Enough Vacations

Today is Wednesday, but it feels like Tuesday or maybe Friday. Doing so many shifts is affecting me a bit; I need a vacation to shake off the fatigue that has slowly piled up.

But would it be a real vacation? I don’t think so. People say that in Cuba, vacations aren’t really vacations, they’re just a change of duties. But globally, do we really rest enough during our vacations? We’d have to find out how many vacation days each country allows. In mine, it’s 30 days, 15 per semester.

I know people in my hospital who work in logistics, like the lady who collects our bed sheets in the morning after the night shifts. She always arrives a few minutes before 6 a.m., no later than 6:30. Then she has to stay there, handing out and receiving the clean and dirty sheets we need in the Operating Room.

She doesn’t leave for home until after 3:30 p.m., rarely before. And she repeats this cycle Monday through Saturday, plus a couple of Sundays each month, though on those she leaves before noon. This woman practically lives in the hospital. She barely has a few hours to dedicate to her own home.

A friend and I have this idea that work time begins the moment you have to wake up early to get to your workplace. For example, if that lady has to be at the hospital before 6 a.m., it means she has to wake up at least at 5. She has to get everything ready at home—often without electricity—deal with terrible transportation, and head out while it’s still dark. To me, that’s already time devoted to work.

What do I think? That vacations should be legislated according to the type of work and salary. Because that lady earns a miserable wage, and even mine, which is more than hers, doesn’t cover even 10 days. So what can I say about hers, when she sacrifices much more than I do to arrive early and do her job? She’s currently on vacation, but she’ll have the same number of days as I will. And besides, she won’t use them to rest, but rather as 15 “ideal” days to try to solve the countless problems we never have time to deal with, because we’re too busy working.

Maybe they’ll accuse me of being too soft, since the system has always worked this way, with even more abusive routines. But it doesn’t matter, because apparently nothing we do will matter once we’re sick and no “big boss” will come to take care of us from 6 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

_{English isn't my native language. Text translated with DeepL}

_{Banner made with Canva}