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Holiday Rituals
E. Carol Webster, Ph.D.
Copyright © 2007
As in
your personal life, office families have holiday rituals too. Many are
heartwarming and gratifying. Others have seen their day. Don’t be afraid
to take a close look at your office rituals before repeating them this
holiday season to make sure they’re really meeting your employee’s
needs.
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What is the Purpose of the Ritual? |
Take a good look at why you’re continuing your office ritual. What is the
purpose of having the gift grab bag or pot-luck dinner? Because you want
your staff to get presents? Because you want them to have an opportunity to
socialize with one another and to get to meet each others’ mates in a more
fun situation? It’s important to re-examine the goal of your ritual to make
sure it still accomplishes what you intended when it was first put in place.
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Who Cares About It? |
Once you succeed in confirming the purpose of the ritual, don’t stop there
because it doesn’t matter much if no one cares about this ritual. You might
feel it’s important for your staff to exchange gifts, but if they don’t
really want to bother doing this then there isn’t much point to it. People
will go through the motions and endure this practice but their hearts won’t
be in it and it may engender resentment on top of that. Surely, this isn’t
what you intend. With soaring fuel prices and housing costs currently, many
more of your employees may feel this way this year simply because they’re
more strapped for cash than usual. Best way to find out is to ask.
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Revamp the Ritual
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If you determine that the purpose or significance of your office ritual is
in question, quickly mobilize a committee and redo it. Many of your current
managers and staff may not have been onboard when the ritual was put in
place and may jump for joy that they have an opportunity to do something
else instead. But be prepared for the fact that some of the burden may fall
on you. Often the unspoken resentment about these holiday rituals is the
fact that the company isn’t providing very much -- instead putting the
financial burden on the employees themselves. You may find that you are
asked to provide a simple lunch instead of hosting that evening pot luck
social event. Or your planning committee may recommend that the company
purchase small token gifts that are distributed to everyone. Staff often
expect holiday office activities to be a time that they will be recognized
and acknowledged for their hard work and accomplishments. If yours does not
include a healthy dose of this component, it is likely being “tolerated” but
not truly enjoyed.
Holiday rituals should be a time of fun and merriment for your staff and
should strengthen the sense of company family spirit. Many fail to do this
because they no longer meet the needs of the current staff, so take time to
find out what matters to your people and revamp the ritual if it is not
being looked forward to as an uplifting, gratifying, fun event.
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