Practice Management Alert

Question: Our six-clinician practice closes on major holidays, but we still have a rotating on-call schedule. Is there a better way to handle the inevitable “everyone wants to be off at once” problem than just letting the most senior clinicians claim those days?

Massachusetts Subscriber

Answer: In the medical world, seniority is often an easy, routine means of distributing goods and power. And holidays are an especially touchy subject, because everyone wants to be at home with their families, and long-term staff who have “earned” the privilege of having a particular day off every year may be extremely reluctant to consider giving up that particular perk.

But distributing holiday vacation more evenly, especially in an on-call situation, can go a long way in bolstering community and good will within the office.

Something to keep in mind: Not every employee holds the same holidays in esteem. One person’s lifelong Christmas Eve Mass tradition may be as much of a priority as another’s dedication to Valentine’s Day dinner with a spouse.

“Different employees consider different holidays more important. Some prefer New Year’s Eve over New Year’s Day. While others love travelling for Thanksgiving, some feel Christmas with family [is] sacred. Knowing your employees and their families, you can allow employees to choose which holiday is more important to spend at home,” says TrackSmart, a company focused on simplifying human resources management through software and ideas for employee scheduling and attendance, on its blog.

Take advantage of this reality by putting a whole year’s worth of holiday scheduling on the table at once, and let staff decide and know early which holidays to prioritize.