I get Eid off. Do my journalist colleagues get the same for Puja?

Every year around Eid, I do not apply for leave. I do not count my earned days or think about how many I have left. The office closes and I go home. This March, newspaper offices covered by a Newspaper Owners' Association of Bangladesh (NOAB) decision closed for five days, from March 19 to 23, for Eid-ul-Fitr.

I have always known the calendar does not work the same way for everyone. In the newsroom, I saw colleagues taking leave for Puja or Christmas. But I never really stopped to think about what that meant. For me, Eid does not come out of earned leave.

For a Hindu colleague going home for Durga Puja, it may. A Christian colleague may have to use earned leave for Christmas. A Buddhist colleague may have to do the same for a festival important to them.

That is the part I had not thought enough about.

This year's discussion around the Puja break made me look again at the holiday calendar I had taken for granted. NOAB's own record made the question harder to ignore. Apart from the two Eids, NOAB has at different times declared newspaper holidays for Ashura, Shab-e-Barat and Eid-e-Miladunnabi. It has also declared holidays for Pahela Baishakh and May Day. But I did not find a comparable NOAB closure for Durga Puja, Christmas or Buddha Purnima.

The contrast is even easier to see around Eid. NOAB declared five days off for Eid-ul-Azha in 2025 and another five days for Eid-ul-Fitr this March.

I am not saying colleagues from other faiths are routinely refused leave. That is not the issue. A chief reporter or desk head may approve three days for a Hindu colleague during Puja without any problem. But if those three days come out of that colleague's earned leave, while my Eid holidays cost me nothing from mine, there is still a difference.

Earned leave has other uses. People save it for family occasions, travel, emergencies, rest, or simply a few days away from work. I get to keep mine while celebrating the biggest festival of my faith. Why should a colleague have to use their earned leave to observe theirs?

There is an obvious response. Hindu, Buddhist and Christian journalists also get the Eid holidays when the newspaper closes. That is true.. But those days are not for their festival. When Puja or Christmas comes, they may still have to return to their earned-leave balance.
This is not about counting how many days each community gets. Nor am I arguing that Eid holidays should be shortened. There are practical reasons newspapers close for several days around Eid, including mass travel and the difficulty of staffing newsrooms during that period.

I am writing this as much to editors and newsroom managers as to colleagues in my own newsroom and across the media. Many of us who celebrate Eid may never have thought about this because the existing calendar already works for us. I had not thought enough about it either.

Newspapers do not have to close the entire office for Puja, Christmas or Buddha Purnima. They could instead give employees a small number of paid festival holidays for the major religious occasions they observe, without deducting those days from earned leave. If a Hindu journalist takes three days around Durga Puja, those days could be treated as festival holidays rather than taken from their earned-leave balance. A Christian colleague could have the same arrangement around Christmas, and a Buddhist colleague for a major Buddhist festival. The newspaper would remain open.

Festival dates are known well in advance. Newsrooms already prepare rosters for Eid, public holidays and weekends. Reporters swap duties. Some work on holidays and take compensatory days later. The same arrangements can cover colleagues taking their own festival holidays.

Some organisations may already do this. If so, it should be written clearly into policy rather than worked out informally each year. Editors would know in advance who is likely to be away, and staff would know that observing their main festival does not mean giving up part of their earned leave.

For me, Eid has never begun with a leave calculation. The office calendar has always taken care of that. If Eid does not cost me a day of earned leave, Puja, Christmas or Buddha Purnima should not cost my colleagues theirs.