Small group session: Nearly empty offices can bring out holiday cheer

Feeling a little lonely at work? You’re not the only one. If you’re working in the office, a lot of your colleagues are likely taking some time off during the second half of December. Not you, though. You’d rather use up your vacation days during the summer and don’t mind working late in the year, especially when the in-laws are staying at your place for the holidays.

“We have a blast in December,” says Jack, a Boston-based marketing associate who doesn’t want his last name used. “For the past 10 years — maybe eight, considering Covid — me and two friends I work with purposely work in December because no one’s around, there’s not a lot to do and you can chill out.”

Jack says “chilling out” is as innocent as it sounds. “We could probably get away with whatever we want but we all love our job, we love our boss and we love working with each other so we’re not stupid enough to do anything that’s going to cause a stir,” Jack says. “We watch a movie or two, we have our kids come up for lunch. Oh, and we arm wrestle for money.”

The arm wrestling, Jack says, is a homage to Sylvester Stallone and his film “Over the Top,” in which Sly stars as an underdog arm wrestler working his way to the top. “We started it our second year and put in 25 bucks each,” Jack says. “It’s a three-day event — one-on-one-onone — and it’s winner take all. There are other people here sometimes and they love it so we’re thinking about opening it up and doing it when the rest of the team is here because, you know, you have to give the people what they want.”

Jack says he and his friends do get some work done during December, so it’s not all fun and games.