Summer Vacation 2

Let me continue to touch on vacation in Europe.

A bewildered expat from Japan will try to figure out why people in Europe can take Summer holiday for 2-3 weeks. What he discovers are

(a) person to substitute somebody’s absence is clearly defined in job description. It will mutually benefit all the workers because everybody takes days-off eventually.

(b) The company will not start something that overloads employee during that time. Launching a massive sales promotion campaign, for example, does not make sense because customers are also on vacation.

(c)many companies shuts down almost entire operation for several weeks. This is typical for manufacturing company.

However, people in Europe appears to be not as “privileged” to take long holiday as it used be. While they are relaxing on beaches in Mallorca, his counter-partner in India and China are working hard, sending tons of e-mails every day. His colleague in New York is also waiting for quick reply because majority of Americans does not spend 3 weeks for vacation.

Obviously, globalization of business is posing challenge to European lifestyle.