With over a third of our time spent at work, your colleagues are a significant part of your daily life. They are the people who send you funny memes when you need cheering up, listen to the occasional rant, and help you out of a tough spot. With Christmas coming, you may be considering showing your fellow team member how much their work friendship means to you.
There are many ways to show you care this time of year, from gifts to gifs. Consider an act of work kindness to help them finish work with less stress for the holidays.
Here are five gifts you can give a team member to help them have a better workday this festive season.
You can give a colleague the gift of time by cancelling a meeting. Take a look at all the meetings between now and when you finish up for Christmas and commit to deleting at least one.
If you need help prioritising your meetings, it helps to work backwards. Try the following exercise:
If you have delegated work to your work buddy, you might consider the gift of choice this Christmas.
If you have asked for help or support in an area and the timeline you need it for has changed, be sure to let them know!
Perhaps you were initially planning to use the output before Christmas, but you won’t get to it until January. Give your team member a choice to strike the task off their to-do list or defer it until the new year. You are giving them space to do more urgent work without working longer hours around the holiday season.
One of the main reasons people don’t delegate work to their colleagues is that they believe no one else will be interested in doing that task. That’s not always the case. It feels good to help the people we work with, especially if we have more free time in the workday than they do.
The gift of help doesn’t have to consume hours of your workday. Supporting them with some admin tasks, reviewing their work or helping to troubleshoot a problem could go a long way in helping your colleague this time of year.
Number four on the list of gifts you can give your colleague this Christmas is to send them an email highlighting five ways they helped you over the year.
We are often so busy doing our work that we forget to stop and acknowledge what we have achieved. So why don’t you do that for somebody else and show your fellow team members that you are grateful for their support? It is a great way to show that you care and improve their work motivation.
The final gift I recommend you give to a colleague this year is the gift of company.
Christmas is a wonderful time for some people. For others, it can be challenging. Everyone has their own “stuff” going on outside of the workday. Call a colleague and offer to meet them for a coffee and a chat. It is a lovely way to stay connected and check in on a personal level with the people who matter most to you at work.
Now that you have learned five different ways to give a gift to a colleague, it’s over to you. Put on your Santa hat, make your list (check it twice), and spread some kindness this festive season.
Stay Well
Niamh