If you were at work yesterday, you probably had a hard time finding the people you needed to find in order to do your job. It'll be the same tomorrow, if you're going into work. That's what happens when Christmas and New Years come in mid-week. Mondays are no good because of all the people taking a long weekend. Forget Tuesdays because of the people who take the day off to get ready for the Wednesday holiday. Thursdays are a bust because they come right after the Wednesday holiday, and a lot of people take that day to recover. Fridays are a total waste because so many who didn't take the other long weekend take this one.
So when you're actually at work this week or last, you sit there like a zombie waiting for people to return your calls or emails, and nothing happens because they aren't in. And when they are in, you're not.
This isn't the first time Chistmas and New Years both fell on a Wednesday, of course, but it was different years ago. Then, almost everyone you had to reach during the workday with was inside the same company you were in. And that company decided when all its employees would have certain days off -- say, the Mondays or Tuesdays before the holidays, or the Thursdays or Fridays after. So everyone more or less took time off together, and came back to work together. Which meant your calls got returned, people showed up at meetings, real work got done.
But businesses are different today. Companies are now networks of contractors, subcontractors, agents, alliances, franchisees. To get anything done today you've got to coordinate with a lot of people who work in many different organizations. And so when Christmas and New Years come on Wednesdays, all the people you have to coordinate with are likely to have different holiday schedules -- some taking off last Monday or Tuesday or next Thursday or half ofFriday, some coming in late, some leaving early. Nobody can find anybody. It's holiday chaos. Nothing gets done for two weeks. American productivity goes downthe tubes.
The next time Christmas and New Years both fall on a Wednesday will be the year2013, given leap years. So we have some time to figure out how to do this more systematically. I for one think Alan Greenspan should just declare which days during those two weeks all of us can take off. Why not? He decides everything else.