11/20/07 6:30 AM

Many Workers Not Taking Off During Holiday Season

By Kathy Gurchiek

The season from Thanksgiving to New Year’s doesn’t signal extra time off for four out of 10 office workers in 2007 beyond employer-provided holidays, says a new survey.

“With the year coming to a close, employees may have already used up their vacation days,” said Diane Domeyer, executive director of OfficeTeam. The California-based professional staffing service commissioned the phone survey of 493 full- or part-time office workers from Oct. 25 to Nov. 5, 2007.

“But other professionals sometimes get so wrapped up in work at the end of the year” completing projects, “that they only take the company holidays they are granted,” she said in a press release,

That time frame also is a peak season for some organizations, which might explain why only about one-fourth of office workers plan to take a week or more off between Thanksgiving and New Year’s.

According to the findings:

• 42 percent of workers will not take any time off between Thanksgiving and New Year’s in 2007 beyond employer-provided time off.

• 17 percent will take one or two days off.

• 15 percent will take three or four days off.

• 13 percent will take five or six days off.

• 12 percent will take seven or more days off.

“Everyone needs time away form work to recharge and avoid burnout,” Domeyer observed.

An increasing number will have a chance to “recharge” over Thanksgiving and the following Friday, according to surveys by the Bureau of National Affairs (BNA) and the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).

Friday After Thanksgiving

More employers are giving the Friday after Thanksgiving as a paid day off, as well as Thanksgiving Day—resulting in a four-day weekend for some—according to BNA’s survey of 210 employers.

Seventy-eight percent of employers surveyed are part of that trend, and much of that is happening in the manufacturing sector (90 percent), although 81 percent of nonbusiness groups such as hospitals, educational facilities and government organizations, are close behind.

An equal percentage (78 percent) of large and small employers plan to give both days as paid time off. Slightly more are union (86 percent) than nonunion (76 percent) employers are part of that trend, the BNA found.

Thanksgiving is not a day off for everyone, though. Slightly more than one-third (36 percent) of employers surveyed will require some employees to work that holiday. That percentage has fallen since 2002, when 47 percent of employers scheduled workers on Thanksgiving Day, and 44 percent did so in 2003.

Among those scheduled to work that Thursday, 56 percent of employers will pay overtime; 17 percent will pay overtime and provide compensatory time off; and 7 percent will give those workers holiday compensatory time only, the BNA found. Another 15 percent of employers, BNA reported, will pay overtime based on the category status of worker, such as exempt vs. nonexempt, union vs. nonunion and line worker vs. supervisory worker.

Employers that require some staffing on Thanksgiving tend to be nonbusiness groups (61 percent), union shops (69 percent) and large organizations (58 percent).

Private employers are not required by state or federal law to provide holidays as paid time off, but some employers follow the federal holiday schedule, according to SHRM.

The BNA’s findings on the rising number of employers giving the Friday after Thanksgiving as a paid day off mirror SHRM surveys of HR professionals conducted in October 2006 and October 2007.

Nearly three-fourths (72 percent) said their employers plan to close their offices on the Friday after Thanksgiving 2007; 74 percent plan to do so in 2008. Ninety-eight percent will close Thanksgiving Day 2008 and 93 percent Thanksgiving Day 2007.

As for Christmas 2007, which falls on a Tuesday, only 16 percent of HR professionals said their employer plans to close the next day.

Kathy Gurchiek is associate editor for HR News. She can be reached at kgurchiek@shrm.org.

Related Articles:

Holidays Begin in September, Not December, for Many, SHRM Diversity Focus Area, September 2007

Employers Grapple with Mid-Week Holiday ‘Dilemma,’ HR News, June 20, 2007

Many employers to provide extra holiday days off in 2007, HR News, Nov. 22, 2006

Related Resource:

Holiday Toolkit, SHRM HR Knowledge Center

For the latest HR-related business and government news, go daily to www.shrm.org/hrnews.