How to Navigate Your Team Through the Holidays

Exploring how the holiday season can impact team dynamics and productivity, and strategies to keep your team on track.

This is the first story in the Advent of Writing Challenge I started, more on this here.

Being able to enjoy the Christmas holidays at home with your family, where it’s warm and there is lots of food and movie-watching happening is probably a common wish for us all. Sitting cozy by the fire with a cup of warm drink is a setting that is the complete opposite of the settings and feelings of the days leading up to a well-deserved break.

As the year approaches its end it is a period that was probably set as a deadline for a lot of projects, it is also the end of a fiscal year, it is a time in which on the personal side of things we are running to make sure we buy all the presents and make sure we prepare everything for a beautiful time at home. Having all of these things to juggle on our own, we surely don’t want to have additional tasks coming our way. In order to make sure that everyone gets to defuse and enjoy the holiday season, there are a few strategies we can use.

Plan

For me, the most important strategy to be able to organize yourselves as a team is good planning. Looking at the potential situation starting in November and then checking it regularly. Of course, it is good to plan even before, but making sure that everyone voices their plans and then making a plan to either make sure tasks are finished before vacation or that we know who will take them over. Working on this plan as a team provides clarity to everyone included.

Sometimes, people might think, why would I take over this task or project, what is in it for me? I need to finish my work and then I get additional work from the other person, it’s not fair. The thing is, all of us take vacations. We might be in the same situation as the next person and we might need someone else’s help.

The other thing when it comes to planning is making sure everyone plans their activities thoroughly. Nobody wants to be called during vacation, but in order for this to work, you need to make sure your tasks and projects are clean and that there are no loose ends.

Photo by Volodymyr Hryshchenko on Unsplash

Set Clear Expectations and Communicate Effectively

For everyone to be able to take the time off that is adjusted to their own needs and to be able to get rest, it is really essential to communicate clearly and have a point of reference, an Excel sheet, a Confluence page or a Word document in which everyone will be able to see firstly projects and tasks everyone is working on, work schedules, deadlines, and last but not least, availability during the holiday season. Ensure that everyone is on the same page regarding project timelines and responsibilities.

It is also good to note in this document all of the responsibilities of the person going on vacation in the same document, highlighting agreements on takeovers and suggestions on what to do in case of emergency.

Offer flexible scheduling

By flexible scheduling, first offer everyone a chance for them to pick their desired dates for vacation, it might surprise you how different people are. Sometimes, we believe everyone will want to do the same thing we would want to do, for instance, take vacation during the week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, but there are people that enjoy peace and quiet during those days in the office which lets them finish some of the work they have been postponing.

Be flexible enough that everyone can enter their desired dates in the document mentioned above and only suggest corrections in case there are actually issues with the schedule (e.g. too many people picking out the same week for the week off).

Photo by Robson Hatsukami Morgan on Unsplash

Encourage Time Off

While the above-mentioned strategies might seem too rigid, they actually are not. Once you get the hang of it and if you start with the planning activities early enough, while communicating clearly, planning activities will flow naturally.