I have written the 7-Hour Rule of Project Management which says that project managers should only allocate 7 hours a day in their timeline since realistically employees are not productive for 8 hours.

How about Holidays?

Project timeline during the holiday season is tricky and project managers should have made it a point to move critical tasks after or before the holiday / Christmas season because of distractions that come with the celebration. December should be treated as slack time since employees are not in the right mindset to focus. Bazaars, midnight madness sales, parties, family dinners, shopping, etc. keep people occupied all night long which hardly gives them enough energy for complex and tough schedules throughout the day.

When is the start of slack time?

Second week of December is the right time to slack the project timeline an hour or two less each day. The third week of December is when employees usually go on leave and project timelines should be done on a case to case basis; but rule of thumb tells managers not to be tough during these times.

Conclusion

Managers could be heartless and make people work hard during the holiday season; but the implications it would bring to employees would greater outweigh a light schedule for them. The holiday season is when they hang out with their friends, family and loved ones and depriving them of these opportunities would lead to diminishing returns in their productivity.

Companies should not feel shortchanged because after employees have partied and spent a lot during the holidays, they would focus more in their work after that.

[tags]Project, Management, Manager, Christmas, Holiday[/tags]