{"id":447205,"date":"2019-05-07T13:17:49","date_gmt":"2019-05-07T13:17:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.moldova.org\/en\/?p=447205"},"modified":"2019-05-07T19:31:33","modified_gmt":"2019-05-07T19:31:33","slug":"moldovans-fewer-official-holidays-still-dont-work-germans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.moldova.org\/en\/moldovans-fewer-official-holidays-still-dont-work-germans\/","title":{"rendered":"Why do Moldovans have fewer official holidays but still don\u2019t work more than Germans?"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

I am an emigrant. Several years ago, I left my home country – Moldova and, after several changes, I ended up in Germany. No, I am not telling you my life story. You just would need some background information to understand why I decided to call your attention to this sensitive topic.<\/p>\n

Every year, I encounter the same situation: a lot of people from Moldova are complaining about too many public holidays in Moldova, empty streets and paralysed public services. Especially during this period: Orthodox Easter Monday<\/em> (April 29th<\/sup>), Labour Day<\/em> (May 1st<\/sup>), Memorial Easter<\/em> (May 6th<\/sup>), Victory Day <\/em>or Europe day\u00a0<\/em>(May 9th<\/sup>) –<\/em>\u00a0a reason for one more dissension in the Moldovan society, all of them in just two weeks.<\/p>\n

So, in a way, it is understandable why some people are not very happy about it. But are they not happy because of the public holidays\u2019 existence or because of the way things are taken care of during these days?<\/p>\n

There are a lot of countries in this world that have more public holidays per year. One of them is Germany. That\u2019s true, one of the most hard-working nations in this world (at least according stereotypes) has slightly more public holidays than we, Moldovans, do. So, does that mean that Germans work less throughout the year? Not necessarily.<\/p>\n

Well, let’s take it one by one.<\/p>\n

First of all, as compared to the Moldovan people that have 12 public holidays in 2019, Germans, in particular Bavarian people (this is the region where I live in) have 13 officially declared public holidays for the same year. Nonetheless, I never heard that Germans would collectively and continuously complain about that. On the contrary, they love it.<\/p>\n

Somehow, they got used to the fact that on national public holidays and on Sundays everything is closed, including the grocery stores. In bigger cities, there is still at least one open grocery store at the central train station. In smaller towns, people have the option of gas stations stores only.<\/p>\n

Now imagine how people in Moldova would react if one day the government would decide to implement such a measure and almost all grocery stores would be closed on Sundays. It would be a catastrophe!<\/p>\n

Germans learned to plan, to prepare everything in advance. That is one thing that Moldovans need to learn as well.<\/p>\n

One more important aspect is that some service industries are still open: public transportation is still punctual, even though, it comes less often, there are enough hotels, cafes and restaurants that provide their services, as well as entertainment and sport institutions like theaters, cinemas, museums, swimming pools, tennis courts and so on, remain open. And of course, the emergency services such as fire, medical, police services are available. People that work in these areas usually receive supplemental pay for working on Sundays and holidays. They understand that their job is important for other people who want to be safe or go out during their free time. At the same time, nobody expects postal services, administrative institutions, fashion shops, travel agencies, family doctors, lawyers to work in these days.<\/p>\n

What do I want to actually say through this article? It is not as much about the amount of working time as it is about the efficiency of the effort. It is the government\u2019s job to assure the basic public services during the national public holidays (e.g., public transportation) and it is the people\u2019s job to adapt to the free days setting and plan everything in advance. That refers to Moldovans as well \u2013 we should stop complaining and try to be more productive during the working days, so that no frustrations would appear when we have our free days, which are, by the way, not as many as we think.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading Time: <\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>I am an emigrant. Several years ago, I left my home country – Moldova and, after several changes, I ended up in Germany. No, I am not telling you my life story. You just would need some background information to understand why I decided to call your attention to this sensitive topic. Every year, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":447208,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,12,4,56],"tags":[320,318,35,27,319],"class_list":["post-447205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-opinion","category-society","category-reportaje","tag-germany","tag-holidays","tag-important","tag-moldova","tag-public"],"content_social_share":"Reading Time: <\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

I am an emigrant. Several years ago, I left my home country – Moldova and, after several changes, I ended up in Germany. No, I am not telling you my life story. You just would need some background information to understand why I decided to call your attention to this sensitive topic.<\/p>\n

Every year, I encounter the same situation: a lot of people from Moldova are complaining about too many public holidays in Moldova, empty streets and paralysed public services. Especially during this period: Orthodox Easter Monday<\/em> (April 29th<\/sup>), Labour Day<\/em> (May 1st<\/sup>), Memorial Easter<\/em> (May 6th<\/sup>), Victory Day <\/em>or Europe day\u00a0<\/em>(May 9th<\/sup>) –<\/em>\u00a0a reason for one more dissension in the Moldovan society, all of them in just two weeks.<\/p>\n

So, in a way, it is understandable why some people are not very happy about it. But are they not happy because of the public holidays\u2019 existence or because of the way things are taken care of during these days?<\/p>\n

There are a lot of countries in this world that have more public holidays per year. One of them is Germany. That\u2019s true, one of the most hard-working nations in this world (at least according stereotypes) has slightly more public holidays than we, Moldovans, do. So, does that mean that Germans work less throughout the year? Not necessarily.<\/p>\n

Well, let’s take it one by one.<\/p>\n

First of all, as compared to the Moldovan people that have 12 public holidays in 2019, Germans, in particular Bavarian people (this is the region where I live in) have 13 officially declared public holidays for the same year. Nonetheless, I never heard that Germans would collectively and continuously complain about that. On the contrary, they love it.<\/p>\n

Somehow, they got used to the fact that on national public holidays and on Sundays everything is closed, including the grocery stores. In bigger cities, there is still at least one open grocery store at the central train station. In smaller towns, people have the option of gas stations stores only.<\/p>\n

Now imagine how people in Moldova would react if one day the government would decide to implement such a measure and almost all grocery stores would be closed on Sundays. It would be a catastrophe!<\/p>\n

Germans learned to plan, to prepare everything in advance. That is one thing that Moldovans need to learn as well.<\/p>\n

One more important aspect is that some service industries are still open: public transportation is still punctual, even though, it comes less often, there are enough hotels, cafes and restaurants that provide their services, as well as entertainment and sport institutions like theaters, cinemas, museums, swimming pools, tennis courts and so on, remain open. And of course, the emergency services such as fire, medical, police services are available. People that work in these areas usually receive supplemental pay for working on Sundays and holidays. They understand that their job is important for other people who want to be safe or go out during their free time. At the same time, nobody expects postal services, administrative institutions, fashion shops, travel agencies, family doctors, lawyers to work in these days.<\/p>\n

What do I want to actually say through this article? It is not as much about the amount of working time as it is about the efficiency of the effort. It is the government\u2019s job to assure the basic public services during the national public holidays (e.g., public transportation) and it is the people\u2019s job to adapt to the free days setting and plan everything in advance. That refers to Moldovans as well \u2013 we should stop complaining and try to be more productive during the working days, so that no frustrations would appear when we have our free days, which are, by the way, not as many as we think.<\/p>\n

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