Finish strong: The end of the year is no time for a winter nap
John Randolph loves the month of December. Sure, the decorations and music are nice but his real fondness for the 12th month of the year comes from the fact that the 43-year-old architect can concentrate on more than just his regular deadlines.
“Things slow down in December. I get to stop and smell the coffee a little. I get to take some time and do some planning for the next year,” he says.
Randolph isn’t alone in his appreciation for the 12th month of the year. For many, December is a chance to call and time-out from their day-to-day stress and make some concrete plans for the year ahead. Found time
Nancy Hanquist, a career consultant in New York and a former HR specialist with PepsiCo, says the end of the year can offer employees a brief respite from the 9-to-5 grind and can help them cleanse their pallet for the future. “People tend to think that everyone works fewer days in December but in reality, they work as much but their workload shifts. They’re not as consumed with working with outside clients and with other day-to-day operations,” she says. “Instead they spend a significant amount of time planning and assessing. They do a lot of the creative work they didn’t have time for in the previous months.”
Bryan Lindberg, a real estate developer in Columbus, Ohio, says he has a box of magazine pages and printouts under his desk that he goes through every week to give his brain a creative spark. Well, at least in theory he does. The reality is that Lindberg says he goes through a few pages a month and uses December to tackle his idea box. “I don’t always have the time to go through what I’ve collected so when I get a little bit of breathing room, I dive right in.”
While Lindberg admits much of what he finds is no longer relevant to him or his business, he says he gets “more than enough ideas” to make his December ritual worthwhile. “I sit there with a notebook and my laptop and go to town,” he says. “I find things that fit into what I’m doing now and ideas that could work in the future. And I find a lot of strategies for working with others. That stuff is huge. Those are the types of ideas I don’t have time to ponder in my busy seasons.” Open for hire
Hanquist says it’s important for job seekers to keep their engines running throughout the holiday season. “There’s a myth that no hiring take place between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day but that’s false,” Hanquist says. “While some HR departments certainly slow down a bit, there are managers who take a hands-on approach to hiring in December.”
Hanquist says many managers want to start the year off strong so they want to be prepared with a full slate of employees when January begins. “If you have big plans for the upcoming months, you’ll need to be properly staffed,” she says. “Why wait on hiring someone in December just because it’s Christmas season? That’s counterproductive. Your competitors may be working overtime to find the best talent out there so you need to stay proactive.”
And if companies are being proactive, it only makes sense that job seekers share the same enthusiasm for looking for work. “There is no time off when you don’t have a job,” Hanquist says. “You take a few days off and the job of your dreams may be posted and filled while you’re experimenting with cookie recipes. Don’t be a slacker. Don’t get lulled into enjoying an extended Christmas vacation because you have no Christmas vacation. Keep looking, keep working, keep connecting and good things will happen.”