The Ministry of Keeping You On Your Toes has consulted the Oracle, read the tea leaves, and prayed to the Moon God, and has finally gotten around to telling us when we’ll have days off next year.

(Not that it really matters in the Covid-19 era where our exotic getaway vacations are now to the Beijing suburbs… but hey, it’s nice to know anyhow.)

Once again we’ll have a generous number of days off — 18 weekdays in total — but we’ll also once again be forced to “earn” most of them by working weekend days.

Like last year, this year’s calendar features seven worthless, unproductive weekend “makeup” days. China leads the world in the concept of holiday weekend makeup days. This is roughly equivalent to your mom making you a hearty pancake breakfast and then afterward telling you that you’ll need to work it off by raking the lawn for the rest of the day.

Here’s the rundown:

New Year’s Day
Fri, Jan 1 to Sun, Jan 3
Only China can give you Friday off and call it a 3-day “holiday.”

Chinese New Year/Spring Festival
Thurs, Feb 11 to Wed Feb 17
Makeup workdays: Sun Feb 7 and Sat Feb 20

Tomb-Sweeping Festival
Sat, April 3 to Mon, April 5
In official Doublespeak, this is another “three day holiday” when in reality it’s one day off (Monday). But hey, who are we to complain: at least there’s no weekend makeup day.

May Day
Sat, May 1 to Wed, May 5
Makeup workdays: Sun April 25 and Sat May 8
A five-day break! But wait, don’t relax as you will be forced to work a six-day week before and a Saturday after for good measure to earn your week off.

Dragon Boat Festival
Sat June 12 to Mon June 14
Another Monday off jazzed up to be a “three day holiday.”

Mid-Autumn Festival
Sun Sep 19 through Tues, Sep 21
Makeup workday: Sat Sep 18
Meh.

National Day
Fri Oct 1 through Thurs Oct 7
Makeup workdays: Sun Sep 26 and Sat Oct 9

Here at True Run Media, we stopped making our staff work weekend makeup days a few years back, because a) weekend makeup workdays are notoriously unproductive; (b) we work hard enough during the regular Monday-to-Friday workweek, and c) many of our staff have kids or other weekend obligations that are tough to re-arrange.

Guess what? It didn’t drive us out of business, and we think we’re happier and more productive as a result.

We suggest every other business does the same.

KEEP READING: Walking in a Winter Camp Wonderland: First Look at Camps for Dec 2020 – Jan 2021

Image: the Beijinger

This article originally ran on our sister site the Beijinger