Beermat Club:
Ask Mike
Wake up and smell the coffee, Christmas is for working too
Q. I run a London-based PR agency. Christmas and new year are a busy period for us, but several of my staff don't want to work over this period. How do I manage this effectively?
A. I am sure your people work for your PR company because it's more fun and better paid than the alternatives and your clients are interesting.
Your staff should understand that the nature of your business means that there are occasional sacrifices, like working over the Christmas break. Anyone getting on their high horse about this really needs to wake up and smell the coffee and perhaps look at working in a building society or council office.
But of course it's not all "give" and "take" in a people business like yours. The key here is a sensible arrangement for "time off in lieu" - the ability to allow people to take off the period they would have had off over Christmas and the new year at a date more suitable for them.
But rather than dictate this yourself, ask for their input and assuming you are happy with the outcome, you can rubber-stamp it.
You appreciate they would rather be somewhere else at Christmas, so you ask them how they propose to solve the scheduling challenge.
There must be a scheme that they can originate and manage that allows people to do their Christmas shopping and have family time, but also ensures that the office is suitably populated when it needs to be.
Each individual can make their own case for what suits them.
Someone with children will probably want to spend as much time as possible at home at Christmas, but are probably more flexible during term-time.
People with no responsibilities might welcome the excuse to spend more time in central London, if that is where you are based, than at some dull family gathering in the sticks.
But make sure that you, as the proprietor, are doing your bit and coming in for the most unpopular times. And while you're there, make sure that you are creating a party atmosphere in the office. Business should be fun, especially at Christmas. Why not invite your customers in for an impromptu party? You might even drum up some more business at the same time.
And I'm sure you will enjoy dressing up as Santa and handing out gifts - you do this the rest of the year, with salaries and bonuses, so why not try it at Christmas too?
Mike Southon, co-author of The Beermat Entrepreneur and Sales on a Beermat
First published in the Financial Times: 17th December 2006