V. sent me an email earlier asking if it should be expected that employees will take time off around the holidays. Well, really, it depends.
While some corporate environments are more flexible when it comes to time off around the holidays, others are much stricter and make no distinction between the holidays or any other time of the year.
So it’s definitely one question that should be asked of our managers, and by extension, of human resources. Since it can be more a matter of corporate culture than anything else, better to ask sooner than later. We even recommend tackling this type of questions as part of the interviewing process, in case you are one of those who pre-plan holidays away.
And just to cover our corporate derrieres, planning and requesting the time off ahead of time always helps clear any potential misunderstanding. In stricter environments, considering offering to work remotely may also be a solid negotiation point.
Luckily, many offices are virtually “dead” over the last week of the year. Otherwise, we can always thank the gods of technology for remote internet connection…

Are you asking for time off this holiday season?