For a country which finds itself deep in the throes of great historical transformation, Ukraine’s leaders do not seem to be in much of a hurry to get the job done. Parliament went on holiday at the end of December immediately after it had adopted the 2008 budget and is due to depart once more on its annual winter break at the end of January after what promises to be a very brief spell back at work. Serving as a member of parliament at a time of national reformation is not what most people would consider a part-time job, but nevertheless this is often the impression created, as Ukraine’s MPs vote themselves what has to be one of the least taxing schedules in any European parliament.
Leading by bad example
It is perhaps fitting that this recent presidential criticism of Ukraine’s indulgent holiday culture should specifically target members of parliament, as they are almost as notorious in the public image for their extended breaks as they are for their perceived corruption. The example they set in both spheres is certainly lamentable, presenting the general population with the worst kind of models possible. However, it would be unfair to hold parliament directly responsible for what is, in fact, the national practice of indulging in generous breaks at regular intervals.
A stop-start working culture
The cycle of Ukrainian holidays is truly relentless. This passion for endless vacations breeds a debilitating culture of procrastination that does enormous harm to the country’s productivity and makes building up any sort of momentum all but impossible. Anyone who has lived and worked in Ukraine will be more than familiar with the experience of being put off and told that something can only be done “after the May holidays” or “once the Christmas break is over.” These collective collapses in the national work ethic dot the calendar at such regular intervals that they leave the Ukrainian year literally littered with artificial stops and starts that can last for a few days or stretch into weeks and weeks.
Foreigners who work in Ukraine soon finds themselves forced to adhere to this never-ending holiday schedule whether they like it or not. It is simply not possible to work effectively during a designated holiday period; you are free to go to the office every day but you will seldom find anyone to do business with, as the rest of the country is either engaged in endless rounds of celebration or, increasingly, enjoying a trip abroad. The cost to the country of all this disruption in terms of lost productivity is difficult to calculate, but must surely represent a fairly large slice of GDP.
I don’t like Mondays
Nor is the problem limited to an overdose of holidays. While the rest of the world sees Monday as the first and most important day of the week, here in Ukraine Mondays remain a sort of semi-weekend. Parliament does not meet on Mondays, for example, and many newspapers do not publish on Mondays. The psychological impact of designating Monday of all days as a kind of optional working day is not to be underestimated, as it effectively gets every single Ukrainian working week off to a false start.
Given the scale of the challenges facing Ukraine, it is striking that so little has been done to target Ukrainian holiday culture and the disjointed work ethic it promotes. No doubt any such campaigns would prove hugely unpopular with a population that has long grown accustomed to its regular generous breaks.
Ultimately, though, it is only a matter of time before the worst excesses of Ukraine’s holiday malaise are consigned to history, if not by government ruling then by the quiet determination of the country’s professional classes to keep on making money. The impact this would have on the economy would be far greater than most people imagine, as it would create effectively an additional month of working days from apparent thin air, as well as allowing the country to function all year round.
