Managing Holiday Workplace Chaos and Scheduling Conflicts
Its that time of year, and the inevitable holiday workplace schedule conflicts and time crunches are likely going to appear in your workplace. Illnesses are more frequent these days, people need time off becuase their lives are chaos and all the while, your business is trying to close the year out. How can we most effectively deal with these conflicts so that everyone walks away happy?
(For more on managing the holiday chaos, see our blog post “Managing the 5 Biggest Workplace Holiday Headaches“.
Let’s first establish this, everyone has a life outside of work, but that doesn’t mean that production stops. This is still a business, and stuff still needs to get done. Making sure your business stays in production and allowing employees some freedom to ensure their holiday is as good as it can be will take some planning. Here are some ideas.
Plan Ahead
Ask everyone to get any time off requests in as early as possible. You can let your employees know by memo, posting or email/text where you should kindly communicate clearly how these requests should be placed. If you company has a self-service portal or a timekeeping portal, ask your employees to use this system.
Planning ahead involves juggling the employees request for time off and the needs of the business. Don’t be so quick to decline a request because it interferes with a deadline or busy day, but seek to find alternative ways to get it done. If you’re the boss or business owner, sometimes that alternative is YOU! The buck stops with you, and servant leadership is the most effective way to build morale and employee loyalty.
Encourage Your Team to Work it Out Together
Help your employees to communicate and cooperate with each other so they can find ways to help each other out. The last thing you want is power plays and selfishness so this may take some guidance on your part. Don’t just leave it to them entirely but coach them in ways they can work together to be sure everyone is on the same team. When a decision between requests arises, get those employees together and see if they can make their own compromise. Whatever they come up with together will surely be better than a cut and dry decision from management.
Working From Home Shouldn’t be a Last Resort
What about allowing workers to work from home? If it’s just some computer work or making calls, can they work from home a few hours during the week? Maybe that will allow then time to handle affairs at home like baking cookies, wrapping presents or whatever. Just make sure they bring some of those cookies to the office! If this is an option, be sure they have what they need to be productive and that you have some accountability set up.
Don’t be a Scrooge
This should be a great time of the year where your actions as a business owner or manager can have a great or not so great impact on your workforce. Maybe have a lunch day set up for the employees in the last week or so before Christmas break. Try and be as flexible as possible and don’t just deny requests for time off for no reason. Flexibility now will turn your employees into your greatest fans.
You scratch their back, and they’ll scratch yours…except don’t actually do that! With all that’s happening on the news lately, that might get you in trouble!
Have a wonderful Christmas, Hanukah, or whatever holiday it is that you celebrate. We at Infinium appreciate having you as our followers and our clients. Be safe and enjoy this special time of year!
And please, lets us know if there is anything we can do to help you now, or in 2018!