Believe it or not, and like it or not, Christmas is not far behind. Christmas! That so-called season of joy where we engage in a flurry of mass shopping, endure the annual struggle of setting up the Christmas tree, and suffer through the challenge of scheduling multiple family dinners and visitations.
All of these activities get squeezed into such a short time so that we can celebrate, enjoy and share a festive occasion.
Yet, holiday seasons such as Christmas can be stressful both at work and at home. While stress can sometimes be invigorating, and help to get your adrenaline flowing, it can also get in the way. In fact, stress can turn a jolly season into one that isn't quite so jolly.
After all, time constraints make the mix of Christmas planning, festive baking, shopping and family/work responsibilities difficult.
For instance, how many times have you felt stress as you've rushed from work to a store to purchase one item, then stand in line for longer than expected, all the while worrying about being late for your child's sports or artistic activities?
That's stress for sure. Life/work balance just got thrown out of balance.
And what is going on at work during the Christmas season? First of all, you might be one of the planners for the company Christmas event. This task has included arranging the location, the food, the decorations and planning for employee seating, fun activities and assigning designated drivers. Not only that, perhaps your committee hasn't been very active so that much of the responsibility has fallen upon your shoulders. Now that's stress and pressure!
And then there are the routine business requirements. In manufacturing, clients often want to rush an order and so deadlines are moved up. Those in retail are frequently confronted with disgruntled shoppers who are angered that their chosen item is sold out or are frustrated with the long lineups. Service industries may be challenged with staffing issues as Christmas is their busiest time of year.
Stress either in the home or in the workplace during a festive holiday season can create havoc with your life. Extreme stress can lead to health related issues such as sleepless nights, an increase in allergies or upset stomach and mental health issues such as moodiness, mood swings, crankiness, angry outbursts, and/or mild depression. At work, you may be unable to concentrate, experience poor judgment, generally feel anxious from worry and sometimes you might even be perceived to "freeze".
All in all, festive seasons such as Christmas and Hanukkah can be stressful both at home and at work. Several of the following suggestions for staying sane at home during this time are well-known, tried and true.
At home:
-- Set a personal budget for your Christmas expenditures. Plan ahead of time, making purchases well before the festive season.
-- Revert to good old-fashioned gift traditions: making your gifts instead of purchasing items. You can prepare for this all year and be ready ahead of time.
-- If children are older, consider bypassing gift giving and donate both time and money to a charity of choice.
-- Make plans for family gatherings and invite family members to share in the responsibility of cooking, cleaning and entertaining. Limit the occasions for socializing.
-- If you are in charge of making the holiday meal, use the cook and freeze method to create time efficiencies. Assign different foods to different families for a potluck festive dinner.
-- Plan for an equal amount of family activity and personal rest time; select a family fun movie; pull out those traditional family games, visit your seniors.
Managers, at work:
-- Review your workload and set new priorities for the festive season. Determine those activities that could be put aside and postponed until the new year; negotiate this with your senior manager.
-- Ensure employees apply for their holiday leave early so that you can plan effectively. Set up a guideline to help you set priorities on both work requirements and HR issues such as seniority.
-- Determine if there is any flexibility in your staff scheduling; examine the potential of giving more inexperienced employees stretch assignments or job rotation opportunities for development while their more senior counterparts take vacation.
-- Examine your own life/work balance issues; ensure your plans allow for time to personally refresh. As the role model in your organization, you need to maintain a positive attitude as this will affect your employees.
-- Avoid making any organizational changes or introducing new programs or services during a festive season; wait until the new year and then ensure effective training and communication.
-- Adopt the management by walking around approach; watch for signs of stress, identify employees who are vulnerable and work together to create supports.
-- Communicate frequently with your employees during a festive season; assist them to prioritize their work. Keep interruptions and noise levels to a minimum so that additional distractions do not occur.
-- Provide extra opportunities for social interaction during lunch or coffee breaks; bring in some festive treats, hold a special lunch where everyone brings a meal contribution from the list of family favourites; create a fun activity during this time.
-- Arrange for the staff collection of items for a family food hamper and/or a gift hamper items; seek volunteer staff to deliver the packages. Create a small event to celebrate your accomplishments. Write this up in your company newsletter.
Workplace stress, especially during the various festive seasons, is now a well-known fact and frankly, it is quite disconcerting to recognize the financial cost and losses to both business and employees. Absenteeism, accidents, errors in judgment and frequent short- and long-term disability situations for employees and soaring health-care costs and lost revenue for businesses. Not a pretty picture.
So, this holiday season, take time to identify the risk of stress in your personal and professional life and put strategies in place to overcome it.
Barbara J. Bowes, FCHRP, CMC, CCP, is president of Legacy Bowes Group and is vice-president of Waterhouse executive search group. She can be reached at barb@legacybowes.com
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