Schmickie

It was Monday.

The only noteworthy thing was introducing the word klämdag into the workplace.

As Lord Wiki – as Dina loves to call it – notes…

In Sweden, a public holiday is typically referred to as “red day” (röd dag), as it is printed in red in calendars. It is quite common for businesses to close at noon the day before certain holidays, and also if a holiday falls on a Tuesday or a Thursday, Swedes will commonly take off the “squeeze day” (klämdag) that falls between the red day and the weekend.

And that’s what we had today in Australia, as it was the day before the public holiday, and a day when an estimated 25% of the workforce were thought to have called in sick to make the most of the holiday period.

Knowing about the philosophy of the klämdag, that people would be attracted to the idea of a day off leading in to the public holiday, I mentioned to my staff a few weeks ago that if they wanted to have the day off, they should apply for leave. And guess what? Quite a few did, and thus, their long weekend was all above board and known about before-hand. They didn’t have to fib, to call in with a croaky voice, pretending they were sick. They were happy. I was happy. Win-win.

James Valentine did some talkback on radio this afternoon wondering if we could find an Australian word to describe the day.

The best result was the “schmickie”. Love it!