Many Americans think the holidays mean time off, but that’s not true for all workers.
Nearly 1 in 4 Americans will be working on Christmas Eve, a new study from Calendar Labs — a calendar template company — found, and over 1 in 10 will be working on Christmas Day. The report, which surveyed 1,014 full-time employees, also showed that over 1 in 4 plan on working through New Year’s Eve, and almost 1 in 5 will be on the job on New Year’s Day.
And that’s not just retail workers, who typically have rough holiday schedules. Overall, 44% of non-retail employees plan to work during the holidays this year, according to the study.
The economy is the biggest factor behind Americans’ plans to work during the holidays, but experts say the study also shows the importance of improving working conditions for employers and employees alike.
“Employers have increasingly realized that retention is actually the number one workforce issue, not recruitment. You can recruit zillions of people, but if they're just out the door three months after you made this huge investment in them,” Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter, said. “It's pointless. You need to create the culture that makes people happy and want to stay.”
The economy is the biggest factor behind Americans’ plans to work during the holidays, study shows. (Photo: Getty Creative) ·lakshmiprasad S via Getty Images
‘How are you supposed to keep up with all these rising costs?’
The number one reason workers said they would stay on the job during holidays is because of steep prices. Almost a third (32%) of study participants cited this reason.
Inflation has squeezed Americans financially, Dan Schawbel, a workplace expert and researcher, said, forcing them to adapt to rising prices in two different forms: economic inflation and “greedflation,” when firms raise prices for larger profits.
“So it's just kind of like a double header for the average person to be able to bear that and then just the rising costs of everything,” he said. “It's not just financially, it's also mentally and psychologically you feel almost defeated, like how are you supposed to keep up with all these rising costs when you know you're not you're not getting paid to match those increased costs?”
Another big reason for the holiday working hours is a “supply-constrained labor market,” Pollak said. Unemployment has hovered at under 4% for the past 24 months, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
For some industries, that means staffing has gotten particularly tight such as hospitals, where many nurses can no longer submit vacation requests at this point of the year, Pollak said.
The report found that 28% of respondents said they were working during the holidays due to the “inability to get coverage at work,” the second-biggest reason.
“That is the situation in which many, many industries find themselves in,” she said. “They're still very, very short-staffed, they have a very limited cushion, and not enough substitutes who can fill in.”
Nearly 1 in 4 Americans will be working on Christmas Eve, a new study shows. (Photo: Getty Creative) ·Moyo Studio via Getty Images
A cultural problem?
Pollak also said Americans are unusual in their inclination to work through the holidays, even without financial incentives.
“The decision comes down to a trade off between leisure and money. There are cultures that can value leisure more and more people take an enormous amount of time off over the summer and winter,” she said. “And there are others where they seem to prioritize financial, sort of material well-being.”
The study details the toll working through the holidays can take on workers and employers. Around 80% of workers say they’re less productive when working during time off, while over 90% of study participants who worked during the holidays in the past year reported suffering from burnout. Of those that worked during their vacation last year, roughly 30% plan on looking for a new job.
“Even in this economy, there's a lot of pressure on workers to continue to work longer hours, and, and then incentives for employees to work those hours to get bonuses or other relief in order to afford to live,” said Schawbel. “And as a result of that, it's created more of the burnout crisis and mental health issues that we've had for the past three plus years.”
Many workers simply don’t have enough time-off to sprinkle throughout the year, the report also found. Almost a quarter — 24% — said they needed to save “time off for other plans” and that’s why they planned to work through the holiday season.
Per the study, clear time-off during the holidays may be the answer. Around 25% of study participants said they would be “more inclined to stay if their company was stricter about their time-off policies.”
Pollak added that it was especially important that companies create a company culture that respects and values vacation time. She recommended companies “set the tone” by completely shutting down their offices on certain days. She explained that workers shouldn’t feel like they’re requesting a favor when taking holidays off.
“Offering something on paper, and really respecting it and valuing it and encouraging it and practicing it are different things,” she said. “And so this really, really comes down to culture.”
She added: “There need to be clear signals from leadership that you won't be punished for taking the time off that you are eligible for.”
