How to Welcome Health & Joy Into Your Corporate Christmas Celebration
How to Welcome Health & Joy Into Your Corporate Christmas Celebration
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Christmas is coming! Whether you celebrate this time religiously or as a time to spend with family and friends, it tends to bring excitement and joy into the workplace.
Christmas can also be stressful and overwhelming, whether at home or work. The weeks leading up to the holidays are busy, with pressures of financial obligations, family time, maintaining traditions and more. At work, pressures can get even higher if you or staff don’t feel the best to begin with.
So, how can you help employees, friends, and even yourself make getting through the holidays easier? We don’t always know the details of employees’ lives, but we can control how workplace culture can boost the Christmas spirit. Here are some suggestions:
- Promote rest. People leaders can lead by example in prioritizing their own rest over the holidays. Offering flexible schedules, paid days off to promote life-work balance, and remote work options can take weight off employees’ shoulders as they balance joys and stressors of the holiday season.
- Decrease financial obligations. The holidays are an expensive time, so anything you can do to ease the burden will go a long way in employees feeling seen and supported. Offer monetary gifts or holiday bonuses if available but, if not, managing workloads can also be helpful. Checking in on their wellness can help decrease the stress of the “work more to earn more” mentality. Many offices have traditions such as Secret Santa or a holiday potluck. Pause to think about whether this puts undue financial strain on your team members.
- Improve communication. Don’t rely on “the way we have always done it” or firm traditions for corporate gifts and events. The best way to understand what employees want and need is simply asking. Create a platform or method to gather anonymous feedback on what they’re looking to do over the month of December and the Christmas break. This will help tune in to changing corporate culture, better respect differences amongst staff, and celebrate the diversity within your work force.
- Provide supportive resources. Staying tuned in to their wellbeing over the holidays and beyond is essential to supporting a productive and positive corporate culture. Consider offering a lunch and learn with a counsellor to give them holiday coping tactics or building a mental health wellness program into your 2024 budget.
At the end of the day, although a branded mug may be very welcome as a holiday gift, what employees need is understanding and support, and I encourage you to pause and consider the gift of wellness for this holiday season.
If you’re inspired to offer mental health and wellness support now or next year, please download our corporate wellness brochure, visit our website, or email sorayacarrim@compasshealthcentre.com.
About the Author
With over 12 years of experience as a Counsellor and expertise in anxiety, depression, stress management, conflict resolution, anger management, phobias, identity and belonging, and chronic pain, Soraya Carrim uses therapeutic interventions such as cognitive behavioural therapy, mindfulness, and solution-focused therapies to help hundreds of clients in her role as Owner of Compass Health Centre in St. John’s, NL.
