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Lee E. Meadows, PhD.

Professor of Management –Walsh College

Authored: Silent Conspiracy & Silent Suspicion

Holiday is a time to take stock, give thanks

The holiday season signals the psychological reduction in mental energy available toward the completion of work-related tasks and the gearing up for the physical sprint on the mall-o-rama speedways. This reallocation of energy is thinly regarded as the unofficial national down time to ‘cool-in-the-cube’ of our work environments. Though we’re not prone to overt idleness, the time does allow for year end reflection and the opportunity to put things in perspective.

For many of our companies and the people whom they employ, it has been a tough year. Growing global competition combined with cautious consumer spending and cost cutting restructuring have produced a seemingly endless parade of people forced to do the pink slip shuffle. The shock of such an experience is beyond description, but tears deeper at the spirit when it happens during the joyous holiday season. It is not a pretty sight for individuals or organizations. There are many, for whom, the holiday season is an opportunity to cherish their continued employment and give thanks for surviving another round of job elimination, especially when they have personally observed a colleague or friend being escorted to the front door. I’m sure we feel at the deepest level for their loss and wish it hadn’t happened. So, in the relative quiet of your cubicle, you can exhale slowly knowing that your holiday season, by comparison, will be a little merrier. I hope that the reflection time is used reenergize and refocus your individual efforts on thinking beyond the narrow fears that can psychologically paralyze your attempt to move forward.

Here are some things to think about:

· As an organization, will you take time to closely examine your business practices to see if they will continuously minimize your ability to really utilize the talent you employ? Or is it business as usual? We’re a nation that employs people and a nation of people who like being employed. The organization may have had a tough year, but employees ride out the tough times because the alternative is too devastating. When the tide does change for the better, be grateful to those who did stay and remember the ones who wanted to stay.

As a manager, will you take time to personally thank the people in your department for weathering the storm of restructuring? Or do you believe they should be happy to still have a job? No doubt they are happy to have survived, but it should not stop you from acknowledging that you, too, are happy they survived.

As a surviving employee, will you take time to examine the full spectrum of your skills, abilities, knowledge and experiences to fully understand why you managed to survive? Are you willing to continue gambling with your future by not thinking about the present? The chaos of the present work environment is abundant with niche opportunities for learning, training, education and numerous opportunities to become more skilled and more valuable to more than just your current employer.

As one of the many pink slipped, will you take time to get upset, get mad and then get moving? Will this moment define the strength of your character or its flaws? No one expects you to like what has happened, but getting up off the canvas is more than just a physical act. Tapping into that inner spirit, drive and grit has kept many a person from being out for the count. Now, more than ever, a clear goal, strategy and timeframe will serve to focus your energies in ways productive to your well-being.

As a neighbor, friend, colleague or person-who-just-happens-to-be-standing-there, will you take the time to make sure others around you are doing okay? Will the holiday season reflect your relief or your compassion? Sometimes a twenty minute conversation over flavored coffee in which all you do is listen will go a long way toward making a person’s holiday season a little easier. Oftentimes, people don’t want much, just to know that they aren’t alone.

The end of the year holiday season can be a roller coaster ride of highs, lows and bumps along the way and the bandwidth into which we say ‘thanks’ may have narrowed, but the reasons for being thankful rarely change. You exist, you’re here and the only thing stopping you….is you. May the holiday season be more than you expect and an inkling of what you deserve.