51%: Fighting traffic

39%: The extra expense of Christmas

34%: Gaining weight

34%: Coming up with gift ideas for others

31%: Expectations to buy others gifts

28%: Coming up with gift ideas for myself

26%: Busyness

What don't you like that happens at the workplace during the holidays? 

28%: Pressure to get year-end tasks done

23%: "White elephant" gift exchanges

22%: Expected to buy gifts for colleagues or supervisor

21%: Required to participate in "Secret Santa" giving

20%: Having to attend after hours holiday celebrations

18%: Having to work on holidays

18%: Being required to bring food for holiday luncheons

Here are some practical tips for employers and managers that can be gleaned from the results:

Leave ample time for employees to work on the extra year-end tasks and reports. This requires careful planning and communication, as well as collaboration. Managers should check in often with employees and provide assistance when needed.

Don't force your employees to participate in gift giving exchanges (explicitly or implicitly). One idea is to survey employees and ask them whether gift giving at work is a priority for them during the holiday season. (If your employees have taken the Motivating by Appreciation Inventory, you should already know the employees/co-workers who value gifts!). If gift giving is not something the majority of the staff desires to do, allow the team to come up with some new, original ideas for celebrating the season.

Be sensitive to scheduling issues and time requirements during the holidays. Calendars are overflowing during the month of December. Employees with families and children typically have extra commitments. At times, even celebratory events are not received well (such as staff birthday events or promotions) if they coincide with the holiday season.

If you are going to have a meal to celebrate, provide the food.Send out a survey to employees listing some options and select the cuisine based on responses received. Be sure to ask about allergies and other preferences. Sharing a meal together is a fantastic way to connect.

Additionally, we asked people to write and tell us examples of their worst holiday experience related to work.More than 500 individuals shared their stories and some were in the "You've got to be kidding me!" category. Here are a couple samples:

• Attending a company holiday party where the electric company arrived to shut off the electricity for non-payment. (I wonder if the staff got paid?)
• Being told to wear an ugly sweater for the staff party, and being sent home to change because my sweater was "too ugly!"

Visit Survey Stories to read more.  

One thing I have observed (and learned through personal experience) is that a key component for having a relatively successful holiday celebrationis to (ahead of time, and repeatedly) communicate clearly to staff about what they should expect (and not expect, if this year is different from prior years). Unmet expectations are the source of disappointment, so let people know what is going to happen. Cheers!

Dr. Paul White is a psychologist, speaker and consultant. He can be reached at 316-681-4431 or [email protected].