# What is the busiest time of year for your profession? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 1, 2005, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-busiest-time-of-year-for-your-profession/328924 "2005-11-01T16:42:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2005, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-busiest-time-of-year-for-your-profession/328924/1 "2005-11-01T16:42:07Z")
The busiest time for candy stores would have to be holloween, no? For liquor stores it would be New Years Eve. What about where you work? If the answer is not so obvious, please tell us why. ---
**Author:** ![Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bambi_Hassenpfeffer)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2005, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-busiest-time-of-year-for-your-profession/328924/2 "2005-11-01T16:50:29Z")
We’re coming into it right now. From the two weeks pre-Thanksgiving up until New Year’s Eve are the worst. And just when we think we’ve escaped, there’s a boom in returned checks that starts in January. Grocery store, BTW. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2005, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-busiest-time-of-year-for-your-profession/328924/3 "2005-11-01T17:03:44Z")
Standardized testing. Usually, the busiest time is from about March until June. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2005, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-busiest-time-of-year-for-your-profession/328924/4 "2005-11-01T17:14:58Z")
The busiest time for real estate is summer, with spring and early autumn not far behind. People like to move in the summer, when it’s warmer outside and you don’t interrupt the children’s school year. The start of cold weather also brings in homeless people looking for a place to stay. The winter sucks–first the holidays, then cold and snow and shorter days. Who wants to look at houses in the dark? ---
**Author:** ![DeVena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dec6dc/32.png) [@DeVena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeVena)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2005, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-busiest-time-of-year-for-your-profession/328924/5 "2005-11-01T17:17:16Z")
Hurricane season. Slowest season for environmental regulation is December/January. Merry Christmas to Me! ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2005, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-busiest-time-of-year-for-your-profession/328924/6 "2005-11-01T17:26:39Z")
The ends of the semesters, when final exams come. If I had to pick a single time, I’d say the end of the fall semester, since there are also often conferences around that time (there are conferences in the summer, too, but spread out over the entire summer). ---
**Author:** ![metj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6a8cbe/32.png) [@metj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/metj)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2005, 5:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-busiest-time-of-year-for-your-profession/328924/7 "2005-11-01T17:54:29Z")
I work in the shipping department of a large plumbing company. It used to be the end of every month, and then especially the end of the year - only really to reach the goals set for our department. Now our boss has decided that we all will work every Saturday no matter how busy or slow it is. We are allowed one weekend off a month, but the department as a whole has not had a weekend off (excluding holidays) for almost two years. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Cemetery\_Savior](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/439d5e/32.png) [@Cemetery\_Savior](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cemetery_Savior)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2005, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-busiest-time-of-year-for-your-profession/328924/8 "2005-11-01T18:11:42Z")
Large-group insurance…from about 10/1-11/15. On cases of some size (10,000 lives+), you need to get teh complexity under control, nail down plan differences in the upcoming plan year, figure out Communications for Open Enrollment (right now, by the way), and work out what populations need new ID Cards, etc. Much more complex than that, but that’s the answer. Now. ---
**Author:** ![SpartanDC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b2d939/32.png) [@SpartanDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpartanDC)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2005, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-busiest-time-of-year-for-your-profession/328924/9 "2005-11-01T18:15:14Z")
I work for a news organization that focuses in particular on Congress. So, our busiest times are the last two weeks of July (before the big August recess) and, in an off-year, mid-November to early December. This is when the legislators stop bickering and actually strike deals to pass major legislation. August is dead, dead, dead. Everyone goes on vacation then. ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2005, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-busiest-time-of-year-for-your-profession/328924/10 "2005-11-01T18:24:01Z")
In radio, there is no ebb and flow. The news never stops, the programs never stop, the productions never stop. It’s not hectic every day; some days are busier than others, but there is no time of year that’s busier than any other. ---
**Author:** ![Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Man_With_a_Cat)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2005, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-busiest-time-of-year-for-your-profession/328924/11 "2005-11-01T18:29:16Z")
Transportation Director for a unit school district. My busiest time is the month immediately before school starts. In that time we’re getting daily updates from the district student database to load into our routing software, planning routes, updating info for parents and the press. We also have a lot of employee preparation to handle, from our start up meetings to training planning, the actual selection of work by the drivers, test runs, ironing our problems, etc. Then once school starts and it all runs like a greased wheel, there’s a few weeks of constant phone calls, and small tweaks to make to get things into the day-to-day doldrums that are October-May. ---
**Author:** ![groman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/73ab20/32.png) [@groman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/groman)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2005, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-busiest-time-of-year-for-your-profession/328924/12 "2005-11-01T18:42:16Z")
Beginning/middle of Q3, I work for an chip manufacturer and that’s when electronics customers expecting to ship before Christmas really start pushing hard. ---
**Author:** ![YaWanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/bbce88/32.png) [@YaWanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YaWanna)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2005, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-busiest-time-of-year-for-your-profession/328924/13 "2005-11-01T18:43:31Z")
My employer is a staffing agency - we have recently been having a boomtime not seen in our records in about 4 years. There’s really no seasonality to it, although we have a _slight_ downturn in billable hours whenever a major holiday comes along. Personally, as the controller, my busiest time of year is January - W-2’s, 1099’s, year-end financials, archiving data to make room for new, etc. Not that anyone I work with really grasps the concept. ---
**Author:** ![delphica](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e9a140/32.png) [@delphica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/delphica)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2005, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-busiest-time-of-year-for-your-profession/328924/14 "2005-11-01T19:06:43Z")
college administration – August/early September Orienation for new students, all sorts of dormitory issues, general beginning of the school year stuff. My work is very driven by the student calendar. I know other people/offices in higher ed have different busy times – faculty, admissions, etc. December is a busy time for our accounting office, as people are rushing to make tax deductable donations before Dec. 31, causing a real crunch. ---
**Author:** ![Misnomer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/misnomer/32/14897_2.png) [@Misnomer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Misnomer)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2005, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-busiest-time-of-year-for-your-profession/328924/15 "2005-11-01T19:15:06Z")
I’m a technical writer for a software company, and there is no industry-wide (or even company-wide) busy period. The closest we come is the end of the fiscal year, which is when all government contractors are busy spending the last of their budgets and getting new contracts in place. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2005, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-busiest-time-of-year-for-your-profession/328924/16 "2005-11-01T19:36:05Z")
We get a tiny nudge up in request volume in May or so when summer interns are being set up. Right about now, my cohorts that specialize in setting up IDs for mortgage processors are almost done with a seasonal bump as people are getting HELOCs\* so they can get their remodeling done before the holidays, or just because they want a big hunk of spending money for gifts. Otherwise, it’s easier to tell when the dead times are. The last three weeks of December are utterly dead with everyone out on vacation and the developers aren’t doing anything due to year-end freeze - we don’t allow any chances for new programs or code to mess up transaction processing. Would YOU want to be the one that accidentally left a bug in something and shut down Visa processing on the West Coast for a day? - Home Equity Line Of Credit ---
**Author:** ![scout1222](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/34f0e0/32.png) [@scout1222](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scout1222)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2005, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-busiest-time-of-year-for-your-profession/328924/17 "2005-11-01T19:51:15Z")
Budgeting - and the busy time of year depends on fiscal calendar. Our year ends 12/31, so October and November is busy time for preparing the next year’s budget. There’s also usually a mid-year update that heats up in July. However, if year end is different (like the company I used to work at which used the government’s fiscal calendar) the busy times are shifted accordingly. ---
**Author:** ![Furry\_Mongoose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c57346/32.png) [@Furry\_Mongoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Furry_Mongoose)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2005, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-busiest-time-of-year-for-your-profession/328924/18 "2005-11-01T20:26:45Z")
November/December - I work in payments and lots of people send moolah for Christmas! ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2005, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-busiest-time-of-year-for-your-profession/328924/19 "2005-11-01T20:40:07Z")
Summer, when the kids are off from school. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2005, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-busiest-time-of-year-for-your-profession/328924/20 "2005-11-01T20:43:53Z")
IT System Admin at the corporate offices for a large chain of consumer electronics stores. We’re in it right now, as far as my job is concerned, because they’ve been hiring about 150 people a week for the past two months to build up for the holiday season. For the stores, it’s the day after Thanksgiving as the single biggest day, by an order of magnitude, then the middle two weeks in December, then from december 26th through the end of the year as people return stuff and use the gift cards they got in their Christmas stockings. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-busiest-time-of-year-for-your-profession/328924.md?page=2)