As we approach the holidays I want to speak to a few of you that have trouble celebrating anything at all in your place of business. Your people need to be able to have a little fun at work especially when that work keeps them away from friends and family. I understand that the holidays are not traditionally great times for people in the trades. All too often our customers are deciding between repairing things in their homes and buying presents for their kids.

This means that when they do call us they are already have an elevated feeling of stress because they know our services will cost money that they were planning on spending elsewhere. So our internal customer service staff has to be at the top of their game and one of the ways we can facilitate that is by allowing them to celebrate at the office.

I’m not talking about anything that gets in the way of work and don’t make yourself crazier by spending a ton of money. But if your people want to decorate their workspace within reason then please consider allowing it. Or possibly a holiday pot luck for lunch? There is nothing wrong with a little company team building to lift spirits during a slow time.

I realize that to some of you this might seem like a very basic principal but even those of you who celebrate a lot at your company need to take a look at your behavior every once in a while. Our employees try to help themselves in different ways and we need to be sensitive to not only the individual request but what they might be asking for in general. If your people ask to put up a couple cardboard turkeys on the wall for Thanksgiving or some hearts for Valentine’s Day maybe they are saying that the grey walls and the single motivational poster aren’t helping them stay in a good mood.

You want your people to project an attitude that customers want to be a part of but that’s hard to do when you’re chained to a big pile of no fun.