Dry 'holiday' spell looming...

The UK and the US have holidays this Monday. In the UK, it's Spring Bank Holiday. In the US, it's Memorial day.

UK workers have really hit the jackpot this year with the holidays. Well, at least until the end of May.

2 days for Easter holidays, 2 Bank holidays in May, as well as the extra day thrown in for the Royal Wedding - No doubt, this has certainly been a good period for those who live and work in England.

A recent news article said that there were fewer cases of people calling in sick.

Fewer 'sickies' = improved productivity 

How exciting! Possible explanations were the recession (more people needing to sit tight at their desks to show that they are still needed) or maybe people are just generally living healthier lifestyles.

My niggle for today is this, with all the lovely weather and happy smiley faces all around, do you think the 'calling-in-sick' numbers will rise again, when it suddenly dawns on everyone that there are no more holidays ahead?!

Let's face it, apart from approved vacation days, there's really  not much else coming through until the end of August. 1 solitary day. And then another long, dry spell until Christmas....

When I worked in the UK, I always found the time between September and December quite depressing. Firstly, accepting that summer was over was hard. Then the fact that there was no other holiday in sight till Christmas, was even harder! (My allocated leave days were usually almost depleted by that time of the year anyway and whatever days I had left, had to be used wisely!) Thankfully, this was all mainly superficial and did not result in anything more serious like S.A.D.

US employees are somewhat luckier. Despite the fact that most employees generally have only 10 days holiday (a paltry sum, compared to the UK's 20+ days), there are still various National holidays spread throughout the year. After Memorial Day, there's 4th of July, then Labour Day in September, Thanksgiving in November and then Christmas, so you don't really have the dry spell like the UK.

Which do you think is better?

• UK's 20+ days + dry spell until Christmas OR
• US's 10 days + a nice spread of national holidays throughout the year?