Holiday Preparation

What does your place of employment do to prepare for the Holidays, if anything?

Our facility is open 24/7.  They try to give as many people the actual holiday off as possible.  Running bare bones on those days can be hard, causing more stress. Plus being understaffed to begin with doesn't make it any easier.  One positive that can come out of it....if you don't mind working the holiday, you can get all the overtime you want and rack in some money....The administration always tries to have a good Holiday dinner for the staff on each shift also.  It doesn't make up for the fact that you are missing out on your Holiday with the family, but it is helpful because we all know each of us there are in the same boat. 

Does this time of year cause you more stress at work?

It is a very stressful time at work, due to the environment.  When dealing with people who are in a place they don't want to be in, or have other social and emotional issues, the Holidays only make the time more volatile.  As a staff member we need to be more hyper-vigilant than normal, which takes a toll on each of us individually.  As a supervisor of an area, one other big stress factor for me is scheduling....making sure that things can be run bare bones and run correctly and smoothly is very stressful.  One thing I try to do is give the people who have to work on the actual Holiday, the next day off so they can have the time with their family. It doesn't always work out, and when it does, its not the perfect fix, but its something.

DO NOT TAKE THE JOB HOME WITH YOU......  I have a bad habit of not leaving work at work.  Work is stressful enough.  Lets do the best we can to leave it at the door so we can enjoy ourselves with our friends and family throughout this Holiday season. 

@CyclingThroughLife Since my company removed the paid holiday option last year, I don't think they really care about holidays. However, there are a few people who decorate their desks for the occasion.

As for worload, mine stays constant. I have to look at daily transactions so it's difficult to say whether it's busier or not. However my log for October's activity does definitely seem linger than September. I won't know about November until I get closer to the end of the month.

As for dealing with stress, I just try to do what I always do. Not get involved with the politics at work, deal with technological stalls when opening a file or copying and pasting, and not get annoyed with leads who get onto me for forgetting things but they can spend the majority of the day chatting while I rarely leave my desk...

Since it's just me, a puppy, and an elderly cat, I don't have the holiday stress added on top of everything else. Hovever I have the challenge of the puppy grabbing things she's not supposed to when she's excited. She has gotten better though.

At my workplace, it will most likely be a potluck for Christmas. Sometimes, the surgeons pitch in too, they'd take turns treating us to lunch.

Work is the same, holidays or not. So, the amount of stress has not changed much. I'll be working through it, as others had taken the last 3 weeks of December off.