Commentary: Holidays and work — a never-ending love story

A column published Tuesday reflects on the cultural pull of holidays and time away from work, drawing on a childhood memory of families preparing to stay home whenever a chance of rain appeared on the evening news. The author notes that requests for time off resurface in nearly every social context, from the absence of a senior official — when staff at one public agency reportedly welcomed news that a director general would be away for health reasons — to marriages, births and funerals. The piece cites an Egyptian education minister who pushed to restrict repeated requests for maternity leave, arguing that the country's schools were at risk. International statistics, the column adds, show that long working hours do not necessarily translate into higher productivity, even as demand for more time off continues to grow. Turning to history, the author recalls that in the aftermath of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japanese workers did not pause but extended their hours to recover losses. The column closes by framing work as a responsibility to be carried for the sake of life moving forward.