How amazing. Must be why every other company on the planet also shuts down when some of their employees go on holidays. Oh wait, they don't.
It really is a monumental nonsense.
Neil
Lots of big companies have mandated 'off days' that employees have to take as holiday... some people don't go to work between Christmas and New Year, because there's not enough people to make opening up worthwhile.. teachers are told when they have to be on holiday...
But there again, maybe what we need to spice a race up is half the pit crew taking a holiday... drivers can pick which two tyres they'd like changed at any one pitstop, and at the other end of the car there's a nice postcard from Majorca...
This is ignoring the fact that the shutdown isn't because the team can't function without a few people at a time - the shutdown is to stop the team making sure they won't have to by not granting any holiday. It's protection for guys (and girls) that spend half their year travelling and it's also protection for those at the factory that are being pressured for that extra bit of development... it's like drivers and yellow flags - if you can't trust that they can self-regulate, then I don't see the problem with someone applying external pressure for the wellbeing of all.
It's not even like a mid season break is a totally F1 thing... don't lots of European football leagues have a Christmas shut down period?