When There's Not A Lot To Give, Be Sure You Have Plenty To Share

From the desk of Ron Sukenick

It’s holiday time, but, around the workplace these days, it may be hard to tell. Companies are cutting back on everything from decorations to parties and bonuses. Since, as a Certified Human Behavior Consultant™, I teach how important it is to relate to the needs of others, it occurs to me that, this holiday season, to a greater extent than at any other time I can recall, we as business people seem to be concerned with needs rather than with “wants”.

In “Holiday trimming”, Indianapolis Star’s Dana Hunsinger offers tips to employers on how to make this a good workplace holiday for their employees, even while cutting costs. Among Hunsinger’s suggestions is giving workers time off to do charity work, letting them go home early on Friday, or allowing them to wear jeans to work. Especially interesting to me was the idea of giving employees time off to attend a networking event!

The first suggestion listed in the article is, in my view, the most important: Communicate! “Let workers know as soon as possible that they will not be getting that usual year-end bonus so they can budget accordingly.”

I want to take that idea of communicating a few steps further. Precisely because all of us, employers and employees alike, are feeling the pinch, now is the perfect time to recognize what a privilege it is, in this season of mass layoffs, to be able to work, to be healthy enough to work, and to be able to share in the building of a business through good times and bad. Now is a time to really “see” and really “hear’ the people who work alongside us every day and whom we often take for granted. So, rather than giving workers time off to do charity work, I’d advise bosses and employees to work together on a volunteer project, and to attend networking events together.

I’m no financial guru, but I suspect this financial crunch won’t last forever. As a business coach and trainer, I know the opportunity to forge new and closer relationships between owners and employees during these difficult times won’t, either. Our Founding Father Thomas Paine referred to his era as “times that try men’s souls”. I’d like to suggest we use this season to take our personal and professional relationships to the next level, through sharing our appreciation of the least costly, yet the dearest, things in life.