12 Dec 6 tips to help you survive the Christmas shutdown…

It’s that time of year again, where desks are cluttered with tinsel and christmas cards, and there’s one member of staff who insists on playing back to back Christmas songs and making every day Christmas jumper day. Although a time full of festive cheer, for many managers it can be filled with dread as you prepare for the Christmas shutdown.

Here are our key tips to help you survive over the Christmas period.

Manage staff holidays

To simplify managing staff holidays over the Christmas period, why not create a Google Form to collect holiday requests. Viewing a summary of responses can show you a percentage of staff requesting particular holidays off, so you can easily plan your rotas and accept or reject staff holiday requests. View your results in Google Sheets and share around management for an easy way to view staff rotas and requests. The time stamp of the Google Form will help you know who requested particular days first, so that you can always make sure you are fair when accepting or rejecting holidays.

Make sure you spend time with your family

It can be a tough battle between work and family life at Christmas, which is why you should be set up for you and your teams to be able to work from home over the holiday period. With Google Apps for Work, you can have the same experience when working from home as from the office, so make sure you spend time with loved ones when it really matters, but are still on hand to check important emails when necessary.

Communicate with your customers

Make sure your customers know your business hours over the holidays. It’s likely they really won’t mind you taking a well earned break, but be sure to update your website with your temporary hours, and send out any communications in advance so that urgent work can be completed prior to your shutdown. Also, don’t forget to put your out of office on when you head home for Christmas.

Prepare for your return

Use labels in Gmail to ensure that all the mail that needs your urgent attention can be found in one place, as an easy way to sort through the Christmas back log. Calendar reminders can also be a great way to make sure you return to work with a pre-prepared action list.

Working over the holidays?

Why not take the time to tidy up your Google Drive folders, make sure you have your security settings up to date, or have a Hangout with your remaining family and friends at home. If all else fails, you might find some funny photos from the Christmas party backed up in your Google+…

Spread Christmas cheer

Don’t forget that for your staff who are working over Christmas, they may need a little motivation to keep going and stay in the festive spirit, so don’t be too annoyed if someone wants to make dancing elves videos and play Christmas songs. Why not let your staff leave early, after all with Google Apps for Work you can stay connected from wherever you are…

*** Happy holidays everyone! ***