Block Compensation Days
Part IV to handle a generous solution
In this blog post, I’ll expand on the ideas about compensation days that I discussed in my two previous posts.
Imagine a company so generous with holiday time that it shuts down for an entire week around Christmas, giving everyone paid time off. Sounds like a dream, right? But what happens when this well-intentioned generosity collides with the calendar, potentially leading to some employees receiving extra days off simply because Christmas holidays take place during the weekend and they have a Belgian contract stipulating the requirement for compensation days (hours) when a holiday happens in a weekend.
This is the puzzle many organizations face when trying to balance festive cheer with fair compensation. In this blog post, we’ll delve into the complexities of managing holiday schedules, especially when dealing with fixed shutdown periods and the variability of Christmas falling on a weekend.
The simple straightforward solution
To address the issue of unintended extra holidays for Belgian employees when Christmas falls on a weekend, we implement a straightforward solution. Since Christmas Day in Belgium is exclusively celebrated on December 25th, we can focus on preventing extra compensation specifically for this date when it occurs on a Saturday or Sunday.
The provided code snippet showcases a filter applied to a database of holiday dates. This filter checks for several conditions to identify instances where weekend Christmas compensation might be triggered. It verifies if the date is a weekend, if it’s the current date, if it’s a fixed-date holiday like Christmas, and if the country (Belgium, in this case) has compensation logic applied.
However, to make this filter truly effective, we need to add a crucial element. We must explicitly exclude December 25th from triggering the compensation logic. By incorporating a condition that checks if the day is 25th and the month is 12, we can deactivate the compensation automation in these specific instances.
By combining this refined filter with the exclusion rule for December 25th, we have established a robust solution that prevents unintended extra holidays while upholding the organization’s generous holiday policy. This approach ensures that employees receive the appropriate amount of time off without compromising the company’s commitment to providing a fair and enjoyable work environment.
A quick note on the technical side: I chose to use Contains().Not() instead of != for excluding dates and months. While both options work, Contains().Not() is more flexible. It lets me easily add more exclusions to the list in the future, which is always a plus.
Hopefully, this post has shed some light on this common Coda challenge and empowered you to create more interactive and insightful data experiences. On a personal note, creating these in-depth posts takes a lot of time and effort. While I love sharing my knowledge, a little support goes a long way. If you found this helpful, what about a donation or sharing this post with your fellow Coda enthusiasts? Every bit of encouragement helps fuel the next 48 blockbusters!
My name is Christiaan, and I regularly blog about Coda. While this article is free, my professional services (including consultations) are not, but I’m always happy to chat and explore potential solutions. You can find my free contributions in the Coda Community and on X. The Coda Community is a fantastic resource for free insights, especially when you share a sample doc.
