Appreciating the French calendar

Last weekened was another 3 day weekend for us and we decided to plan another getaway. Thank goodness for the French calendar. In the seven weeks from mid April to the first of June, I have six days (weekdays) off. That's in addition to the big vacation in August where everyone takes 3 consecutive weeks off. I was talking to my a French colleague the other day about the August vacation and explaining that it is rare for someone in the US to take more than a week at a time. His response, "One week! That's not a real vacation - you need at least two weeks to relax and forget about things." Wise words.

The case I'm working on right now is a global pharmaceutical project that is run out of NYC. The case will run until Sept/Oct and is revealing the vacation differences as well. The team in NYC has put a major deadline in August that I have had to share with my French, Belgian and Dutch clients. Their response was firmly that it will just have to be worked around as their vacation schedules won't move. I can empathize with them as Jen and I have big plans (to be blogged about later) in August. I pressed a bit to at least find out when their vacations would be. The answer in the Netherlands is that they start in early July and go to the end of August. Of course, they only take 3-4 weeks, but the schedules are staggered according to a goverment mandated school vacation calendar. So...productivity will be half for those two months and in France where it is more concentrated, it will be close to zero in August.

Maybe it sounds crazy to take that much time off to an American, but I'm really becoming a beliver in it. Even in a high stress and demanding job, you must take the time off and don't have to worry about the guilt or repercussions from taking a long vacation and leaving colleagues to pick up the slack. You can also really plan a great vacation with some buffer at either end to relax. Like many people I know, I'm always leaving on vacations in a flurry of last minute work and packing and returning the night before I go back. As I've had to explain to colleagues in NYC on the case (who think I'm French with really good English), this is deeply cultural and they can't come up with a business reason why things will change this time.

In any case, why fight it? We plan to join the annual migration south this August and experience one of the great French (and European) traditions.