See how to use your teamwork skills at Christmas by helping with festivities at home, making the most of Christmas at work, and giving back with charity work.
Teamwork is a life skill as well as a work skill. Christmas is a great time for bringing family and friends together. It’s also a great time to practice teamwork in your job, because there can be a lot of stress around this time – whether it’s customers rushing to get the last must-have toy on the shop floor or office teams trying to get that last big project done before the New Year! These teamwork tips will help Young Professionals make sure the holidays are a Christmas cracker not a damp squib.
Teamwork ideas for Christmas temping jobs
You may be doing a Christmas temping job right now – lots of people are, it’s a great way to build your CV and make some spending money over the festive period. Many Christmas temping jobs are in catering and hospitality, or in retail. That means you’ll be getting a lot of face-to-face time with customers who want to feel merry but are probably feeling weary instead.
Use your customer service skills to make customers feel like they’re having a shopping adventure, not battling to get things done before Santa arrives! Here are some ideas to help teamwork make the dream work in your Christmas temping job:
Connect with customers at the till
Make eye contact, give them a smile. These little things can really brighten someone’s day and turn their last-minute shopping nightmare into a much nicer experience.
Connect with customers when serving them at restaurants
Ask them how their meal was. Make them feel like they are welcome and are not being rushed to enjoy their dining experience, even if the restaurant is busy.
Keep the area clean and tidy, even when it gets busy
In the festive period, the staff in shops and restaurants can be working flat-out to serve customers, re-stock shelves that are emptying fast, or deal with all kinds of random customer queries.
Help customers AND your team by keeping the kitchen and front dining area as clean as possible, even in busy periods.
Engage in Secret Santa and office festivities
Teamwork is a big part of office work culture at Christmas. The bosses are working as hard as Santa’s elves to help the team get things done but still feel that Christmas sparkle. So throw yourself into any office Christmas activities going on! If your office is having a Secret Santa, throw yourself into your secret present-buying mission (see our Secret Santa gift-buying tips if you need a little help).
Tackling illness at Christmas as a team
Everyone passes around sniffles and colds at Christmas and it’s the world’s least wanted gift. A lot of Christmas temp jobs involve shift work, so aim to be considerate and thoughtful when it comes to illness at work. Look after team mates who are feeling under the weather and make sure they are hydrated. Make sure there things like sore throat tablets and cold-friendly hot drinks in the workplace. Cover shifts for poorly team members if you can. And if you are feeling sick yourself, weigh up the best thing to do for your team at work. Should you come in and take the workload pressure off your colleagues? Or should you tell your manager straight away and arrange sick leave so others can cover your workload without you giving them your horrible cold symptoms? There’s no easy answer to this. But, if you’re feeling sick, let people know – and either keep it out of the workplace, or come into work and do your very best!
Teamwork ideas for family time at Christmas
Some families don’t celebrate Christmas, and some do. But because most of the UK comes to a stop at Christmas, whether it’s work or school holidays, many of us end up spending a bit more time with family. The best way to hone your teamwork skills at Christmas is to help out family members in any way you can, because there is so much organising to be done! Here are some ideas!
Younger family members
Take care of younger family members and involve them in fun things like putting up decorations. Act like the world’s best babysitter and make time to play with them and keep them entertained, so that mum and/or dad can get on with making the house ready for guests and doing the organising. If that means watch Frozen ten times in a row, so be it.
Younger family members may have so much free time they don’t know what to do. Help them burn off some of their energy by doing cheap or free activities that are special. Take them to a local museum or the park or play board games with them. Give them that bit of extra quality time!
You can help your family get presents that younger ones will cherish, too. Do some spy work to find out what presents they’re looking forward to getting at Christmas, then pass on the info to the rest of the family.
Older family members
Older family members are going to love seeing all the family get together. But they may need that little extra bit of care and attention. Make sure they’re comfortable and have everything they need, and that they are not too cold, or can rest when they need to. Give them some extra conversation time because they are bound to want to know how you and your siblings are if they haven’t seen you for a little while. Make sure that any dietary requirements they may have are taken into account when it comes to Christmas feasts. And make sure that the festivities are ones they can join in with, or that they have fun, safe and comfortable alternatives planned if the whole family decides to go ice skating dressed as penguins. Remember that for older family members, presents are not the most important thing. Seeing their family happy is.
Organising Christmas festivities
How can you help with the organisation?
- Help to make food shopping lists
- Help to clean and tidy the house for guests
- Create a Christmas presents spreadsheet so you don’t forget who’s getting what. If you can’t afford Excel spreadsheet software, try using Google Sheets – it’s a great digital skill to put on your CV too!
- Wrap up presents early so there isn’t mayhem when everyone is looking for the sticky tape, scissors and wrapping paper at the same time.
- Drag out some board games (you can get them cheap from second hand shops) so that everyone can join in with shared Christmas activities.
- Research Christmas party games online. Pass the parcel is a great way to involve the whole family and all you need is some old newspaper and a cheap surprise like a chocolate bar or charity shop novelty to put inside! Playing charades is another fun idea – check the rules online if you don’t already know them.
Teamwork and volunteering at Christmas
More people these days are thinking about volunteering at Christmas and giving back. It’s a present to not just your family and friends, but to the world. As a family, you could research local Christmas volunteering opportunities in your area, like ways to help the homeless at Christmas. You could also create a family collection for a charity. It’s something you can put on your CV, and as a society we can all act as a team to help those who need it most.
There are so many ways to brush up your teamwork skills over the Christmas period. Because, after all, Christmas is a time for people coming together.
