Now It's Thanksgiving 'Week'

Thanksgiving is just one day. So are the Fourth of July and New Year’s Day. But don’t tell that to a lot of workers—and their managers. 

In a trend that just keeps growing, many workers, along with their managers, are stretching one-day holidays into a full week off. Some are using vacation time, but many are quietly treating the days as de facto work holidays (many leaders aren’t pressing the issue). And now, this development threatens to prevent many firms from reaching their year-end goals. 

Many employees took off the three days before Thanksgiving. Firms are often closed on the Friday immediately afterward. That means that the previous Friday was the last workday in November for many employees. The solution? “Recognize that time is short,” says Mark Royal, a Korn Ferry Advisory senior client partner, adding that 

December could be a real crunch. Indeed, the month includes only about 15 days on which leaders can expect to have most of their teams working. 

Whether it’s Thanksgiving or Labor Day or a handful of other holidays, experts say that a fundamental change in vacation patterns is leaving leaders scrambling to cover critical work in unprecedented ways. The phenomenon involves workers and managers of all ages, but experts say it was largely embraced by Gen Z, with its emphasis on work-life balance. “There’s a generational shift going on here,” says Kate Shattuck, a Korn Ferry managing partner.

To be sure, experts say the additional time off isn’t necessarily a bad thing. “We believe this is positive, both for employees’ mental health and the retention of talent,” says Radhika Papandreou, Korn Ferry’s president of North America. Plus, flexibility around when and where they work has become increasingly important to employees worldwide. Indeed, the 10,000 professionals who took part in Korn Ferry’s Workforce 2024 survey said that flexibility was the most important benefit a new employer could offer them—above generous compensation or even high job security. “Flexibility is one of the reasons people stay or leave,” Royal says.

To get through the end-of-year period successfully, experts suggest that leaders prioritize team coordination, blocking out time where all team members—or most of them, at least—can work on group assignments. The goal here is to minimize the number of projects left hanging because of a key person’s absence. After coordinating teams, leaders should encourage workers to use the remaining time for individual projects. 

While emphasizing what needs to be done between now and the end of the year, leaders should consider publicly highlighting what has gone well in 2024. Building a sense of accomplishment, and recognizing those who did the work, can help motivate employees to finish the year well, Royal says.

Learn more about Korn Ferry’s Employee Experience capabilities. 

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