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No, we haven’t muddled up our calendars, or lost our marbles! For many businesses, this really IS the time to make Christmas plans; December (or even November) unfortunately is far too late. We all know that stores get well ahead with their planning – ‘Back to School’ sales start before school is even done for the summer and – in late August – we already spotted not only Thanksgiving (this was in Canada, where Thanksgiving is early October) but also Halloween themes. I’m pretty sure you could also find Christmas gift wrap and decorations already if you really looked!   What will your business do to celebrate the Christmas season? Are you planning a staff party? You’d better have already booked your date and venue! Planning to send your c ...

For me, the main significance of Labour (or Labor – depending whether one is north or south of the 49th parallel!) Day has generally been that it is the last weekend of summer; a last ‘hoorah’ before returning to school or work. As such there’s a certain sadness about it, at least for those who enjoy summer and don’t really look forward to the change of pace and return to cooler weather that September often brings. At the same time, there’s a sort of desperation to make the best of the long weekend, to extract the maximum pleasure from every moment before the inexorable slide into fall and winter.   However, there’s a greater significance behind what has now just become another enjoyable long weekend for most Canadians and Americans.   Th ...

A couple of weeks ago, we talked about shorter working weeks resulting in increased productivity and happier employees. Along the same kind of theme, we would suggest that vacations are good for the soul – and productivity. We are in the middle of vacation season yet there are still many people in North America, apparently, who do not use their vacation time.   So why should we take vacations? Check out the link below: 10 Health Benefits of Taking a Vacation   So why don’t people take their vacations? It takes us back to the North American work ethic that we talked of in our last post – an ethic that is rarer in Europe where mandatory vacation allowances tend to be far more generous. So, if you haven’t taken a vacation this year – and no, long weeken ...