Holidays and productivity

This is in response to the article in the Editorial titled " What a waste". I would like to refute the arguments presented. Citing the number of public holidays as the reason for lower productivity, the scribe takes a very narrow view of what increases productivity.
First productivity comes from an efficient work force, a work force that can complete a given task in a certain amount of time without compromising the quality of performance.
Increasing the number of working days will not increase productivity if the employee is inherently inefficient.
This in-efficiency steps from various factors including lack of proper management, leadership and a trained and motivated workforce. These are the classic ingredients lacking in the government organisations that the letter mentions.
Other reasons for lack of productivity could be stress, health issues and lack of proper nutrition, all of which are common for workforce at the lower levels. In most Western organisation both Saturday and Sunday are off days.
Thus the effective number of days they get holidays are much higher than in Pakistan where we get only Sunday as an off day and the half-day of Saturday is anything but a half day.
The Sunday is spent in taking care off the huge backlog of things like shopping and other household chores.
In the West people enjoy their weekends by way of indulging in hobbies and recreation to have a relaxed mind for a productive week.
Furthermore one is motivated to work for the five days knowing that he has a long weekend ahead of him. Finally work ethics are not developed because of the number of holidays. Work ethics are ingrained from childhood and are present in the fabric of the national psyche.
To summing up i would reiterate that getting a windfall day off as was the case on the 21st of February will not greatly affect productivity and the number of days worked is only one factor contributing to it. Thus all the issues have to be dealt with in a holistic fashion to address this problem in Pakistan.