In most countries people are actually over worked, so i don't think cutting down on holidays is a good idea. In India soo many companies stooge people out of their holidays, and force people to work on sat!! I'd say that is a very good reason to have more holidays not less. Furthermore there are always holidays that are lost when they fall on weekends. In Australia we have a very good system for this (not sure if its the same anywhere else). If a holiday falls on a weekend the next week day is a holiday!! And on the point of making constructive use of holidays. People are free to do what they want to do on their time off. Some people feel relaxed by meditating and other like partying. Just because one does not like or understand what others do is not a valid reason to start reducing holidays. But hey if you want to work more (for some strange reason), you can still do so. Just remote connect from home and work away!!! Shashank .Net Developer