As workers stretch the Christmas break ever longer, many employers are beginning to feel the strain, writes Brian O'Connell
The dread of returning to work after the Christmas period became all too much for thousands of Irish workers this week. Instead of dragging their dishevelled bodies to the office post-Christmas or New Year, many extended the Christmas break well beyond January 2nd, testing the seasonal goodwill of Irish employers. From office blocks to building sites, many workplaces remained deserted, with a sizeable number of employees extending festivities until January 8th.
The trend is a relatively recent one, but according to employers' unions it could be setting an unsustainable and costly precedent for Irish businesses.
"I think it's fair to say that over the last number of years people have tended to stretch the Christmas break as much as they can," says Mark Fielding, chief executive of the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association (Isme).
"The increased awareness of getting the work/life balance right has meant that people tend to take more time off at Christmas. If bank holidays fall a certain way, then you can have a situation where taking an extra couple of days can turn into a fortnight very easily." The practice of stretching the festive season first took root in the early 1990s, with increased affluence, the rising cost of childcare, additional employee rights and winter breaks all contributory factors.
The practice is not limited to Ireland; employers in the UK are also reporting concerns at the amount of Christmas cheer employees are enjoying.
"In France they have a time period known as le pont, or the bridge," says Fielding, "so if a bank holiday falls on a Wednesday, people will often take the next two days off and 'bridge' to the weekend. We are finding in Ireland that the bridge is getting longer, so that some people are on holidays from December 22nd until January 8th." The extended holiday is placing severe financial and logistical pressure on many small to medium businesses, as well as the self-employed.
Many calls to the Isme helpline in the weeks leading up to Christmas came from employers distressed about how to manage annual leave. With an extended Christmas break becoming a more accepted aspect of working life, employees are looking for more complex ways to optimise their annual leave.
"We had lots of owners and managers calling us asking for advice on how to allocate time off," says Fielding. "All sorts of situations arise, from staff members with no holidays left looking to borrow from next year's allowance to workers looking to take holidays forward when company policy doesn't allow it and also issues surrounding part-time and seasonal employees."
FOR SOME SECTORS, though, the trend isn't entirely unwelcome. In the services industry, the first week in January is a traditionally quiet time. At the Temple Gate Hotel in Ennis, Co Clare, managing director Paul Madden says many hoteliers are content for employees to take time off during what is usually a period of down time for the hotel industry.
"In our industry, when people are having fun we are usually working; therefore when it's quiet I encourage people to take time off," says Madden. "At the moment a sizeable percentage of employees here are on holidays, especially accommodation staff such as cleaners and porters." Yet the hotel industry isn't entirely unaffected, with many suppliers remaining closed until early January.
"We have no real contact with suppliers between Christmas and New Year," he says. "That would have been fine 10 years ago, when no one married outside of June or July, yet now we find that functions are quite popular during Christmas. It means that we have to plan deliveries carefully in the lead-up. On the whole, though, for us the extended break is a good thing."
As with builders and teachers, many members of the legal profession find the Christmas cessation a welcome interruption to an increasingly stressful and demanding work environment. Commercial lawyer Ursula Earley says the trend has been slowly developing over the past decade, with the majority of legal offices now closed from December 22nd until January 3rd.
Not that she's complaining: "It would be pretty difficult to get a solicitor between Christmas Eve and New Year," says Earley, "which is interesting given that everything in commercial work has to be done 'tomorrow'. It just goes to show that most things are not as urgent as we think. Last year, for example, we had a client who sent in something on December 22nd, asking if we could come back to him by December 28th. People laughed hysterically!" Earley herself had planned to return on January 8th, but work demands cut her holidays short, proving that some employees are not having it entirely their own way.
"I had to go back early because of an issue with a client. Those who had returned seemed to be 'semi' back. For instance, normally on a Thursday night everyone would be here until 7pm. By 5.30pm this week, though, everyone was gone - many people were still in the Christmas mood, I guess."
Among those not complaining is Jean Kearney of Kearney Melia Communications in Cork, who returned to a deserted office building on January 2nd. Working in a less crowded environment can have its advantages, she says.
"I've been back at work since Tuesday morning, and we were the only people in our building. Normally there'd be about eight or 10 offices with several staff in each. We are working on two projects at the moment where we need to liaise with the media, and I've never had people in the press so receptive. I put it down to the fact that there were so few public relations companies working last week."
Kearney argues that the extended break shouldn't come as a surprise, given Irish attitudes. "Some countries celebrate Christmas, in some New Year is the focus, whereas in Ireland we have amalgamated both. Not only that, but it seems that people want to extend it even further again. It's a little Irish, to say the least."