The holidays are marketed as a season of joy, but in workplaces, they can also be a season of team tension.
From end-of-year deadlines and budget pressures to clashing expectations around time off, gifting, and celebration, the last two months of the year often bring unspoken stress to the surface. Add with the broad array of cultural and religious holiday observances and increased travel, and it’s no wonder teams report spikes in burnout, interpersonal friction, and miscommunication.
Rather than ignore this complex season, leaders and teams can proactively create systems and processes that help everyone move through the holidays with clarity, care, and calm.
Why Team Tension Increases Around the Holidays
The holiday season tends to magnify existing stressors. Here’s why:
- Time pressure: End-of-year deliverables and performance reviews pile up.
- Emotional complexity: Grief, loneliness, or family stress can be heightened.
- Cultural exclusion: Not all employees celebrate the same holidays, or celebrate at all.
- Unspoken expectations: Norms around gifting, socializing, or “holiday spirit” can feel unclear or even forced.
- Work-life conflict: Caregivers and parents often juggle school breaks, travel, and time overwhelm.
Research from the American Psychological Association (APA) shows that 38% of people experience increased stress during the holidays, with work responsibilities being a major contributing factor (APA, 2023).
In teams, that stress often plays out as:
- Avoidance or withdrawal
- Short tempers
- Misread communication
- Resentment over flexibility or perceived favoritism
How Leaders Can Reduce Holiday Tensions
Rather than wait for team tension to bubble up, leaders can take proactive steps to prevent unnecessary conflict and promote a care-based culture.
- Normalize Holiday Stress
Start the conversation. Acknowledge that this time of year can be joyful and heavy, and that both realities are welcome. This kind of emotional permission lowers pressure and builds psychological safety.
- Clarify Expectations, Early and Often
Set clear guidelines around:
- Time off and availability
- Gifting expectations (or absence of them)
- Meeting cadences
- End-of-year goals
When expectations are ambiguous, people tend to fill in assumptions both of fact and intent, which then easily and readily turns into conflict. Clarity reduces unnecessary confusion that leads to stress and interpersonal team tension.
- Invite, Don’t Assume Participation
Not everyone celebrates Christmas. Some don’t celebrate any holidays at all. Make year-end festivities opt-in and inclusive, and offer alternatives that resonate with varying beliefs and family systems.
Instead of a mandatory Secret Santa, consider optional gratitude circles, reflection rituals, or culture potlucks.
- Make “Temperature” Check-Ins Part of Team Rituals
Start meetings with brief check-ins like: “What’s one word to describe how you’re feeling this week?” Normalize that people are managing more than what’s on the agenda.
Not only do these micro-moments help surface unspoken team tension early, before they turn into conflict, but they also shine the light on areas of weakness that other team members and leaders may not have realized are going unnoticed.
- Be Mindful of Holiday Time-off Unfairnesses
If certain teams are expected to work through holiday periods (like customer service), ensure they are compensated fairly, acknowledged meaningfully, and rotated intentionally across years. Fairness is a key component of conflict prevention.
What Teams Can Do Together
It’s not just leaders who shape the tone of the holidays. Teams can collectively:
- Practice positive frameworks: Assume good intent and ask before judging behavior.
- Take initiative: Offer help to colleagues juggling caregiving or travel.
- Communicate boundaries: Respect “offline” hours and avoid overloading calendars.
- Make space for each other’s traditions: Learn, share, and invite curiosity without pressure.
Conflict Prevention During a Tender Time
The holidays may be “the most wonderful time of the year,” but in workplaces, they’re also one of the most emotionally loaded.
Rather than avoid the complexity, what if we leaned into it with honesty, care, and clear communication?
At Harmony Strategies, we view the holiday season as a time with plentiful opportunity to strengthen cultural intelligence, deepen team resilience, and reinforce team communication and collective well-being.
Check out the various services and solutions we offer to create and support team resilience and amazing workplace culture.
References and Resources
APA 2023 Holiday Stress Survey
TED Talk by Brené Brown: The Power of Vulnerability
Priya Parker – The Art of Gathering
