ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, November 28, 1996 TAG: 9611290094
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B8 EDITION: HOLIDAY
DATELINE: COLUMBIA, S. C.
SOURCE: JIM DAVENPORT KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
Businesses are so accustomed to planning for holiday staffing that they don't expect to miss a beat this year, even with the Christmas and New Year's holidays falling in midweek.
Just as businesses have celebration rituals for the holidays, including Thanksgiving Thursdays, most businesses have a scheduling ritual to keep their operations running.
With the Christmas holiday falling in midweek, ``there's a lot of temptation [this year] to take off the 26th and 27th to have a long weekend,'' said Barry Lawrence, spokesman for the Society for Human Resource Management in Alexandria, Va.
But, people in some jobs have little choice about working holidays, particularly those in public safety, retail and health occupations.
Companies ``want to be as flexible as possible in accommodating everyone, but you have to satisfy your customers. ... Ultimately, a company pays you to do the job and you do the job or you don't,'' Lawrence said.
Lawrence said that ever leaner payrolls at companies make holiday scheduling more difficult.
Increasing work-force diversity can help companies deal with religious holidays, University of South Carolina management professor Jon Werner said.
For example, non-Christians may be more willing to work on Christian holidays. But managers need to tread carefully. Just as less senior workers can feel put upon by working holidays, non-Christian workers might feel like they are being picked on too much, Werner said.
Meanwhile, some businesses are turning to a flexible work force of temporary workers and college students to fill in during holidays, Lawrence said. ``There are a lot of college kids that are willing to work and make some extra money,'' he said.
Smaller businesses have the toughest time mustering flexibility.
Larger businesses tend to rely on a combination of seniority and volunteerism to decide who gets time off during the holidays.
Werner said seniority remains the emphasis for most policies on who gets holiday time off. ``Generally, it's the newer people who are going to be the ones asked to work,'' he said.
Seniority is a key factor in deciding who gets off at AlliedSignal in Irmo, S.C. The seniority bar, however, is high. Nearly two-thirds of the workers at the nylon and polymer manufacturing facility have 20 or more years on the job, spokeswoman Emily Metzger said.
At AlliedSignal the most senior workers get the first crack at penciling in part of their holiday and vacation requests. The list then circulates to less senior workers who sign up for their preferences.
LENGTH: Medium: 55 linesby CNB