17th Sep 2009
Taking Time Off From Work Around Holidays And Weekends Might Be A Bad Idea
If you work for a decent sized company you will get enough variety among the employees to get to meet and see all different types of people and their habits. You probably experience what happens in a lot of companies across America. A typical company policy prohibits too many people from one department taking the same days off for vacation or personal time. This causes a bit of a scramble among workers to position for time off around holidays and certain weekends.
The funny thing about this big scramble to get time off before certain weekends or holidays makes me giggle a little bit. For starters, if people in your company are trying to get those days off, what do you think people in other companies are doing? Some of those other companies are probably your customers, unless you work in consumer retail. If everyone is trying to get off that should tell you that work is going to be slow on those days.
Everybody and her brother is going to be thinking about what their plans are for the upcoming holiday. They aren’t going to be focused on work. They’re only going to get done the things that absolutely need to get done. The end result is you get a workday with a light work load. You coast through the day easily when compared to a normal Friday.
For certain holidays, many companies contribute to the lazy light work load atmosphere. Lots of times they will have lunch brought into the office. Sometimes employees will bring a dish to pass and take an extra long lunch break. These are the days when you want to be at work.
What if you could be known around the office as the person who is always willing to work the days surrounding a holiday? Don’t you think the boss will hold a high regard for that type of behavior? How many times does the owner of the company or your boss take off right before a holiday? If the company is well run, he probably does it very rarely. That should tell you something.
If you are one of those people who must always have the day off before Memorial Day weekend or the Fourth of July or Labor Day, you’re behavior will get noticed. That behavior could get you labeled as a person who isn’t concerned about their job and is only there to collect a paycheck. You might very well have that attitude. I bet you do. Just remember, that attitude isn’t going to help you ask for a pay raise or more benefits and perks. It certainly isn’t going to help the company earn any more money than they would if any other drone was plugged into your position. Remember that when times get tough and you are worried about losing your job.
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