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For some, it's season of giving time off
By KRIS HUNDLEY, Times Staff Writer
For the past few years, the employees of Randy Wedding's architecture firm in St. Petersburg have enjoyed a whole week of paid vacation between Christmas and New Year's. The time off comes with some strings attached: The 20 staffers work four Saturday mornings in the fall to bank 16 hours of comp time. The company, Wedding Stephenson & Ibarguen Architects Inc., donates the rest of the hours as its year-end gift to employees. Wedding, the company president, said the unusual holiday arrangement isn't entirely altruistic. "The truth of it is, nothing gets done anyway," he said of the days between Christmas and New Year's. "Being here doesn't make a whole hell of a lot of sense." From the days of Ebenezer Scrooge, employers have tried with mixed success to balance the personal distractions of the holidays with the flood of year-end work. People in retail and restaurant work have no option: They know their business means no time off from Thanksgiving through the New Year. And some bosses, like one who scheduled a sales meeting in Boston for the week before Christmas, refuse to be flexible. But as more employers recognize the importance -- and common sense -- of accommodating employees' personal lives during the holiday season, such Grinch-like demands are the exception, not the rule. Management staff of iFactz, a marketing company in St. Petersburg, will cover the office from Christmas Eve through New Year's Day while the rest of the 35-person staff takes time off with pay. Eric Obeck, chief operating officer, said employees recently worked round the clock and weekends to wrap up television commercials for two big accounts -- Intuit, the maker of personal finance software, and Euro-Pro, maker of the Shark vac -- so they could be on the air in time for Christmas. The bonus vacation days are the company's way of saying thanks, Obeck said. At Linvatec, a manufacturer of medical devices in Largo, Christmas week has traditionally meant paid time off for nearly everyone. Of the company's 1,000 employees, fewer than 250 will show up to staff customer service, warehouse, repair and human resource positions next week. Employees who volunteer to come in during the holiday break will have the option of being paid double time and a half or taking a paid day off at another time. Aerosonic Corp. in Clearwater will shut down at noon Tuesday, Christmas Eve, and reopen Friday morning. Workers will be paid for the extra time off, which does not count against their regular vacation. J. Mervyn Nabors, president and chief executive of the aircraft instrumentation company, said he instituted the tradition of a holiday shutdown when he returned to the company five years ago despite the pressure of year-end orders. "Our work is kind of doubled this time of year with our fiscal year ending Jan. 31," he said. "So in January we pay more overtime doing some catchup because we've still got to get the product out the door. But I found people really appreciate it. Or at least I haven't heard anyone complain." The St. Petersburg call center for PODS Inc., which is normally open seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., will shut down its phones Christmas Eve and Day as well as New Year's Eve and Day. Workers willing to come in to handle the crunch on either side of the two-day breaks will have a special incentive: time and a half pay plus free pizza for lunch. At Bank of America, employees who plan ahead can buy extra vacation time at the beginning of the year for use during the holidays. Katie Pemble, president of the bank's Pinellas County operations, said some parts of BOA's business see a special crush of activity at year end: tax planning, real estate sales and mergers and acquisitions. Though the bank is closed on Christmas and New Year's Day, Pemble said there is no particular rush on tellers during the holidays. "There's always a flurry the day before and after any closing," she said. "But Christmas and New Year's are no different from Veterans Day." In the hospitality business, every holiday of the year except Thanksgiving and Christmas are traditionally packed houses, demanding that every employee appear for work, no excuses, no vacations. With this in mind, the Tradewinds Island Resorts in St. Pete Beach this year tried to arrange for as many workers as possible to take off on the two lighter holidays. Guests at Tradewinds' three properties were told on Thanksgiving that regular housekeeping services would be available only on request, meaning a crew of up to 90 housekeepers were given a day off. Keith Overton, Tradewinds' general manager, said only 12 guests asked for room cleaning on Thanksgiving. He expects a similar response on Christmas. "We didn't get one complaint from guests, so I'd say it worked," he said. "But business picks up right after Christmas. We'll be asking everyone to work New Year's Eve." The year-end rush doesn't apply solely to for-profit businesses. The Center Against Spouse Abuse in St. Petersburg gets the bulk of its donations of new and used goods during the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. CASA's 75 employees know vacation is pretty much out of the question as they work overtime to accept, sort and store the public's largesse. Three volunteers also pitch in nearly full time to help. But Linda Osmundson, CASA's executive director, said her exhaused workers get an adrenaline rush from the annual flood of contributions. "It's high energy around here in terms of seeing how the community supports us," said Osmundson, who added the needs of abused families continue throughout the year. "It just would be really great if Christmas also came in July." -- Kris Hundley can be reached at hundley@sptimes.com or (727) 892-2996.
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From the Times Business report
From the AP
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