Is your job slower during this time of year?

[shaynaatl]

Just curious if people's workplaces tend to slow down during the holiday season. Of course people working on year-end projects may seen an uptick in workload.

[oregonpachey]

I am in a new job and our workload increases dramatically at year end. With open enrollment, changes to member plans, etc. , it is crazy busy.

[Cappy]

In a normal non-covid year things get super busy between Thanksgiving and Christmas but then drop off until mid-January. I'm in admin but we follow an academic calendar.

[acr]

Yes, totally. At a tech company. With holiday time, planning for 2021, and code freezes during the holidays, it's a lot slower for me. As a project manager, so much of my time is spent waiting for people to get back to me, do their parts, etc. It just moves at a more leisurely pace now.

[jinkies]

I work in scientific journals. I put "small decrease" because we do see fewer submissions in December, but I probably should have selected "no change" because the work is off-set by some year-end reporting and planning for the coming year.

[k3am]

Generally, year ends are my busiest time of the year. There is always a huge push by clients and upper management to get things on the books by year end. It's industry wide, not just my company, and the biggest pain in the butt.

This year, because of covid, we are so far off plan, that no one really cares. I'd rather wait and have it post in a new fiscal year.

[ssmjlm]

HAHAHAHA, nope. It used to be slower after October 1, but our workload doesn't cycle like that anymore.

I'm currently waiting to see if I'm going to be working for free Saturday since I'm mission essential.

[sadlebred]

No, for what I do we are on a quarterly cycle. We'll have weeks that are slower, but overall it's the same. The exception is the week between Christmas and New Years. We always plan to do "nothing" (not exactly nothing but as much as possible) that week that involves those outside of our team since so many people take vacation.

[noodleoo]

My company has “use it or lose it” vacation time so a lot of people I work with end up taking off the last 2 weeks of Dec. I don’t get nearly as much time off, but I enjoy I usually enjoy the office being mostly empty. I usually clean my desk, try to empty my inbox and get myself organized for the next year.

[carmenere]

Kind of. I work in nonprofit fundraising and we send solicitations and process lots of gifts at year end, but we don’t have big events or grant deadlines.

[chpmnk1015]

i work in the toy industry and retail.. so there is an increase in work.. not that its slow any time of the year anymore.. but the 4 weeks before holiday can make or break and just involve a lot of later nights and last minute/game day decisions..

[simpsongal]

Usually but it depends if there's litigation from the end of fiscal year or something else. I'm very busy this year.

[sometimesrunner]

We’re always busy this time of year with year end planning. It makes the holidays much less enjoyable.

[lightbulbsun]

November and December are typically more busy for me. I've been working a ton of overtime recently.

[Pilsy]

This is tangential, but is vacation an issue elsewhere this year? My company recently changed our policy, and now everyone is scrambling to use time instead of losing it. I understand why they made the change, but I really wish they had announced it earlier.

My job is very much project-based, and the timing (i.e., where I am in the cycle of my projects) this year means my workload is pretty much average or a little lighter right now. Some years, I have a bunch of contracts to wrap up by 12/31, and it's extremely stressful.

[wildrice]

I would say not generally, but the week of Thanksgiving and Christmas both are slow. We are closed between Christmas and New Years, too.

So this week/next week is normal, but the weeks after that would be slow and/or closed until after New Years. I anticipate things will pick up pretty quickly again then.

[agnes]

Precovid, generally steady all year except at fiscal year end during the summer.

During covid it has been busier.

[mlkgls]

No, in healthcare and even in a good year flu season is usually in full swing at this time of year. I accrue a generous amount of PTO and I daydream about taking a 2-3 week vacation next year. 

[macmars45]

I'm a SAHM so it's the same year round.

My H is an accountant so work is very much the same every month two weeks of lighter work & two weeks of a heavier work load. January is a bit more work and so is April.

[melmel48]

Nope! I am a behavior analyst for children with Autism.. There is always something to do or someone who needs support with a kiddo!

[SusanBAnthony]

I work in a manufacturing plant.

In theory orders drop this time of year and things slow down. It is lovely and I get to catch up on all kinds of things.

This year orders have remained strong (good for my profit sharing) and with covid and all the disruptions through out the entire supply chain from freaking oil refineries* on up, we are having multiple suppliers have total and utter meltdowns.

I am in charge of some supplier stuff, kill me now. Fri when I left work my boss said "be on standby to fly to XYZ supplier"**. Luckily that didn't happen as the supplier managed just enough production to supply us for a few days,and now Monday is full of more emergency meetings.

So yah. I am busier than normal this year, but most years it is quiet.


*Making plastic which goes in everything

**I got to fly on the company plane to a supplier earlier this year because covid so that was fun at least! Normally it's coach all the way.

[SusanBAnthony]

Dec 8, 2020 10:34:15 GMT -5 Pilsy said:

This is tangential, but is vacation an issue elsewhere this year? My company recently changed our policy, and now everyone is scrambling to use time instead of losing it. I understand why they made the change, but I really wish they had announced it earlier.

My job is very much project-based, and the timing (i.e., where I am in the cycle of my projects) this year means my workload is pretty much average or a little lighter right now. Some years, I have a bunch of contracts to wrap up by 12/31, and it's extremely stressful.

We have always had to use all our vacation except 5 days (we could carry over 5 days).

This year a lot of people thought the rule would magically change because of covid. Haha. No. In september they reminded us to make sure to plan ahead because not everyone could take the last two weeks of Dec. So everyone has been doing random days and afternoons off all fall. It's actually been really nice.

[zarapipe]

Yes. I work at a university as a staff member. No students, no faculty, other than some of my own projects it will be slow.

[preppy]

Yes. I work in corporate and marketing events and we pause events after the 1st week of December through EOY as no one would come around the holidays anyway. I usually take the last 1-2 weeks of the year off. This year I will be taking Dec 23 - Jan 3 off. This was a nightmare year for events and everything was shifted to virtual so I am SO pumped to have this downtime.

[ellipses84]

My field is almost always busy unless the economy is terrible, and the last few months of the year are one of the busiest times. 2020 has been strange because it’s impacted certain types of clients, but others have remained very busy.

The end of year rush has to do with clients wanting to spend budget money before a year end or get regulatory reviews started before regulations change in a new year. There’s always too much to do and we get short handed with people taking vacations, so we have to stagger them. A lot of smaller companies we work with shut down the last week in December and some clients go on vacation for a couple weeks, so it’s a good time to get some focused work done. This year I’m consulting so I’m mostly taking a week off! I won’t get paid, but I’ve worked a ton of hours and made more money than predicted this year, plus I’m feeling a little burned out, so it’s totally worth it.