Is Christmas killing productivity?

[Fishfinger]

I always take the week before Christmas off which is one of the busiest times of the year for our little dept and then "cover" between Christmas and new year when it's dead and no one's in. 

i always loudly complain to management that I prefer to be busy than sitting around (surreptitiously watching you tube)..?

[Dorkins]

From the OP's post it sounds like it's not really Christmas that's the problem, it's that people aren't motivated at this company and are just looking for excuses not to start work. I'm guessing they're not exactly engines of the economy the rest of the year either.

[Greg Bowman]

45 minutes ago, reddog said:

I am not saying don't take any holiday,  just saying a 2 week holiday period shouldn't be affecting work in November.

It’s not must be your industry - delivering stuff all next week then my industry IT takes a well earned break for a few days 

why not anyway are you a shareholder ? the social contract is well and truly broken and that’s from someone who has ran his own company for 27 years 

 

[durhamborn]

Productivity shoots up in my home town near xmas.Well over 50% get benefits,and they are all out dangling 50,000 lights around their guttering and hedge and putting up inflatable snowmen and santas.One guy who is on DLA for mobility puts Santas sleigh on his roof including snow,reindeer and lights.The rest of the year he goes around Home Bargains with a stick (that floats 1cm above the ground at all times),but come xmas hes up a roofers ladder like Tarzan.The place ends up looking like a scene from Blade Runner.Luckily they all get £150 knocked off their leccy bill for winter due to being on benefits.Productivity in the UK is a miracle.

 

Edited December 17, 2017 by durhamborn

[Kosmin]

5 hours ago, reddog said:

Just wondered what peoples thoughts are on an ever extending Christmas run up having on productivity.

It feels to me that now 25% of the year is 'just before Christmas'

A few points:

- project's I have recently been looking into in October and November won't start until January because "there is no point in starting because people will be away in December"

-For the last 4 Thursdays in a row we had some sort of Christmas party, effort was taken arranging these events, then people weren't too productive the following Friday

-most people seem to take the Xmas period off, those that don't, can't work productively even if they want to, as they are likely to be waiting for an input from someone that isn't there

I would have thought this would be a bigger issue in the summer. There are only a few working days over Christmas when most people are off, but during the summer most people take a week or two off.

 

[zugzwang]

2 hours ago, durhamborn said:

Productivity shoots up in my home town near xmas.Well over 50% get benefits,and they are all out dangling 50,000 lights around their guttering and hedge and putting up inflatable snowmen and santas.One guy who is on DLA for mobility puts Santas sleigh on his roof including snow,reindeer and lights.The rest of the year he goes around Home Bargains with a stick (that floats 1cm above the ground at all times),but come xmas hes up a roofers ladder like Tarzan.The place ends up looking like a scene from Blade Runner.Luckily they all get £150 knocked off their leccy bill for winter due to being on benefits.Productivity in the UK is a miracle.

 

Xmas has come early this year for pensioners and parents. Millions of benefits to be paid in advance. Rejoice!

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/christmas-payment-benefit-dates-2017-14026226

 

[Eddie_George]

Any drop in productivity that Xmas causes is a drop in the ocean compared to what high land prices caused by cheap credit are doing to it.

[Riedquat]

4 hours ago, UnconventionalWisdom said:

I saw a Ted talk saying managers and meetings prevent things getting done. Can totally see it- managers like to think they are steering the ship to success so spend all the time asking people what they are doing. Having a meeting is just a formal way of doing it. 

That sort of manager is a pain in the neck and a waste of space but a good one can make a lot of difference to how well something goes.

[deadasadodo]

I manage a geographically distributed team and things have been dead as a dodo for the last week or so - once a few key people knock off it's hard to get anything done and everything goes flat. So I'm left with not a great deal to do (hence posting here at 9.30) with the nagging fear that a client will ask for something important NOW and they'll be no way of getting it done.

[scottbeard]

The focus on increasing productivity is pointless - shouldn't our goal in life is to be maximising happiness, not our employer's profits?

A two week break at Christmas seems great to me - in some countries the whole country basically takes August off, which seems even better.

The idea of being like the US where you get 2 weeks off a year including sick leave I think is appalling.

[Errol]

50 minutes ago, scottbeard said:

in some countries the whole country basically takes August off, which seems even better.

The City is mostly dead in August. Wall Street is the same.

[Errol]

51 minutes ago, scottbeard said:

The idea of being like the US where you get 2 weeks off a year including sick leave I think is appalling.

Yes, and the funny thing is that all that work gets them nowhere at all. The nation is so indebted there is no chance of escape, and workforce participation is at record lows.

[NuBrit]

Don't know about productivity, but here in Northern Ireland in terms of retail, this looks to be about the strongest Christmas I have observed in recent years. I really do get the feeling that this is all one last hurrah though.

[NorthamptonBear]

On 17/12/2017 at 11:17 PM, Eddie_George said:

Any drop in productivity that Xmas causes is a drop in the ocean compared to what high land prices caused by cheap credit are doing to it.

+100

Plus taxing people for adding value (vat and work).

THESE are what are killing productivity.  Especially when marginal taxes make promotions and overtime pointless.

[Mikhail Liebenstein]

On 17/12/2017 at 6:56 PM, UnconventionalWisdom said:

I agree it's crazy that for some reason there is a normalisation for the trend of over-working. I listened to a radioshow in Germany (where people are often expected to work longer hours than their contract) and it was stating that in if you stay behind late in Denmark, then bosses take it as a sign that you aren't good at the job. Could do with more of this viewpoint and further investment in staff so people have the skills to get the job done within work hours. 

 I agree with this. It’s the people struggling to cope who end up grinding away - strangely a lot of my management peers seem to have this affliction. Back at the office, but not really achieving anything,

i can think of a few cases where something that might take me a few hours, might take them an  entire week.

[Fence]

On 17/12/2017 at 5:29 PM, Shrink Proof said:

terminal uselessness.

With mere days to go before 2017 closes its doors, he may have cliched the prize for the most apt phrase of the year.

[Harry Sacks]

It's my most productive time. I don't stop all day long for three weeks, not even a tea break. This year has been insanely busy.

[chronyx]

The rest of the year, online forums and Facebook are the killers

[BristolBuyer]

A lot of companies have a IT "change freeze" from mid December to mid January, which basically means that no changes to live computer systems will be authorised. That hits productivity in the software development and support teams.

On the other hand, I'm fortunate to work in a fairly unsociable office, so not much time is wasted on parties, hangovers and drunken fist-fights, unlike at my previous employer. The short period between between Christmas and New Year can be very productive for the small number of people who make it into the office, and are able to work with few interuptions.

Edited December 26, 2017 by BristolBuyer

[spacedin]

Try working in the catering industry at this time of year.

[spyguy]

Nope.

My productivity is going up + up.

Sneaked off during a boring family do  and reworked some processes.

[spyguy]

On 17/12/2017 at 8:43 PM, durhamborn said:

Productivity shoots up in my home town near xmas.Well over 50% get benefits,and they are all out dangling 50,000 lights around their guttering and hedge and putting up inflatable snowmen and santas.One guy who is on DLA for mobility puts Santas sleigh on his roof including snow,reindeer and lights.The rest of the year he goes around Home Bargains with a stick (that floats 1cm above the ground at all times),but come xmas hes up a roofers ladder like Tarzan.The place ends up looking like a scene from Blade Runner.Luckily they all get £150 knocked off their leccy bill for winter due to being on benefits.Productivity in the UK is a miracle.

 

Productivity of the UK private really is amazing - its propping all this lunacy up with a budget deficit of -6%.

[disenfranchised]

IT change freezes used to be a good time to play catch up work on projects.

Now a lot of the big companies who do major IT changes enforce winter suspensions on their contractors, often leaving their permies kicking their heels if not using up annual leave. It started as 2 weeks, now commonly 3.

Diminishing returns on it financially as a lot of us simply expect to be out of work over Christmas and simply don't take major holidays the rest of the year. When they started doing it they caught a lot of people out.

Basically nothing much gets done for about 4 weeks starting around December 10th in projects unless you're in post implementation support.