Welp, yesterday was Memorial day. Now that it’s come and gone, we don’t get another vacaction until July 4th rolls around here at work. Fortunately, I think I’m nearing the end of the list of crap I have to get done ASAP… which will return me to the even longer list of crap that I have to get done… sometime…
Anyway. As I was sitting at home yesterday, enjoying my day off, I got to wondering something. When US companies are closed on major holidays such as this (or July 4th, Thanksgiving, what have you) that fall on days that have no significance to other countries, does it affect anyone outside the US?
Since I know many of you readers are actually foreigners (to me… to you, obviously, you’d be a native), I thought I’d ask. Does it affect your place of work when the US is closed? What if you work for a company that’s based out of the US but has offices abroad? Do any of the offices ever actually close? Just the ones in the US? All of them?
For some reason I’ve actually started asking these kinds of questions lately, and they usually get met with a “Huh? Who the hell cares?!” kind of response from the people around me. They’ve started to think I’m more and more weird lately, but the truth is… I’ve always been this way, just quieter. Maybe I do think about things too much. I guess it’s true that ignorance is bliss…
Screw bliss…
Even though im not a “foreigner,” i can answer this one for ya
Usually what happens is the offices in the country with the national holiday are closed, but business goes on around them as usual. Just because there is a holiday in Tahiti doesnt mean lazy bums like you get a day off =P. unless HQ is in Tahiti, then you might, because companies sometimes have the national holidays of their HQ off too.
If the business has any sense, they stick to the holidays of the country they are in.
I would be very surprised if any American headquartered company with offices in Australia had the day off (as they would be staffed primarily with Aussies). However I can guarantee they will be closed on the 12th June (Queen’s Birthday), as there is no point being open when just about the rest of the country is off (something about a staff revolt too may come in to play…)
yeah, a company *so* big that it has to worry about about branches in other countries is big enough to not be affected by a branch, or even HQ i’m sure, going down for a national holiday in that particular country.
Interesting. Alright, that’s pretty much what I figured all along, but I thought I’d ask anyway. I was kinda curious about the environment on odd days such as that. I mean, is it really any different, since all the American companies would be closed, or does anyone even notice?
I don’t know if it’s relevant or not, but a lot of companies were open on memorial day.
Mostly customer service type places like Lowes, Autozone, True Value, Bilo, Wal-mart, etc. (wow I was busy that day :-/)
but yeah, the average “specialty supply and service places” like medical insurrance and parts supply houses were all closed.
Yeah, I’m not talking about commercial point-of-sale companies. I’m talking about office buildings and the like. A lot of companies, even if officially open, don’t have full staffs available during national holidays. I know our company is probably in the extreme with 10 paid company holidays a year, but that’s what I was trying to scope out in general - the overall feel outside the country during a US holiday. Sometimes it’s hard to tell just how much impact the US has in a global scope…
Yes, these are the things of which I wonder.
another thing to ponder, is exactly how important the world market is to the U.S.
I think Saudi Arabia basically owns like 35% or something of the U.S. with the money they have in our stock market, or whatever.
China and/or Japan are the same way.
So all you government employees out there that read this particular blog, listen up!
The next time some crazy citizen yells “I PAY YOUR PAYCHECK SO DO WHAT I SAY!”
look at them and say “Nope, Saudi Arabia and Japan pay my paycheck”
How does the stock market have anything to do with the government? My property and income taxes are what’s paying those guys every week… and in this county, the school district in particular is a blood sucker (48% of the property taxes on my car went to the school district last year, btw)…
Ahh, but we’re getting way off-topic. I pretty much got my answer, so I’m happy.
the stock market has everything to do with the goverment…umm…cuz like Big corporations throw their weight around to get crap down how they want in government…and such…w00t for off-topicness :-/
To go back to my HQ point earlier, it would only be if it was a small international company with only a few branches out of the country