The other day I was sent a meme aptly captioned, “this sounds like a 2023 problem.”

Holiday potlucks, white elephant gifts, 12 Days of Christmas and half days off become the “norm” during the Holiday Season. Many organizations take this opportunity to spread the holiday cheer and show various levels of appreciation to employees for working hard all year. That’s all great and wonderful – but sometimes the holiday fun means that someone is picking up the slack so that issues don’t get put off until next year.

All the delightful gestures of the season come at a price and holiday happiness does have a downside when you’re running a business. Like the ole’ adage says, “No good deed goes unpunished.” As you prepare for the continuous requests for time off, holiday lunches (and don’t forget about Secret Santa!), consider for a moment what may also be happening:

• Higher call-in volume
• Late arrivals and early departures
• Unorganized schedules
• Low productivity
• Lack of urgency and insubordination

I think we can all agree that the hustle of the season can get to us and our productivity can take a dip this time of year. We become so stressed with grocery lists, travel arrangements, what to buy our loved ones for Christmas, etc., that we forget we have a job to do. It’s not such a secret why leadership may appear stressed and grumpy during the months November through January. Maybe your leader is a “Scrooge” not because they are a miser, but because they haven’t been in the best of moods and are missing out on their own “good deed” experiences in order to keep the business running.

Yes, it’s wonderful that organizations want to embrace the holidays and ensure all employees are happy, but let’s think about how we can keep the good deeds coming - while remaining in good standing with our coworkers, leaders and customers.

This is the tricky tightrope we must all walk – carefully, narrowly and with confidence. What if ... .

• We alternate schedules or move towards a skeleton crew as the specific holiday approaches?
• We allow individuals with good attendance and/or productivity to attend client/customer specific sponsored festivities as compensated time?
• We host an after-hours event where attendance is not required?

From a business perspective we need to start getting creative with our morale boosters and holiday season cheer while being mindful there is still work to be done. (Our Founder, Leanne, wrote about this last holiday season, you can read her post here.)

Here’s the thing – it’s the end of the year and most companies are closing out the books, its best to end strong. It is easy to identify why no good deed goes unpunished and with that ...

Don’t be a scrooge this holiday season, spread the cheer but also keep in mind that budgets and productivity still matter.