Christmas Is Still the Same This 2011 - An Early Christmas Post

Just the thought of spending another Christmas away from home saddens me. What's worse is that I might be working the whole month of December (with my usual one day off a week, of course). Well the worst part of it all is that it might be the second year in a row and I'm not doing anything about it.

More like I can't do anything about it.

A cousin told me this earlier: In Germany twenty-five to thirty off days are common AND this is one of the reasons why employees are happy and powerful. So they should do the same. And he added: So maybe they will allow you to go... or you're FIRED.

I'm guessing it's the latter. No, I'm sure of it if I really insist on going home for Christmas. It's either that or I QUIT.

What is there to miss in this year's Christmas celebration? Apart from the usual dozen Christmas parties that I might be attending with families and friends, the precious gifts of 'lil nothings I might give and receive, the excuse of 'It's Christmas!' whenever I eat every five seconds or so, I would really miss the Once-In-A-Lifetime Family Reunion. Yes, families from the north of the country and from the land of Deutsche are coming over on December, everyone comfortably (I hope so) billeted in our tiny house.

Cooking, eating, gossiping, playing, karaoke-ing, gossiping, going places, and I don't think I've mentioned this yet, gossiping-I am gonna miss all of these (I am more concerned about them gossiping about me than anything else!)! All because I will be slaving away for a company that only concentrates on profit, profit and more profit and NOT on ensuring that their employees are 'happy and powerful'. Not to mention a mindset (as was told to me last year) of something that goes like this: Chinese can take their leave during the Chinese New Year, the Owner's Kind can definitely take New Year's off because they celebrate New Year, and Filipinos (which I think is a third of their staff), erm,  'what Filipinos?'.

They won't understand how Christmas for Filipinos, which begins on September and ends on January, is like Chinese New Year for the Chinese, Deepavali for the Indians, Ramadan for the Muslims, and, ok, New Year for the Hapons. It seems like they think of Filipinos as mere 'slaves' with no emotions who don't have any celebrations at all.

So I guess, if I really do want to go home this Christmas, I should either do any of the following: (1) Insist on taking a leave and if ever I do get into the nerves of the higher up, they're just gonna fire me; or (2) submit my resignation letter a little over a month before Christmas so I can still go home; or (3) stop whining, be a dutiful employee, work your ass off, and forget that there's such a thing as Christmas, I'll get over it by January anyway, and besides, it might not be Once-In-A-Lifetime Reunion, it might happen again next year, who knows. But in order for me to ensure that I celebrate the succeeding Christmases with the family maybe the best thing to do is go to Germany so I can get a twenty-five to thirty days vacation leave OR stay in the Philippines where everyone will understand, even the employers, that Christmas is meant to be celebrated with the family.

Have yourself a Merry Christmas everyone!

This post actually feels is a rant.