Quaint, is what this is.

The Rise of Shrinking-Vacation Syndrome - New York Times:

Shrinking-vacation syndrome has gotten so bad that at least one major American company, the accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, has taken to shutting down its entire national operation twice a year to ensure that people stop working — for about 10 days over Christmas, and 5 days or so around the Fourth of July.

I used to work for a company, back in the far distant past, that closed all its factories, which were numerous (although not all at the same time) for two weeks every summer. During “Standard Vacation,” only maintenance crews worked. After ten years, I think it was, employees got a third vacation week which they could take whenever they wished.

I never heard anybody complain much about this arrangement. It was considered an occasion for much celebration, in fact, with each factory (we're talking quaint here, right?) electing a “vacation queen” and putting stickers bearing her photo on their cars, and spending much of the following week or so telling stories about where they'd gone. The title “who drove farthest” was much sought after.

That's something I don't imagine they'll be debating much at PricewaterhouseCoopers this year.

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