Strictly speaking, Friday–Dec. 26–was not a holiday. Some of us even worked. Christmas is a holiday. New Year’s Day is a holiday. But Friday and next Friday are, well, they’re Fridays. You know, as in TGIF. In most other weeks, they would be ordinary workdays.
But many employers think it’s easier to treat these Fridays as “holidays” rather than embrace the fiction that these are ordinary weeks.
That means millions of Americans will be enjoying four-day weekends two weeks in a row. The private Bureau of National Affairs, which tracks legal and regulatory developments for businesses, reports that a third of 258 employers surveyed gave their employees a paid day off Dec. 26, and 10 percent are also giving workers Jan. 2. Those numbers are up from a year ago when the real holidays fell on Wednesdays. But they’re nowhere near the 67 percent that gave workers the Friday after Thanksgiving.
Even President Bush–no Scrooge he–joined in and decreed that federal employees should have Friday off too. To all who benefit, happy quasi-holiday(s). Enjoy the calendar’s gift!
