Brazil still operates during Carnival – just!
Posted by By Mark Hillary at 20 February, at 16 : 40 PM Print
This is Carnival week in Brazil. Traditionally it is a time where the entire country takes almost a week off to celebrate at parties that are so elaborate they have often taken a year to plan.
If you use Google to find a list of all the national holidays in Brazil then it is almost certain that Carnival will be included. Here is an example for 2012 that lists Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday this week as all being national holidays – though it does add a note saying that Wednesday is ‘unofficial’.
Given that many people wind down for Carnival starting on the Friday before Carnival week, it is a very difficult time to do any business in Brazil – it feels like the entire country is closed for a week.
But here at IT Decisions we have meetings scheduled today – in person or online – with companies in the USA, New Zealand, and UK. All countries that don’t celebrate the Carnival and have scheduled meetings with us today, something that led me to mention our “holiday work” on Twitter, only for another Twitter user to point out that none of these holidays are actually legal – they are cultural rather than being mandated by the government.
Why is this important?
Well, any foreign firm trying to do business in Brazil might well be scared off if they come to visit during Carnival. There is no postal service right now, no banks are open, some restaurants have closed up for the week, and many shops are reducing the hours they are open. And yet the British firm we are meeting today made the mistake of coming to have a look at the Brazilian market this very week – it’s business as usual in the UK so they assumed it would be here too.
But given that these holidays are cultural, rather than mandated by law, it is up to every company to determine how to handle them. Your company could go with the flow and shut down for a few days so the staff can samba in the street, or you could take the opposite view and just make everyone work – though they might resent you for that. The often-used option here on the ground is that in the weeks leading up to Carnival, people work extra days at the weekend or late into the evening to store up enough hours to take time off this week.
But if you are running a contact centre or IT firm that has international customers, you need to be aware of your international clients – they won’t accept that your company is closing down for a week so everyone can enjoy the party. Knowing that these holidays are a cultural expectation, rather than a legal requirement, can help inform the decisions of anyone planning to invest in Brazil for hi-tech services.
Brazilians are flexible people and their love of the Carnival heritage is a great attraction. However you choose to solve the problem of a week-long shutdown, your team will support you more if you include them in the planning process. After all, Carnival happens just once a year!
Photo by Prefeitura de Olinda licensed under Creative Commons
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Tatiana, 1 year ago
There’s a few issues with your article. First of all, you stress several times that Carnival does not need to be respected since it is not in fact mandated by law. This is partially incorrect, since it actually depends on the state/city you are working in. In the State of Rio de Janeiro, for example, the Carnival Tuesday (“terca-feira de Carnaval”) is a holiday by way of Law# 5.243.
Secondly, you seem to overlook an important factor which every global company seems to practice (and I have worked in quite a few of those): the secret of being successful in a foreign country is learning about and respecting local culture. Therefore, if you were for example in Israel, you would not expect anyone there to work on a Friday, even though that would be expected of you in the USA or UK. Same goes for Carnival in Brazil. Your employees may state that they are okay with working during Carnival, but trust me, if ever an opportunity knocks their way, you will lose that employee. And what’s worse, they will complain to everyone that the main reason for leaving your company was that you didn’t let him/her off on Carnival – not a good thing when your aim is to hire the best (not a big deal if you’ll just settle for any level of employee). Obviously, there are exceptions here, such as people on call, back up etc. But these would have already been aware that that’s what expected of them in their line of work and this doesn’t only apply to Carnival, but also Christmas, New Year’s, Easter etc.
Lastly, it is your obligation to inform your international clients of the local culture so that they are aware and can plan business trips accordingly. You should have consulted with your British clients prior to them making travel plans during Carnival week and advised them that that was not the best time to travel there and the fact that you didn’t reflects poorly on you and your company. It’s a bit like trying to get a hold of people on Martin Luther King Day or Columbus Day in the USA. Companies aren’t required to observe that holiday and you’ll find that a lot of them don’t, but nevertheless, there are quite few companies that do. Therefore, would you travel to the USA on those days to do business? Probably not.
First rule in doing business globally: don’t assume the rest of the world does business exactly the way you do!
By the way, in two years the World Cup will be in Brazil. You’ll have a lot of angry employees and customers if you force them to do business during the Brazil matches!
Mark Hillary, 1 year ago
OK, you are right that Brazil has different laws state by state – that is made clear in the link (in Portuguese) though.
I do not agree with your comment about appreciating local culture meaning you cannot force people to work at Christmas or Carnival though… the article mentions industries such as contact centres, which are available 24/7/365… this kind of work has to go on despite local festivals.
The British company is not yet a client of ours – though possibly they will be – so it was never in our remit to advise them when to travel… they got in touch and asked to meet and the first thing I said was that this is a terrible time to be doing business in Brazil… but they managed to get a lot of meetings, even in the middle of Carnival.
Again, I understand the cultural sensitivity around the World Cup and letting employees have time to watch the games, but if I am running a contact centre or other service then there cannot be a two-hour period when service is down because of a football match.
Brazil Futbol | Brazil still operates during Carnival – just! – IT Decisions, 1 year ago
[...] Follow this link: Brazil still operates during Carnival – just! – IT Decisions [...]
eric, 1 year ago
well, how naive and/or arrogant are your british friends, just to even half presume the world turns like an english winkle
Mark Hillary, 1 year ago
I don’t think it’s arrogance – this is a company that wants to invest in Brazil and will immediately create at least 50 jobs. That’s not something you should sneer at. But they should have checked the details of how Carnival affects business perhaps… however you should also understand that it is not only the UK that does not celebrate Carnival in the same way as Brazil – no European country stops work for this celebration.
Felipe Albertao, 1 year ago
Brazil not only stops during Carnaval, but also nothing concrete gets done between Christmas and Carnaval. A former manager of mine always planned the year for 10 months instead of 12, and he would never schedule projects in January and February. I think that’s a wise strategy, which is probably useful for foreign companies.
This happens in China too: The country literally stops during the Chinese New Year (a 10 days holiday!), and everything is scheduled around that: Factories stop production, shipments get delayed and workers leave for their hometowns (most factory workers in China are migrants). Another interesting fact is that businesses have the highest turn-over during that period, since most of workers go back to their hometowns and often they decide to try their luck in another place after the holidays. So the factory manager needs to plan for the downtime, but also for the “ramp-up” time in hiring a lot of workers (often demanding higher salaries).
The difference is that China has very few long holidays, and factory workers almost always have no vacation, while in Brazil we have several holidays plus law-mandated 30-days, so probably that offsets the overall “impact” of the Chinese New Year.
(I’m not saying this is good or bad, and in fact I’m in favor of strong labor laws like in Brazil — I’m just providing another point of view)