When is a public holiday, not a public holiday?

Don't assume, unless you know

Today, I’m in Munich, where, in common with other Catholic parts of the world, it’s a public holiday in commemoration of Assumption Day.

It’s a lovely sunny day, and the European Athletics Championships are in full swing. If I can get away from my keyboard, I might even move from my desk and go and watch the Marathons that are taking place a few hundred metres from where I’m sitting.

Since many other decisions in Germany are devolved to the Länder (States) — most obviously in recent months, certain COVID requirements in relation, for example, to mask-wearing — I had naturally assumed that the public holiday would apply across the whole of Bavaria.

Not for the first time, I was completely wrong.

Location, location, location

As I discovered when I read an article from a local newspaper that explained that although the public holiday is declared on a state-wide basis, it only takes effect in communities where the majority of the population are Catholic. That status is determined by data from the latest census.

As a result:

• 1.704 communities (shown in blue below) predominantly in the South of the State, so including Munich, are on holiday today; and
• 352 communities predominantly in the North, including Nuremberg, aren’t. 

Legal Grey Zones

On the face of it, that shouldn’t be a problem. Everyone knows where they live.  Unless, that is, you're a lake- or mountain-dweller in which case, you're living in one of the grey areas on the map which are 'areas without communities'. In that case, you're literally in a legal grey zone.

But what about people that live in one area and work in another? Do they get the holiday, or do they have to go to work? The official answer is that your right to a holiday is determined by the location of your place of work. So, if you work in a predominantly Catholic area, but live in a predominantly Protestant one, you're on holiday. And vice versa.

In case you’re wondering — and yes, I did check this out — the latest version of the Bavarian law that governs this was put on the statute books in 1980, so it doesn't contemplate the idea of home offices!

However, it has contemplated those of the Catholic faith who want to go commemorate the holiday but find themselves on the wrong side of the holiday border. There’s a specific provision there that means they’re allowed to take a day off to go to Church. They just won’t get paid.

It’s even more confusing when it comes to public transport. Trains and buses that operate within one of two areas will either run a holiday or normal Monday schedule. But passengers travelling on ones that criss-cross the two will need to enquire.

Meanwhile, some ‘enterprising’ retailers that are in a part of the state that can open today are enticing people who live in a part where they can’t, to cross the ‘border’ and spend their day off shopping.  Not exactly what the letter or spirit of the law intended.

Three human risk lessons

All of which teach us three valuable Human Risk lessons.

1. Just because a rule or principle is common in one place doesn’t mean it’s common everywhere else. Larger organisations take note that the way the world looks from your head office might not be the way it looks from your regional or overseas offices. When making changes to rulebooks, it’s best to start from the presumption there will be somewhere it might present difficulties and establish where that is, rather than assuming it’ll automatically work.
2. There will be exceptions to every rule, and human beings are very good at finding loopholes. For every well-intentioned rule, there will be some unintended consequences. Particularly when analogue rules are applied in a digital world. If we start from the principle that these will exist, we can then work out what they might be and react accordingly. Equally, in a changing world, it's important to recognise where longstanding rules might no longer make sense.
3. However, do also remember a principle called Chesterton’s Fence. Before we remove or change a rule, it is important to understand why that rule exists in the first place. If you can’t work out why, then don’t remove it until you can.

All of which I'd neatly summarise as a reminder on Assumption Day of the dangers of making assumptions (with a small 'a'). However you’re spending yours, I wish you a Happy Monday!

To find out more about Human Risk and the work I do helping my clients by 'Bringing Behavioural Science to Ethics and Compliance', visit www.human-risk.com