A bank holiday is a welcome day for the majority of people: you either get a 'free' day off or you get paid more than usual if you still have to work. Whichever of these categories you fall into, people are generally pleased despite the British tradition of making every bank holiday cold and rainy.
With this in mind, people become positively giddy around Easter. In addition to the traditional celebrations and over-chocolated children, there is a double whammy with not one, but two bank holidays! Woohoo!
A four day weekend is a luxury and while the rest of the country felt smug as they turned off their alarms for a nice mini-break, the academic world took things one step further. My College felt the need to turn the four day weekend into a six day one, by giving everyone two "discretionary" days off, either side of the bank holidays. All the services closed and most of the academics stayed at home. A nice and relaxing time was had by all...well, not quite.
PhD students, who quite frankly aren't too sure what to do with themselves at the best of times, are handed a bona fide bank holiday excuse for kicking up their feet with everyone else and taking some well earned time off. Yet many will tie themselves in knots trying to descide whether they will actually take the time off or still come in and work like the studious individuals they like to hope/pretend that they are.
There is the argument that nobody else will be working. You won't be able to contact your supervisor so you should make the most of this chance and relax. You've worked hard since Christmas, you're not going to get another chance for 'free' time off for several months so you would be a fool not to. Your better half is off work and you're beginning to forget what their face looks like so this would be a great opportunity to spend some time with them. Cheers all around from the 'time off' camp.
BUT...then there's the counter-argument: well the department will be so much quieter, you could get so much work done with nobody else around to distract you. There's so much work to be done and every day that passes takes you one day to closer to the end of your funding and then what are you going to do? If you take a few days off, will you be looking back and cursing them in a few months when you're running out of time? Are your fellow PhD colleagues working? Are you going to look like a complete slacker for taking the time off if everybody else comes in to work?
What to do? What to do? What to do?
So this argument goes back and forth, back and forth. There are some conscientious PhD students who work all year round, they don't need a break, bank holidays are for wusses, etc. They spend every waking hour at their desk/library/lab and, personally, I think these people need to get a grip, and probably some sunlight and social interaction. There are other PhDs who take more time off than they really should and will be struggling to the finish line. You often wonder what it is they actually do with their time, and their funding. And then there's everyone else in the middle, struggling to find the balance between the first group of sunlight deprived keenos and the second, whose chances of submitting become slimmer every day.
What do the inbetweeners like me do? Well, they take the time off, kind of enjoy it, allow themselves to relax a little and then spend a large proportion of the time with their mind in the office, checking their e-mails to make sure their supervisor hasn't decided to test their dedication and get in touch during the day. They are racked with guilt, worrying about those few precious days they've lost, returning to the office just as stressed as they were before this 'wonderful' holiday that everybody else in the country took off.
Ciao for now!
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