Our facility will be shut down for the week of Christmas, and many of the people will also be gone the following week over the New Year’s Day week. Today is a half-day for the regular employees, who will get to bail out at around noon. Those of us who are contract workers aren’t quite as lucky, though, but we’ll also be off for the week of Christmas.
As I type this, about 90% of my co-workers are standing in the aisles outside their cubicles shooting the bull with their workmates, not doing any work. I’ve probably done about half the work I usually do and been spending more of my time on here than I usually do.
So, what’s it like around your workplace when the holidays approach? Do people tend to slack off more, or is it work, work, work, right up to the big day itself?
Pretty much the same here. GWB has given civil service and military types an extra holiday on the 24th and the ones around here are getting a 6 day head start on it in the hallway right now. The last snippet I heard was someone advising someone else to drink plenty of alcohol during her trip to Costa Rica in order to avoid traveler’s tummy.
I work in the customer service department of a company that sells a lot of Christmas-present-worthy items, so we’re pretty busy. Of course, I’m not actually one of the CS reps, so I have very little to do, and I wish everyone was a little more party-like, just so I wouldn’t be spending my whole day cruising message boards. lol
But other offices I’ve worked in over the years have the same syndrome–it seems that sometime around December 18-19th, everyone forgets about working and decides they deserve a vacation. The last two companies I’ve worked for are the kind that don’t give “freebie” holidays, so Christmas Eve and the 26th we’re right back at our desks, I guess we all figure we should be allowed a good deal of slack time.
Nope, we work, since the production schedule grinds on regardless. We’ve got five days’ worth to do in three days next week, so it will actually be busier than usual. The following week, I’m taking vacation days for 12/31 (my birthday!) and 1/2 (why not, I need a break). Whenever I take time off, it loads me up in advance as I get orgaznized and prepare the delegatees on what to expect.
Ahh yes the Christmas Season has approached. However, this means very little to me or my office this year. As, I am working with the Northern Iraq Office of Judical Operations in Mosul, Iraq with the 101st Airborne Division. On Christmas Eve we are having a grand opening of our Anti Corruption Commission. As of now, we will take Christmas off. The last couple weeks work has picked up and not slowed a bit. . . . Ah yes, but I get to leave soon . . .
Since animals never bother to consult the calender before getting sick or injured, we stay pretty busy right up to and right through the big day. The elective stuff in surgery will slack off considerably next week and New Year’s week, but that’s really about it.
My boss, who works in another city and only visits me once or twice a year, arrived today, spent most of the day and took me to lunch. So, contrary to the OP I actually did more work today that I usually do since Boss man was sitting nearby and I need to look busy.
I also fixed his laptop while he was here. He’s very happy with me.
For a casino, holidays are usually our biggest days (lots of lonely people with no family that they want to spend time with). Combined with the fact that lousy weather makes people want to play inside instead of outside and that makes for some very busy holidays indeed. In fact, our HR department puts out a memo every major holiday dictating how many points (we work on a point system where if you get too many you’re terminated) will be issued to people calling in sick or for other reasons too close to their scheduled start of shift. We are told that if we are scheduled to work on the holidays to plan to celebrate them on different days. Sometimes it’s not so grand to work for a casino.