Home for the holidays-that's where everyone wants to be, right? Here are some helpful hints on how to arrange holiday vacation schedules without leaving employees frustrated or your business understaffed.

• Determine which days you'll need coverage. Do certain operations occur during the holidays while others go on hiatus? Will your office be closed entirely, or will it observe shorter hours? Is working remotely a viable option?
• Clearly communicate holiday staffing needs. There's no quicker route to Grinch status than denying holiday vacation requests for arbitrary reasons.
• Be generous with vacation time. Grant employees as much time off during the holidays as possible. Consider alternatives to having employees physically in the office, such as telecommuting.
• Share responsibilities. If you ask your staff to work during the holidays, you should be prepared to do the same. An office full of assistants and junior staff but few, if any, managers is a surefire recipe for employee resentment and low morale.
• Keep "far from home" foremost in your mind. Some employees must travel long distances to get home. It may be easier to understand why a particular person needs five days off at Christmas if you know that two of those days are for travel.
• Rotate annually. Try not to make the same employees sacrifice extended time off every year. Your employees will be much more prone to working around holiday time without complaining if they know you'll adjust staffing needs from year to year.

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