The Changing Work Atmosphere During the Holidays

With Thanksgiving rapidly approaching, I started thinking about some of my work memories that occurred in November and December.  Two of them readily come to mind.

Many years ago when I was still in manufacturing, our plant was giving every employee a free turkey for Thanksgiving.  The only stipulation?  They (several hundred frozen turkeys)  were to be delivered to our plant on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, and then employees would have to come by to pick one up to take home.  It was a fun few hours, being up in the truck on a chilly day and passing down turkeys to your employees.  The vast majority were very grateful.  Notice I said, vast majority.  There were a few who complained that they were working the off shift and had to come in on their personal time off to pick up their turkey.  A little downer, but didn’t distract from a great day.

My absolute favorite day of the year, is the last working day before the Christmas holiday.  It always seemed to me that all employees were pleasant to all other employees.  Local union leadership would stop in and chat about families and other small talk.  I don’t ever remember any grievances filed on that last day.  I often thought, why can’t we save some of this and carry it over into the next year?

But alas, I knew that the first work day after the holidays were over, would bring back the frustrations, negatives, and petty feelings that permeated the rest of the year.  Oh, well, it was fun while it lasted.

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW……..