Here is a question that I’ve been asking myself all day long in between surfing the web to find out about the latest Timberwolve’s news, great after Christmas specials, the East Coast’s version of a Minnesota winter, and seeing what all my facebook buddies are up to – do the holiday’s sap employee motivation?  Or at a minimum, employee energy?

I know they do for me.

Which is a problem since this is our busy time of year.  Normally, I’m lucky to get Christmas day off  but this year I actually got three days off – that is a record I haven’t had in over 10 years!  With those three days came a lot of family celebration, festive eating, lots of visiting and much time playing with the kids.

Now I need a break!

The holiday’s drain me of energy and leave me lethargic – wanting only to sit back and surf the web or play with all my new toys from Christmas.

Right now I feel like the energizer bunny, always going, going, going  but without the everlasting gobstopper of a battery that keeps on ticking (ok, way too many bad movie/commercial references in that last sentence).  So even with the time off, my plate is full with parties, gatherings, buying gifts, sending out cards (which we still need to do), planning holiday meals, figuring out schedules, cleaning the house for visitors, setting up decorations, bowl games, and baking cookies (ok, my wife and child do this, but I have to suffer through tasting the dough at least a few times and eating one or two of the cookies from each batch).

How do I have time to do work?

Add to this the fact that many of my clients take vacation during this time.  Thus, feedback that is needed gets delayed and decisions are put off until after the New Year.

How is it that any work gets done this week?

Here is my overly simplified solution – all companies that don’t serve the public (i.e., restaurants, gas stations, grocery stores, movie theaters, etc…) should shut down this week. Oh, and we definitely need to move any first of the year deliverables back to January 15th.   That way, we have time to get these done when we are at our peak performance (that being in the new year).  We can all relax and enjoy the holiday season – which is how it is supposed to be.

So don’t be a Scrooge – enjoy this wonderful season…just don’t expect you or your workers to be performing at peak performance levels!

Let me know your idea on how to solve the holiday morass – leave a comment below!