It is Monday December 8, 2008 and we are a little over two weeks away from the big day when that jolly old elf comes down our chimneys. In the meantime, it might just be time to get yourself prepped for the days you and/or your organization will be closed for the holidays. While you are not preparing for a natural disaster but you are certainly preparing to have your doors closed for some much needed rest, relaxation, and maybe some hot buttered rum.
Seriously, there are a few things to consider before starting any prep work.
Know your calendar: Decide now which days you or your organization will be celebrating. Two things that make this decision quite easy; Christmas and New Year’s Day fall on a Thursday thus the perfect segue into a long, joyous weekend.
Days off vs. half-days: Now that you have decided on what days will be part of your holiday festivities. The next big decision is to determine if you will close shop for all the days (for the sake of the rest of this post let’s say the calendar days affected will be the two weeks that encompass Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and New Year’s) or open for half days.
This may be a little lop-sided if you have employees, are you prepared to pay them for the time off from work if you decide to close for two weeks? Then would open all day with split shifts be the better solution? That way everyone gets a chance to come in, work a little, and keep their sanity ;)
Call forwarding vs. Voice Mail: If you are running a one or two person operation decide if you want your calls to be forwarded to your home office number or cell phone or keep it going to your voice mail. A word of advice, if you decide that you will keep your messages on voicemail then include in the outgoing message that you are closed for normal business but you will be checking your voicemail often and when normal business will resume.
Driving in vs. Remote Access: The next thing to consider that if you decide to do some work are prepared to do so? By this I mean, will you be accessing your computer at the office via a remote desktop application or will you be making the trek through the holiday traffic. I am more than sure that by your second trip in you will be scrambling to install TightVNC or setting up Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Connection software all in the name of protecting your sanity.
Let everyone know: Shout it from the highest roof tops…ok maybe not the rooftops, but most certainly give them a call, put it in an email, post it on a blog, upload it on your website, send a note. Of course there will always be at least one who won’t get the word. That’s OK, wish him a Merry Christmas or your appropriate seasonal greeting and move along.
On my next post, I will get into what you might need to do once you have made your decisions.
Happy Holidays!!!
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• Dave Guerra • Holidays • time off from work • calendar • half days • call forwarding • voice mail • Remote Access • TightVNC • email • hot buttered rum • send a note • Happy Holidays • Give to the Salvation Army • Give to the American Red Cross • Hire A Hero
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