|
TheBuzz Erika Engle |
Green with envy over
Christmas holiday timeImagine getting the week between Christmas and New Year's off with pay -- and not having it count against your vacation time.
Yes Virginia, some bosses are Santa Claus.
It's not unusual to be unable to reach people at the office during the holiday week, but in most cases it's because they're on vacation.
In a few cases in Honolulu, entire companies close their doors, explaining the full voice mail box at the other end of the phone line.
"Wimberly Allison Tong & Goo started the tradition of taking the Christmas holidays off in the mid-1960s," said Suzan Kushiyama, corporate marketing and public relations coordinator.
All 300 or so employees of WAT&G worldwide get the time off, which this year stretches from noon Dec. 24 through Jan. 4, 2004.
According to the institutional memory of co-founder Don Goo, "The senior leaders, Wiz (George Whisenand), Greg Tong and Don Goo made this decision to allow the staff to spend more time with their school-aged children," she said. Work was usually slow, anyway.
There are holidays employees give up, such as Good Friday and Kuhio Day, but because many companies take those holidays off, phones are slow and productivity at the firm is high.
Advertising agency Milici Valenti Ng Pack will also close its doors at noon on Christmas Eve and won't reopen until Jan. 5. The call was made by president Nick Ng Pack.
"Overall he just wanted to improve the work environment for all his employees," said account executive Joanne Luke.
"After 9/11 he knew the quality time with family was so much more important."
Should an advertising emergency arise, "employees will still come in, but he'll give them that time ... later. The main goal was to shut down the entire office so nobody will worry about work," said Luke.
Milici staff and clients work under tight deadlines to clear the decks for the rest of the year, and the same is true at Wimberly.
The deadline does increase pressure, somewhat, but "It's definitely worth it," said Kushiyama. "I think it's something exciting to look forward to."
After the first of the year, "everybody comes back fresh."
Of the law firms contacted, none take the entire week because courts are open Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve and the day following Christmas and New Year's days.
Cades Schutte LLP, however, is giving employees the day off on both Dec. 26 and Jan. 2.
"We'd like to establish a tradition," said managing committee member Nick Dreher. "At least, every year that Christmas comes on Thursday," he chuckled.
"Typically we have 13 holidays that we give our staff in a normal year. We also give a half-day off on Christmas Eve, which is when we have our company Christmas party.
"This year because of the timing of the holiday, the extremely busy year and because everyone has worked very hard, we thought we'd reward them with a couple extra days."
The offices won't exactly be echoing with silence. "Undoubtedly there will be plenty of lawyers in the office that day. We're busy and we have to pay attention to our work."
They'll be doing their own typing, "which most people do here, anyway," said Dreher.
The time-off generosity does come at some expense to the firm, but neither Dreher, Kushiyama nor Luke divulged any figures.
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin. Call 529-4302, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210, Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached at: eengle@starbulletin.com