Today is Sunday, but I have to go to work! Why does taking a day off make people so exhausted?

The May Day holiday is coming soon, but before the holiday, there is one hurdle that cannot be avoided - adjusting the holiday, just like today.

Many people said directly: It would be better not to take this vacation.

Why is it so tiring to take a day off? Let’s talk about it today.

01

The intention of taking a break is good.

It may surprise you to hear this, but the concept of adjusting holidays, which is now criticized by everyone, had a good intention when it was first created.

You should know that until the early 1990s, there were only a handful of days for holidays in my country. Every year, there were only New Year's Day, Spring Festival, May Day and National Day, which added up to only 7 days.

The most important thing is that people at that time still had one day off per day, that is, they worked 6 days and rested 1 day.

Such a short vacation time is not realistic, whether you rest at home or travel.

What's more, many people often take advantage of Sunday to go out shopping or do errands, but they may not be able to finish their work even after a busy day, and they have to go back to work the next day.

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Later research found that busy work is not proportional to efficiency, and appropriate vacation is more effective.

While keeping pace with the international standards, our vacation time has gradually increased significantly. In 1995, it changed from a single day off to a double day off.

This also creates conditions for adjusting holidays.

In 1999, the State Council revised the National Holiday and Memorial Day Holiday Regulations, increasing the annual holiday from 7 days to 10 days, and for the first time proposed the adjustment of holidays.

That is to say, the May Day and National Day holidays are connected with the two weekends before and after to make up a 7-day golden week.

This approach actually has profound implications.

It was during the Asian financial crisis, and tourism was a great way to stimulate consumption.

But in the past, the three-day holiday might only be used to take care of some trivial matters at home. Even if there were travel plans, the journey would take a long time and it would be impossible to visit distant tourist attractions.

People from Northeast China dare not even think about going to Hainan.

If it's seven days, there are more options.

The results are obvious. During the first National Day Golden Week in 1999, 28 million people traveled, bringing in a total income of 14.1 billion.

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Not only do people have time to travel, but they can also go to farther places, which also drives economic growth.

But why does the adjustment of holidays, which was originally well-intentioned, become so annoying nowadays?

02

Why do you hate taking a break?

There is a sad truth: the vacation time you get is borrowed and you have to pay it back.

After enjoying a 7-day holiday, you may have to accept the price of working 7 days in a row.

Working 7 days in a row does not just mean 2 days more than normal work.

It also means that after working for 5 consecutive days, your mind and body do not get the proper rest and recovery, and you have to continue to drag your tired body to work.

This is no trivial matter.

Research shows that working five days a week and maintaining an eight-hour workday is relatively reasonable.

If you work continuously without recovery, it will cause a series of health problems such as high blood pressure, insomnia, and even psychological burnout.

This is just one of the dangers of taking a day off.

Another disadvantage is that it disrupts people's routines.

There is a circadian rhythm in the human body, which is what we commonly call the biological clock. For example, the time we get up and the time we go to bed every day are fixed.

At the same time, there is a fixed rhythm of life every week. Once this habitual rhythm is broken, people are likely to feel out of control.

For example, if you used to go to bed at 10 o'clock and get up at 7 o'clock every day, and suddenly one day you are asked to go to bed at 7 o'clock and get up at 4 o'clock, you may end up tossing and turning in bed and unable to sleep. When you open your eyes the next day, you will be in a daze.

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In addition to the above two real harms, people dislike taking vacations because it is actually an instinct.

From a psychological perspective, people have a negative bias, which means that bad things are more likely to get more attention than good things, and the impact of "loss" is far greater than that of "gain".

For example, if someone gives you a gift and then takes away another gift, on the surface you get nothing, but you will definitely be unhappy in your heart. It would be better to have nothing from the beginning to the end.

Just like the blunders that have occurred at previous award ceremonies such as the Oscars, the adjustment of the holiday makes people feel as if the guests were awarded the wrong awards and forced to return them.

Add to that the harm that the previously mentioned adjustment of leave actually brings to people. Not only do they not get a real vacation, but they also suffer so much loss. It would be strange if adjustment of leave is not disliked.

Moreover, when everyone's holidays are concentrated in the three periods of National Day, May Day, and Spring Festival, it is easy to cause crowds to travel. I believe you must have seen such scenes in short videos:

I wanted to visit the Terracotta Warriors, but ended up being a visitor to the Terracotta Warriors;

If you haven’t been to the Great Wall, you are not a true man. Once you have reached the Great Wall, you may not even know whose sweat is flowing on your body…

There was no travel experience at all, and the bad impression about the adjustment of holidays was further increased.

References:

[1] Liang Chao. (2015). 65-year history of changes in Chinese holidays: It took 45 years to change from single-day weekend to double-day weekend. Sina News.

[2] Heintzelman, SJ, & King, LA (2019). Routines and meaning in life. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 45(5), 688-699.

[3] Tsinghua University Holiday System Reform Research Group & Cai Jiming. (2009). Political Economic Analysis of China’s Holiday System Reform. Study and Exploration (05), 30-39.

Author: Li Mi Popular Science Creator

Reviewer: Tang Yicheng, Deputy Director of Beijing Zhongke Popular Psychological Health Promotion Center

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