Should You Work Between Christmas And New Year ?

Christmas is just around the corner, employers and employees in the UK are looking forward to a little bit of time off over the festive period. So, should you work between Christmas and New Years?

With everyone getting the bank holidays of Christmas, Boxing and New Year’s Day off, many companies also shut down completely between 25th December and 2nd January.

Here we explore the pros and cons of working During Christmas and hopefully we’ll get your thoughts on whether people should Work During Christmas time!

If you close your office

1. Employees are more productive and motivated in December and January.

Employees that have a decent length break to look forward to at the end of December are more likely to be motivated to complete their work by 24^th, leading to higher productivity in December. Those that are working through Christmas week do not have a rest to look forward to and consequently may be lacking in motivation and energy. Being off until January 2^nd also leads to higher motivation in the New Year as employees had a mental and physical break from work.

2. Employers save money

By closing the office, employers can save on overheads such as heating, lighting, additional security and other utilities. If you stay open, some employees will probably take holidays anyway so you will be spending money on heating and lighting an under-utilised facility. It doesn’t make good economic sense.

3. Customers and suppliers may not be available

If your suppliers and customers have closed for Christmas, you may not have enough people to do business with, making it an inefficient use of your employees’ time. If it is the norm in your industry to close down, it probably make sense for you to do so as well.

4. You can use the time to do maintenance/make logistic changes

The perfect time to do maintenance, refurbishment of an area or changing office furniture is when there are no employees on site. You don’t have to do your maintenance outside of the working day.

Bringing in new office furniture like desks and chairs can be quite disruptive to business. So making changes from traditional desks to ones which are more ergonomic and adjustable, such as sit-stand desks, makes perfect sense during the shutdown. Sit-stand desks have been shown to increase employee health and productivity so you can get a flying start in the New Year.

If you stay open during the Christmas week

1. You could catch up on admin/planning tasks which get pushed to the side when the office is busy

When the office is quiet and your customers are busy tucking into their 3^rd box of mince pies, you could be using this lull in activity to get your office in order. Admin, filing, shredding and other paperwork can often get pushed to the side when you are focused on meeting your customers’ needs. The quiet period could be just the time to implement a new process for paperwork using one of our great storage solutions. Contact us on info@gbnprimo.co.uk or 01992 709420.

2. You could give your employees a choice of when to take their holidays.

Staying open over Christmas allows your employees to choose when they want to take holidays. Not everyone has family they want to visit or perhaps they prefer to see them at another time when flights are cheaper. Having flexibility in your leave policy is an attractive benefit to many employees.

3. You could get a sneak on your competition

While your competitors are busy hoovering up the turkey sandwiches, you could take advantage of the situation. Come up with an innovative promotion or event to run over the festive period which can help boost your sales at a time which might traditionally be a bit slow.

Many companies that have had a hectic run up to Christmas are looking forward to taking stock in January – call it a little winter snooze. Leverage their post-holiday lethargy and launch a new product right in time for the New Year – why wait until January? It takes extra planning, but it can be done.

So, tell us what your plans are for this holiday season. Will you be downing tools or are you ploughing on through?

We’d love to get your thoughts in the comment section below or chat with us on our Facebook page.

4. ‘Hooray’ you get a seat on your commute – no traffic jams

The dreaded commute to work, squashed like sardines in a tin or sitting in endless traffic jams – we have all experienced nightmare journeys to work at some point. If your working throughout Christmas, you can enjoy your commute to work read a book without having someone’s armpit in your face or turn up the music without irritating anyone.

5. Escape the in-laws or the awkward dinner party

Unfortunately, not everyone looks forward to the Christmas season, keeping family members happy can be a daunting task. Especially those that ‘outstay’ their welcome.

Working through Christmas gives you a great excuse to avoid the family get together’s that you dread, but virtually forced to attend – not filled with so much Christmas spirit but of anxiety and stress. If you are working throughout the festive period, you have a good reason to leave early quoting “working in the morning”.

WHATEVER YOU DECIDE

OFFICE FURNITURE

HAVE A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR

From All the Team at GBN Primo