Despite all the peace, love, joy and retail this time of year brings, it can be a tricky one for businesses—at best—and a downright logistical nightmare—at worst—for employees and their employers.
Our own experience here at BenefitsPro probably isn't even the most extreme example, but you gotta write what you know, right?
In addition to this sprawling website, we still put out a monthly magazine for benefits brokers. And as we creep up on the six-week or so holiday season, every year we have to crank out something like three issues while juggling unpredictable Colorado weather, a slew of holiday office closings and the inevitable illness that seems to strike down a different staff member every year.
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The fates targeted me this year. My daughter, still adjusting to a new day care, brought home a nasty case of the flu that leveled our entire family for two weeks. Now our staff is relatively small—and we've been a man down for three months now—so anytime one of us is out for any length of time, we all feel it. I'm just now getting back on my feet, my time off is shot and we haven't even made it to Thanksgiving. God help me if we get hit by another one of those early winter storms this year…
Sandy stranded another staffer in D.C. for a week. And he was one of the lucky ones. Our colleagues in New York and Hoboken, N.J., are still struggling to get back to some sense of normal—which might be a long time coming.
My managing editor, on the other hand, has had her own run of bad luck, even for someone who boasts it's her stock-in-trade. She's missed more time for her significant other—with a pretty serious condition— than herself. (And to think she wants a dog…)
And did I mention we're still trying to fill a vacant position? How do they keep coming up with these employment numbers? And where are all these qualified jobless hanging out?
As I sit here detailing this litany of problems, it might sound like we're suffering through our own 10 plagues, but it's just life. So many of our best-laid plans—as workers, employers or just people—are based on best-case scenarios. Just ask the suits in D.C. when they crunch their budget numbers.
But real life is rarely so accommodating. So as we head into the time of year that ushers in at least as much stress as joy, maybe it makes more sense to take a more compassionate, less "by the book" approach in dealing with one another. After all, it's better to give than receive, right?
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