Workers to Take Advantage of Holiday Season
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. CREDIT: Holiday Worker Image via Shutterstock |
Companies may have a hard time getting things done in the coming weeks. In a new survey, workers say they will take more time off this holiday season than in past years.
Overall, 38 percent of full-time employees say they will take Christmas Eve off and 28 percent say they plan to take New Year's Eve off. The last time those holidays both fell on a Monday, in 2007, just 14 percent of respondents say they took off Christmas Eve and 16 percent say they took off New Year's Eve.
More than a quarter of companies also plan to give their workers more time off by closing in the days between Christmas and New Year's Day. In all, 26 percent of companies plan to close that week, up from 18 percent in 2007.
Employees would be less likely to take off those days between the holidays if their offices weren't closed, the survey found. Just 14 percent of workers say that they would have taken time off in that week of their own accord, down from 32 percent in 2007.
"We are seeing a trend of more people taking time off this holiday season and more employees reporting that their organization is closing for the week between Christmas and New Year’s Day," said Joyce Maroney, director of The Workforce Institute at Kronos, which conducted the research.
"After the tough economic conditions of the last few years, when many organizations have reduced headcount and merit increases have been small if given at all, it’s possible that employees are feeling more encouraged to use their paid time off," she said. It's also possible "that organizations may be looking to reward their staff for weathering the storms of the past few years with an extended vacation."
Overall, nearly 70 percent of workers say that their offices will conduct business as usual in the month of December. Nearly an equal number of workers either called December the busiest time of the year or described their offices as ghost towns for the month.
The research was based on the responses of 2,691 adults in the United States.
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