You’ll have healthier employees
Skipping vacations is seriously bad for your health, surveys show. On the other hand, vacations can cut the risk of heart disease by 50 percent for men and 30 percent for women-but only if those men and women take more than one vacation a year. If you’re a smart boss, you’re already making every employee take a holiday at least once a year. Closing your office Christmas week will automatically mean employees take a second week off, giving you and them that heart health boost.
Your customers and business partners won’t be in their offices
If your company operated in a vacuum where your employees never have to interact with anyone but each other, staying open Christmas week might make sense. But your customers, your suppliers, outside consultants, investors, and pretty much anyone else you do business with is likely to be our of their offices anyhow. That will leave your employees with not much to do and make it impossible to be productive even if they try their best.
You’ll save on overhead
Closing your office Christmas week means you won’t have to pay for lighting or much heat during the darkest and often coldest part of the year. And if you don’t close, at least some of your employees will take vacation that week anyway. So you’d be heating and lighting a partially empty workplace.
You will be loved
Giving people Christmas week off is a great perk, a great tool for employee engagement, and a great recruiting aid. Without a doubt, this will make your employees love you hence boosting the production output.
You will be letting employees know it’s OK to take time off
Although Kenyans get less vacation time than employees, we still don’t take all of the time off we have coming to us, and more than a third of Kenyans don’t take vacations at all. This doesn’t happen because they dislike exploring new places or spending time at the Mombasa beaches.
Many believe that they are suppose to work extraordinarily hard and without many breaks if they want to achieve their career goals. Therefore, what you do as boss can make a big difference. If employees never see you take a vacation, they’ll think that’s what’s needed to get ahead. If they see you taking regular vacations, they’ll know you can have a successful career but that there are times when you can and should leave it all behind.
By closing the office during Christmas week, you’ll let people know that you too are taking this time to rest and celebrate the holidays and focus on your loved ones rather than your job. Not only will you get a week off that you probably need, you’ll be setting a valuable example for everyone who works for you.
