Banish the stress of Christmas from your organisation
More than ever, many of us begin and end the holidays exhausted. The stress of Christmas at work has begun to ruin our festive spirit and we need to do something about it.
Research by AXA PPP found that 28% of us will be struck by an illness over our holidays which is bought on by ‘pre festive season burnout’.
But the bad statistics just go on:
– 69% of employees’ workload increased in the run up to Christmas
– 68% of employees think about work for most of the day, during the holidays
– 21% check their work calls and e-mails throughout each day ‘just in case’
And perhaps the most upsetting statistic of all, 26% would even go so far as to say that they wish they could skip the holidays entirely so they didn’t have to put up with the stress of Christmas!
There are a few things you can do to ease the stress of Christmas holiday preparations and luckily they are pretty straight forward.
1) Manage holiday schedules. There is nothing more stressful than having half of your department on holiday for most of December or January as no one has had time to take annual leave throughout the rest of the year. It then leaves the workload to those left in the office and thus begins the stress of Christmas. Use a holiday and absence management tool, such as Engage to track holidays and ensure that they are spread out evenly though out the year.
2) Ensure that your employees know how to manage stress and their impending work load. Sitting down at the beginning of December to decide on the delegation of tasks from those on annual leave, a realistic time scale for each major task and to let employees know how to manage their new pressures is a great way to start the holidays. It shows that their managers are aware of their pressures and are there for the great slog too.
3) Tell them that the holidays are for relaxing, not for overtime. Although inevitably not everyone in all companies can switch off entirely, not everyone also has to remain by their blackberry’s or laptop. Make it clear that you won’t be contactable and neither should they. Otherwise your team will come back just as dishevelled as when they left.
4) Help them to sleep and stay productive. If the stress of Christmas is keeping your employees awake at night, follow some of Honeydew’s tips on how you can help with insomnia and how to stay alert at work despite the tiredness.