You know that big sucking sound that productivity loss around the holidays makes? According to a study by Virgin Pulse, much of the loss is due to the stress of employees making travel plans and plans with family and friends.
Virgin Pulse wanted to find out if holiday-related travel itself took a toll on workforce effectiveness. It posed that and related questions to more than 1,000 fulltime workers.
What came back was that travel itself wasn't the problem; only 32 percent said traveling negatively effected their performance.
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But, two-thirds said making holiday plans — both for travel and for those joyful get-togethers — did detract from their productivity. Fully one-quarter of them said they spent 30 to 60 minutes a day during the run-up to the holidays making travel plans at work.
"The good news is, employers are making it easier for people to juggle responsibilities," Virgin Pulse reported. "Sixty-five percent of respondents say their employer offers some type of flexible policy around the holidays that help them balance travel-related to-do's [and] 39 percent offer flexible hours, 28 percent offer additional time off, and 20 percent have tele-work/remote work options."
Let's face it: Bosses and workers know that things are supposed to ease up so everyone can make those plans and get into the spirit of the season. And more than three-quarters of these respondents said the environment at work "is equally or more flexible during end-of-year holidays than at other times of the year."
Cheers!
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Dan Cook
Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.
