In Taiwan, sometimes the government mandates certain Saturdays or Sundays as “make up workdays.” If you get off Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday for Lunar New Year, for example, you may have to come in next Sunday, because five days of straight vacation is simply unheard of in the modern world, right? 

Though the government advises which of these days should be “make up workdays,” there’s no legal obstacle to just giving people that day off. Therefore as a boss, it’s entirely your decision whether you follow through, and make people come in on a Saturday or Sunday.

If you choose to have them come in, you are a Bad Boss. 

First, it’s simply disrespectful to your employees, without whom you don’t make any money. Employees give you the majority of their waking life. They have so little time for themselves, and you’re going to make them sacrifice a weekend day, which normally they have off?

That’s disrespectful and unethical.

Also, consider the real financial cost. Turning the lights on in the office costs money. The air conditioning costs money. Flushing toilets costs money. Normally, it doesn’t matter, because the productivity of having employees in the office far outweighs the cost. That’s true for every single day… except make up workdays.

Productivity is low on make up workdays, barely high enough to cover the cost of flushing the toilets. Not to mention the fact that productivity will be low the entire week after, because it will be an abnormally long week that will cause exhaustion and resentment. Furthermore, employees will know they have 6 days to get things done that week, so naturally they will take 6 days to get things done.

If you didn’t do a make up workday, you would have at minimum the same productivity for that stretch of two weeks as you would if you did do the make up workday, but more likely, you’d have higher productivity if you gave them the day off.

Don’t take my word for it, just listen to Forbes. Study after study shows that within reason, less time at the office means more productivity. This includes both taking vacation times and having lower than 40 hour workweeks. People don’t get 40 hours of work done in 40 hours (or 60), they get about 20-28 hours of work done, and spend the rest of the time padding their time. Having people work less means you get more done, faster.

A good boss knows they have to balance the emotions of their employees against their productivity. You already know that if you ask people to stay late too much, they’ll hate your guts, and eventually leave. Most of you have enough management instincts to avoid pushing people to their limits, leading to high turnover, poor productivity, or worse case, an employee running you over with their car. Actually, even worse, the employees unionizing.

Asking people to come in on a weekend pisses them off, plain and simple. You get little to no productivity in return for a room of people that aren’t happy with you. Good job, great leadership, truly you are a visionary and master of human relationships.

Finally, there’s a massive opportunity cost you’re missing. When I chat about this with other business owners, I can’t believe how not a single one thought of this: despite the absurdity of the make up workday, if you give people that day off, it’s like you’re giving them an extra vacation day. The government has handed you a gift on a silver platter that all of you are ignoring.

I’ve demonstrated how there’s basically no upside to having people come in on a make-up workday. You get no productivity in return, only resentment and in fact probably reduced productivity. So, if you give people that day off, you’re sacrificing nothing. And in return, you get higher productivity the following week, higher morale, greater respect for you as a leader, and a greater appreciation for working at your company. It’s the ultimate king’s bargain, and none of you are offering it to your employees! For absolutely no cost to you, you get to be a hero to your employees. You get to appear selfless. Remarkable how few the number of bosses is that takes advantage of this gift.

Consider that Taiwan is the only country on earth that does “make up workdays.” Are you going to tell me that you can’t be a successful business without insulting your workers by making them come in on a weekend, when Poland, the 6th largest economy in the EU, can offer between 33 to 39 days off a year, and have multiple companies with revenues nearing 50 billion euros? Alvotech is in Iceland and therefore offers a minimum of 38 days off a year, yet their market cap is 4.2 billion USD. With a couple more weekend workdays, will your business finally hit 4.2 billion market capitalization? 

The EU mandates a minimum of 24 days off a year for 40hr/week employees, at minimum. The average is far higher. Meanwhile in Taiwan you don’t get 2 weeks mandated vacation until you’ve worked somewhere for 3 years. 

Across the world, developed nations are giving more and more time off to workers. Some are even adopting 4 day work weeks or 30 hour work weeks. Their productivity remains fine. So when will Taiwanese business owners learn their lesson, respect their workers, and join the future?