"No man ever sank under the burden of the day.  It is when tomorrow’s burden is added to the burden of today, that the weight is more than a man can bear."
                           ~George MacDonald

Are you overwhelmed with the magnitude and ambiguity of managing stress?  Can you afford to ignore for even one more day the stress-related issues that multiply in your organization during the holiday season?  Consider this.  According to the Harvard Business Review (July 2003), “Accumulated over time, negative stress can depress you, burn you out, make you sick, or kill you.”  So much for good tidings and holiday cheer.  Ignoring this end-of-the-year phenomenon is unwise and dangerous.       

Make It Go Away!

Stress is a daily force in the workplace.  In the fourth quarter, due to the holiday season, managing stress can become an insurmountable obstacle to organizational efficiency.  Many businesses and charities depend on a strong fourth quarter to achieve annual budgets.  The volume of work, especially in the retail sector, increases dramatically.  In addition to longer hours and heavier workloads, employees must also accommodate their increased personal obligations to family and friends.  Faced with the specter of workplace stress what can business leaders do? 

There are two choices.  You can try to ignore it and conduct business as usual or you can find productive ways to openly and effectively manage the specific issues in your organization.  Ignoring the obvious creates resentment.  By failing to take action, leaders can expect absenteeism, increased customer complaints, and a reduction in productivity.

Be Proactive

Stress, according to psychologists, can be good or bad.  Good stress, or eustress, inspires us to achieve.  Athletes use the eustress of a competition to increase their performance.  The leader in a race feels the presence of the second place runner.  He can reach inside, summon more strength and run faster (eustress) or he can fear being overtaken and give up (stress). 

Business leaders and managers can do the same thing.  They must take action to identify each controllable variable (manpower needs, inventory levels, and necessary supplies and equipment) and make changes to accommodate the increased business activity. 

Take Action

Review forecasts.  Budgets prepared a year ago may not adequately reflect what is happening now.  Begin to make more accurate weekly forecasts and adjust inventories, deliveries, production, and staffing accordingly. 

Review hiring.  Seasonal and/or part time help is standard for some industries and an option for many others.  Decisive action now will eliminate future problems.    

Increase training.  By cross-training and retraining your existing employees you gain the flexibility to handle the increased demands of clients, customers, and guests.

Adjust schedules.  Openly acknowledge that helping each person meet their personal commitments is important.  This is time consuming and difficult but the rewards are worth it.  By creating a team that is committed to customer service and to each other you can decrease absenteeism and avoid a decrease in productivity.

Communicate.  Initiate daily or bi-weekly staff, shift, or crew meetings.  Make these meetings short in length and tactical in tone.  Call them “yesterday, today, and tomorrow” meetings.  Find out what worked yesterday and keep doing it.  Find out what is not working and fix it—for today and tomorrow.

Review.  In the first quarter of next year review the results of this year’s fourth quarter.  Record the changes that were made to deal with the short term problems.  Make any permanent organizational changes necessary to avoid repeating the same problems during next year’s holiday season.

It’s Up to You

The holiday season is a time for reflection and for review, for family and for faith.    Each year holiday stress will be a factor in our daily professional and personal lives.  By acknowledging stress and proactively dealing with it during the holiday season, leaders will not only strengthen their company’s fourth quarter performance they will discover new opportunities to strengthen their entire organization.  With improved planning and communication we can all benefit from “good” stress and minimize “bad” stress.  Happy (and reduced stress) holidays!

This article is provided as general information and is not intended to be a substitute for legal or other professional advice.