Managing Festive Stress: Supporting Employees Through the Challenges of Christmas

Even the topic of the works Christmas party can create anxiety, team members feeling pressured to attend, pressured to drink more than they would normally?

But for many of our employees the biggest anxiety at Christmas is the cost.

For each of us this will manifest differently, but for organisations, being mindful of these stressors on our employees can make a real difference.

Then there are those within our organisations who don’t celebrate Christmas, how do we ensure they remain valued at this time of year?

The psychological welfare of our employees is of course important all year round and creating the best culture within your organisation throughout the year means when anxiety and stress beings to take hold (for whatever reason), your people feel that they can be heard.

Ensuring the communication and manager relationships are built and strong during the year will enable employees who may need additional support, to be comfortable to share and ask for help.

But is there anything that we could do within our organisations to ease these additional stressors?

Here are some ideas that we’ve collected:

·       Financial awareness sessions

·       Promote awareness of any EAP or assistance lines

·       Christmas savings schemes (ensuring HMRC compliance)

·       Toy sales or swaps

·       Flexible work schedules

·       Consider different ideas for Christmas get togethers so as to withdraw the reliance on nights out and alcohol

·       Ensure all cultural celebrations are marked during the year

·       Ask the question of your teams, what is relevant for them?

Do you have any ideas to share? What do you do in your organisations? Please add into our More Than HR LinkedIn page.