Quiet

 

The company I work for has a lot of parents with school children among its workforce and you can always really tell when it's school holidays season. It's a sweet (if rather unproductive) time when you can get admin done and enjoy shorter work days. Before I met Highflyer and came to enjoy skiing in Tyrol between New Year's Even and January 6th, I was reluctant to "waste" any of those precious days of annual leave right after the Christmas break as it tended to be extremely empty and quiet in the office. You know, back when people worked from their office, mainly. It's also similar in July and August when few meetings take place and everyone agrees to reconvene "after the holidays". I used to always be the odd one out when taking a longer break in September or November and almost felt apologetic when it seemed that I was the only obstacle to finding a date for a team event in autumn "when everyone is back". In recent years I also switched to taking a two-weeks-break in August so I am right on trend and can still enjoy some quiet work weeks. On a side note, unless the pandemic will magically be over next year I might reconsider and take time off in June to July rather than August because for the second year in a row this seems to be the golden time when numbers are promising and borders open.