In an ideal world, we’d all get a few weeks off at Christmas. Finish off the shopping, a bit of wassailing, see the extended family, catch up on sleep and generally have a wonderful time, going back to work refreshed and fat in mid January. Sadly, that’s rarely the case: there’s work to be done, and someone’s got to do it.
Personally, I haven’t had a Christmas holiday of more than five days since I was a student… bit of a workaholic you might say. Now I’m running a business, it’s even less likely. Unfortunately though, I’m now one of the people who have to make the decision on how long the office shut down is, and who will be permitted to take extra days off.
If you’re in the same boat, here are some top tips for allocating Christmas holidays that are both fair and legal.
- Contracts of employment should state whether staff will be required to work on public holidays (In 2011, that’s 24-27 December), and whether they’ll be paid extra
- All staff have the legal right to at least 28 days of paid holiday leave – whether you let them take unpaid leave or any extra days is up to you
- You can give your staff compulsory days off during office shut down, eating into their annual leave allocation – keep it to a minimum though
- If you simply don’t have enough staff to do the necessary work, you could refuse holidays – nasty but sometimes necessary
- There are some great HR software bundles out there that can help you monitor holidays and absences – if someone has been off every Christmas for three years, perhaps it’s someone else’s turn
- Officially you should keep to a first-come-first-served system, but…
- Giving preference to certain employees based on their religion, gender, age, number of children or any other factor would usually be frowned on by the law, but is common practice – probably due to fellow employees getting in the festive spirit and turning a blind eye.
