Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve both fall on a Monday this year. That leaves some employers with the decision of whether or not to give employees the day off on one or both dates.
Employers juggling that decision should know – a lot of employees are going to take them off, regardless, according to the Chelmsford-based Workforce Institute at Kronos.
Five Years Gone
The last time both Christmas and New Year’s Day fell on a Tuesday, it was 2007. Some early signs of recession had started to pop up, including a government bailout for Countrywide Financial in September and several thousand job cuts at subprime mortgage lender Washington Mutual in December.
Whether or not employers and employees had a hint of what was to come throughout much of 2008, many employees worked on Dec. 24 and Dec. 31.
According to Kronos’ 2012 Working The Holidays survey, 38 percent of full-time workers said they would take Christmas Eve off this year, up from just 14 percent in 2007. And 28 percent said they would take New Year’s Eve off, up from 16 percent.
Rewarding Employees When Possible
After five years in which merit raises and other perks may have slowed, more employers (26 percent) will be closing the office or workplace for the entire week between Christmas and New Year’s Day, up from 18 percent in 2007, Kronos said.
Joyce Maroney, director of the Kronos Workforce Institute, thinks that uptick is about workplace morale.
“After the tough economic conditions of the last few years when many organizations have reduced headcount, and merit increases have been small, if given at all, it’s possible that employees are feeling more encouraged to use their paid time off and also that organizations may be looking to reward their staff for weathering the storms of the past few years with an extended vacation,” Maroney said in a statement.
For Most, Productivity Doesn’t Suffer
The majority of employees (68 percent) surveyed by Kronos – which makes workforce management software – said it’s “business as usual,” while 17 percent said it’s the busiest time of the year. And for the smallest segment – 15 percent – the office is a “ghost town” this month.
