May Day 'holiday'

Them: Good news! We get 5 days off for May Day holiday.
Me: (savvy to how the Chinese 'holidays' work) What's the catch?

I base my syllabi on "The Official Saloon Holiday Schedule" and it has served me well for years. My uni is in the habit of letting we FTs know about schedule changes a few days (or hours) in advance. I like more notice than that. I am shocked that they've given me more than a week's notice on this upcoming 'holiday'.

According to the official Saloon guide, we should work on Saturday and Sunday, April 27-28, to "pay for" having April 29 and 30th off to go with the REAL HOLIDAY of May 1st. I was expecting that. For some reason my uni has decided to go with the addition of May 2nd and 3rd to the 'holiday' and we get to pay for that by working May 4th and 5th.

Here's the deal - work two 7-day weeks with a five day 'holiday' in the middle. It screws up two weekends. I make bunches of money on Saturdays teaching private kids. Kiss that money good-bye for two Saturdays instead of just one. Sundays are special for me. I spend the day with special friends in praise and worship, eating and learning together. I need this. Sigh. Aaaaaand - May 5th is my wedding anniversary. I was counting on NOT working that day.

Silver lining - They gave me notice so I can plan. And 5 days off in a row will be a welcome break.

What's your 'holiday' schedule??

This is why the concept of a UNION is illegal in China. Ironic for a "socialist" country. Western governments tread carefully when dealing with teachers' unions which tend to be fairly powerful. Quite a few Chinese teacher agitators have had accidents.

Those "holiday" days have been moved to my regular days so off with the exception that I have to work on one of those days off.

So in essence no "extra time off" and more work.

Mine are similarly screwed up.

Mine is simple, teach in the weekend, 29-1 off and I made sure to inform the uni that I would be looking forward to the 30 hours of overtime that the last week of April will provide. The May holiday was on their calendar and they have made no odd changes.

I hate Chinese holidays. I have found that they mean very little even to the people other than THAT day off only to be replaced by work/school on the weekend. Except for watching television, visiting grandparents and exploding parts of the ground, there is little revelence to them.

And for me, Chinese Labour Day, National Day, Tomb Sweeping Week, New Year, etc are just those - Chinese. All they accomplish for us is to screw up the schedule. Sometimes I'm glad they don't honour all our festivals. Imagine trying to work out a timetable with Catholics/Jews/Muslems/etc from not only English countries, but others too. Every week there would be at least 2 days of either civic or religious time off

Hey! Maybe we should fight for that. It'll render a printed schedule obsolete 5 minutes after its distributed, but oh all the logistical fun

I mildly disagree. Yes, they are annoying but as long as one reads the calendar and aligns the schedule with the expected holidays, they present no major pain in the behind. Unless they choose to change them suddenly and then yes, they become a wee bit bothersome. Usually, they just mean more work in one week, beyond the contractual hours, which means more money. Money is good. Money is nice. 

It might work nice for you and a few lucky ones. But not every lacky office worker understands and is functional enough to follow the dots. Add on to apprise the FT AHEAD OF TIME! Looking at the schedule doesn't gaurentee when or which days/classes will be figured out.

If you only work at a well run uni, then Bob's your uncle. I have private schools in which the kids in a class come from various gov't schools. Not all gov't schools give the same number of days off for some holidays. I've seen from 2 to 4 days off for a three day festival. I've had to do a replacement class weeks after. One time it was almost 2 months later. How do I figure that out when they tell me on the Friday that I'm doing the make-up class tomorrow afternoon for a lesson weeks past?

For most of us, there is no extra money, only extra aggrivation.

Yes, I guess I am lucky. I do work part-time for training centers but if they start with all this nonsense my reply is: bye-bye, find another teacher.
Indeed, my uni is well-run. That is why I give the office and the department chocolates every Spring Festival  I do commiserate, Day Dreamer, sounds like this holiday is more stressful than it's worth.

Our head teacher said we are off Saturday, but working on Sunday.  She hasn't decided which daily schedule to use. I'm hoping it is one of the days I have only one class.

We have Wednesday off (I have no classes that day anyway). Monday is worked on the previous Saturday, Tuesday prevous Sunday (I have one class that day first thing in teh morning). I am working on maybe moving that class to another time on the weekend... So I can have Sunday morning clear. It is still possible. First time I tried failed but the second has no problems so far. The complication for me is the class involves students from 3 different majors and the time needs to be clear for all of them. It is worth a try... but I accept that I may have no choice.   This is actually the first semester in a lot of years (maybe ever) that foreign teachers have been required to make up holiday classes at the university I am at.

I'm lucky in this regard. This first week in May is our down week before AP exams start -- I didn't have classes to begin with. I did schedule one extra class on that Monday the 29th (because the students need it) but I might see if I can't change it to the 27th and that way I can have something like 9 days off straight.

I hate them as well. If a holiday doesn't involve any time off work why is it a holiday?

At my uni the make up classes are always half empty and the students hate coming in on a saturday morning, I tend to just put a film on for them.

Last year we went on a trip to Zhoushan for the holiday because I wanted to see the magical Buddhist island and you can't even travel on these holidays because there are so many people with the same idea.

I have no problem with it at all. It's a one day holiday with a little switch-a-roo to get three days off in a row. I have no classes on wednesdays anyway so I don't actually have less work for the week but I still get three days off in a row. Perhaps a little inconvenient for my part-time gigs but since those are not exactly legal, I don't think I have much to complain about there.

I have been lucky this term to have a three and a half day weekend.  This holiday shortens it to three.  Can't really complain, but I just did. Enjoy yours, all.