Giving extra time off at Xmas? Generous? Yes. But inclusive it’s not.
Back in December, I saw a number of posts talking about how generous ‘X employer’ was being for giving extra time off at Christmas, closing the office for two full weeks, prioritising mental health and well-being and allowing people to fully recharge, before coming back in to ‘kick it’ in 2024.
I have to say, in a world gone mad, where people struggle to put food on the table and we're all still getting over the collective trauma of COVID, I think the idea of giving back to your team is absolutely the right thing to do
But, choosing Christmas as the time of year to do it, particularly while highlighting the opportunity for people to use the extra time to celebrate Christmas, doesn't feel particularly inclusive.
Religious pendants hanging from a chain, including crosses, a star of David, a Buddhist figure, a Torah, and a Crescent moon and star.
After all, Diwali was in late November, Hanukkah in mid-December, and Eid al Faitr won’t take place until March! And that's not taking into account those of us who for whatever reason don't celebrate Christmas at all. Yeah, yeah, I hear ya, ‘We live in a Christian country and celebrate Christmas! In other religious countries around the world, people aren't given time off to celebrate festivals that fall outside of the common faith!’
Except we're not really a Christian country anymore. I'm not talking about the values of Christianity (although I don't think they're exclusive to Christianity anyway) I'm talking about the fact that in the 2021 census 46.2% of England & Wales population were Christian – down 11% from 2011. ‘No religion’ was up 12% to 37.2%. 6.5% were Muslim, 1.7% were Hindu and 0.5% were Jewish. So unlike the UAE for example where 76% of the population are Muslim, here in the UK we really can't claim to be a country with one religious majority.
Making Christmas the focal point of our calendars seems a little incongruous with figures above.
So, how does the ideal organisation give a little time back to their team members to focus on well-being, community and work-life balance without focusing on one specific religious holiday?
Introducing ‘Interfaith and Mindfulness days!
Top to Bottom: A pride parade, A woman sat in a field in a yoga pose, and a group of people praying in a circle.
When I joined my last business they routinely closed the office for the five days between Christmas and New Year, asking employees to contribute 2.5 days from their annual leave and making up the remaining 2.5 days as a donation from the company itself.
We decided to change this and move to Interfaith and Mindfulness days instead. The premise was actually quite simple: Instead of giving employees 2 1/.5 days at Christmas, we gave them to employees as a separate leave policy called, you guessed it, Interfaith and Mindfulness days! These could be used at anytime during the year to either observe religious festivals, focus on your own mindfulness and well-being, or take part in other community events.
It meant whether it was a yoga retreat, celebrating Eid, Christmas or Hanukkah with family, or attending a weekend of Pride festivals, employees were able to use the time when it suited them.
Most employees carried on as normal using some of their personal leave and taking 5 full days at Christmas, but for those of us who didn't celebrate Christmas, it meant we were able to work through the holidays and take the leave when it meant more to us.
Aside from keeping an eye on cover throughout the year (as managers would be doing anyway) and creating a new leave policy in the HR system, very little work was involved in the change. But to those employees who observed other religious holidays – and those non religious amongst us, it meant a lot to be thought of and included.
Ultimately, a new policy showing thought for the diversity of your team members? That takes little time to initiate AND has little impact on the business?
Now that's one present we should all want to unwrap!