensatory leave leading to two consecutive weeks of work". Instead, he thinks that having a few more consecutive days off is always good. Mr. Zhu represents the thoughts of a considerable number of non nine to five office workers, and how to take breaks and adjust their time off actually has little impact on them. For some people who are away on business trips, taking a 3-day break also means they can go back home.

The "holiday economy" dividend brought by compensatory leave

Zheng Iceland, Associate Professor of the School of International Relations and Public Affairs at Fudan University, mentioned that in addition to labor protection, promoting consumption is another important factor affecting the development of national vacation policies, which is the dividend of the "holiday economy".

Taking the May Day holiday as an example, the actual holiday was shortened to one day from 2008 until March 2019 when the General Office of the State Council issued a notice to change the holiday from three consecutive days to four consecutive days. Since 2020, I have been taking 5 consecutive days off each year through compensatory leave. The data shows that since the resumption of small and long holidays, the share of the May Day holiday in the domestic tourism market has rapidly rebounded.

It can be seen that objectively, the small and long holidays formed by compensatory leave will indeed bring more holiday economic dividends, and people need a concentrated rest period to release their leisure and consumption needs.

Small and long holidays provide people with more sustained leisure time, and people tend to engage in consumption activities such as shopping, tourism, catering, and entertainment during this entire period of vacation, stimulating the supply of related industrial chains. The demand for tourist attractions, hotels, transportation and logistics, tourism services, and other fields increases accordingly, promoting local economic growth and increasing employment opportunities. Holidays are also an important period for people to participate in cultural and entertainment activities. Cultural and entertainment activities such as watching movies, visiting museums, participating in performances and exhibitions have promoted the prosperity of the cultural and entertainment industries.

But the holiday economic dividends brought about by long holidays are also changing with the times.

Taking the "National Day" Golden Week as an example, data shows that since the first golden week in Chinese history appeared in 1999, the average daily share of domestic tourists and income during the "National Day" holiday period has been steadily increasing. The "National Day" Golden Week only accounts for 1.92% of the 365 days of the year, but has an average domestic tourism revenue share of 10.08% for the year.

However, from the perspective of the contribution rate to the growth of the tourism industry throughout the year, we find that the holiday economic dividend of small and long holidays has shown some decline.

Taking the "National Day" holiday as an example, considering the proportion of the growth in the number of domestic tourists and income compared to the previous year, it can be seen that the "National Day Golden Week" made a huge contribution to the development of the domestic tourism industry at the beginning, with the contribution rate of the number of people even exceeding 123% in 2000.

However, soon after, the overall contribution of the Golden Week to the rise of the tourism industry decreased. Apart from a surge in revenue contribution in 2015, the overall contribution has shown a stable but weakening trend since 2001.

It can be seen that although the number of domestic tourists and income are showing an increasing trend, the contribution of small and long holidays to tourism and consumption is weakening. The conclusion that the holiday economic dividend is increasing year by year is not rigorous.

What is the future of restructuring

Several National People's Congress deputies and members of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference have paid attention to the hot topic of public opinion related to "compensatory leave" and have spoken up at the two sessions.

We have reviewed the proposals and proposals for adjusting the vacation system during the 2016-2023 National People's Congress and Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. These proposals and proposals mostly focus on compensatory leave, hoping to extend the leave or cancel the compensatory leave system.

However, most of the proposals and proposals focus on the Spring Festival holiday, and there is little involvement in the mid year holiday, Labor Day, National Day, and other compensatory leave systems that people are generally more concerned about.

Regarding the issue of "how to change", during the interview, people of different ages and professions had different views on the vacation system.

Xiao Zhang feels that compensatory time off has taken up his already limited rest time, but he also hopes to stay on a long break.

High school student Xiao Xu believes that the biggest problem brought about by compensatory leave is the need for several consecutive days of classes after compensatory leave, and the school's curriculum arrangement is not reasonable, resulting in two consecutive days of classes on Saturdays. During the short and long vacation made up for compensatory time off, Xiao Xu also rarely travels with his family across provinces and cities. If possible, Xiaoxu would choose not to take compensatory leave.

Mr. Zhu values the Spring Festival holiday and gives the company employees about 12 days of Spring Festival holiday every year. In addition to the national standard of 7 days, employees also have about 5 days of paid leave, which allows them sufficient time to avoid the peak of returning home and work during the Spring Festival, and more time to spend a complete holiday with family and friends. The company also has international trade projects. Due to the different holidays between international friends and China, Mr. Zhu will also give employees who undertake these projects more freedom of vacation time.

There are many factors that need to be considered in the reform of the vacation system, and it is difficult for everyone to adjust. Various opinions on compensatory leave in society also need to be constantly tested. This is also one of the important reasons why the country has not clearly defined the adjustment plan in the face of numerous bills and proposals in recent years.

In addition, Zheng Iceland also mentioned that there may be a certain lag in the response of policies to public demands. The end of the epidemic has brought China's economic development to a new level. In the new development environment, whether the current vacation system should be adjusted, how to adjust it, and how to better meet the needs of a wider range of people are issues that need to be continuously explored in practice.

This article is the work of the "Data Analysis and Information Visualization Course for Undergraduate Students in the School of Journalism at Fudan University", supervised by Cui Di, Xu Di, and Zhou Baohua

Author: Li Shixinqi, Li Xiaoqi, Shen Qing, Wang Zhu Zhou Jingyan