As the "May Day" holiday approaches, the hashtag "May Day actually only gives one day off" has trended on social media, sparking heated discussion. Debate has reignited over how national holidays should be arranged and whether compensatory time off (known as "diao xiu") should be used. Many netizens complain that after the Qingming and May Day holiday adjustments in April, several consecutive weeks of two-day weekends became one-day weekends, with three "six-day workweeks" before and after the holidays.

With the "May Day" holiday approaching, the topic of "compensatory time off" has once again sparked heated discussion. The main issue is that people need to work six consecutive days after the holiday, which has drawn widespread complaints. In a poll titled "How do you want your holidays arranged?" launched by China Newsweek's official Weibo account on April 12, the option "No compensatory time off, but still want a long holiday" received the most votes at 11,000; the second most popular option was "The length of the holiday doesn't matter, just no compensatory time off," with 6,033 votes. Only 517 votes chose "Use compensatory time off to make a long holiday." In particular, Tian Xuan, a professor at Tsinghua University, once said that while "compensatory time off" can indeed boost and unleash some purchasing power, it still needs to be reasonable and should not cause disruption to residents' work and lives.

It cannot be denied that in the early days of the "compensatory time off" system, it brought a brief pleasant surprise to Chinese people who had never enjoyed long holidays. Concentrated vacation time also triggered a surge in consumption, driving the rapid development of industries such as transportation, catering, commerce, and tourism. However, the disorderly movement of hundreds of millions of people in a short period led to concentrated shortages in hotels, catering, transportation, and public security. Not only were train tickets "hard to get," and highways and scenic spots overcrowded, but food, accommodation, and attraction tickets also rose in price to varying degrees, increasing the cost of leisure for ordinary people. Today, the public holds mixed feelings of "love and hate" toward "compensatory time off." While enjoying the pleasure brought by holiday benefits, the "bitter golden-week travel" and the hassle of "compensatory time off" are also daunting, undoubtedly reducing the quality of leisure for Chinese people.

It must be acknowledged that the current holiday arrangements still have certain drawbacks, such as the "traffic-jam phobia" caused by concentrated vacations and the "post-holiday syndrome" brought by "compensatory time off," which have not yet been fundamentally eliminated. Therefore, it is particularly important to respect and fulfill public wishes, improve the holiday system, and let the public enjoy more personalized, diversified, and human-centered leisure options. Although the specific plan for optimizing the distribution of national festivals and statutory holidays has not yet been published or implemented, it would be advisable to adopt experts' suggestions and promptly revise the "Measures for National Annual Festivals and Memorial Days Holidays," appropriately increase and extend holidays, and when a holiday falls on a weekend, extend it rather than using "compensatory time off" as much as possible.

In other words, since "compensatory time off" has the public grumbling endlessly, it would be better to make moderate adjustments, with the key being to respect the public's right to decide their own leave. In fact, only by making good and flexible use of the paid leave system can the public share the right to vacation. On the one hand, strictly implement the "Measures for National Annual Festivals and Memorial Days Holidays" and make scientific arrangements for statutory holidays—for example, at the current stage in China, it may be worth piloting a flexible leave system of "saving up small amounts to withdraw in a lump sum," which would help strictly enforce labor law provisions; on the other hand, urge all localities to earnestly implement the "Regulations on Paid Annual Leave," and for the paid leave system, a "save up small amounts to withdraw in a lump sum" approach can also be adopted to maximize the diversion and alleviation of resource and space strain caused by "concentrated" vacations, fully safeguarding the public's right to decide their own leave.