Christmas fun at work?
I am trying to understand what makes Christmas special and I think it’s different from other times of the year as a few days when we aren’t supposed to do any work. I actually find myself guilty of wanting to talk about how we are falling out of love with ESG this morning – not just because this is a season or goodwill but because it is a season of not thinking about worrock. Worrock is not a typo, it’s in my personal dictionary as the Calvinistic ethic that makes any moment not thinking about business as wasted time. Worrock is Larkin’s toad-work, it’s the kind of unbalanced attachment to “purpose” that leaves most of us feeling rather awkward about ourselves.
Because Christmas, for all its banality, is actually a reproach to the rest of the year when we have to accept that time spent with others is of more value than worrock. This becomes increasingly distasteful to us as Christmas wears on through its twelve days to the twelfth night that few of us remember (Jan 6th for Christmas sake).
Becoming conscious that Christmas is different, makes us ask why. It is more than “re-charging the batteries” for more work in January. It is certainly more than over-eating (most people I know are fastidious about not over-indulging). Christmas is about acknowledging the other in our lives – and this goes particularly for those whose lives are bound up in the purpose of “what they do”.
Because Christmas is really not about what we do at all, it is- to use a very banal phrase – about what we are. It is a time when we have to learn to get on with the people we can conveniently forget about for much of the rest of time – the dreaded friends and family.
If we don’t think this is a major challenge, we will probably find ourselves in the centre of a flaming row at some point over the Christmas period. Awareness of how we come across to those close to us is pretty important. It’s more than behaviour, it’s attitude.
Which is where I switch from being a Christmas sceptic to a Christmas lover. Because to really enjoy the best in the people you spend Christmas with (and I’m conscious that many spend Christmas alone) , we need to be able to “see the best in other people”.
That is a big ask – too big an ask for me in years gone by where I have left Christmas with that sour taste in the mouth – that comes from failing to keep the lid on some crappy emotion or other.
It’s actually hard work , being friends with each other, much harder for strivers. I have such admiration for the few friends I have who always look for the best in others and ignore the worst in what we display. That takes some serious hard work.
Christmas, I often hear, is exhausting. It is. It requires us to lay aside our obsession with purpose in the business sense and embrace something which I can only call “love”. Just why the two things don’t go better together is a mystery. Many will talk of “tough love” as the common ground.
But tough love is not what we practice at Christmas, here “love actually” is about merriment and the giving of joy to others through the giving of real love, based on a genuine affection for the goodness we see in others. It’s a really hard thing for many of us to do – but it’s our job at Christmas.
For all the people who find themselves at work today – happy Christmas tomorrow!
