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With Weekend Holidays This Year, Many Workers Juggle to Get Everything Done

Posted on: Friday, 23 December 2005, 15:00 CST

By Karin Rives, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.

Dec. 23--Have you felt less than inspired trudging off to work this week?

If you're like a lot of people, you probably thought as much about last-minute gifts as you did about work projects and deadlines.

This year, the distraction may have lasted longer than normal because the holidays fall on weekends. That has forced procrastinators to spend all week juggling work, shopping, cooking, gift wrapping and all the other seasonal to-do's.

Gerardo Albarado, a 27-year-old Raleigh masonry worker, managed a detour to Crabtree Valley Mall to look for a leather wallet for his father Thursday. Still in his work clothes, he rushed through the selection at Wilsons Leather before getting in line with the other last-minute shoppers.

He estimated that his extended lunch break would last two hours, maybe a little longer.

"I find a little time to come here," Albarado said. "We don't have time to shop because we work six days a week."

In a business world obsessed with productivity, lots of people find ways to somehow do it all. No wonder stress has become an integral part of the modern Christmas tradition.

A 2004 survey of 1,000 Americans by the American Psychological Association found that 20 percent worried that holiday stress would affect their health. More than a third said they drink alcohol or eat to cope with stress.

Increasingly, they go online.

With a steady stream of customers entering her Cary store, KB Toys manager Sherry Cockman said she was too busy to talk about how busy she's been. The store is open 14 hours a day, which makes for a grueling shift for Cockman and her employees.

How did she find time for her own holiday preparations?

"It's called the Internet, placing orders really late at night and praying that the deliveries will get there on time," Cockman said. "And it's called making donations to people who wrap presents in malls. I wish it could be different, but that's the way it is."

Millions of American office workers have it a little easier. Their online shopping opportunities are easier to fit into the day.

Alphanumeric Systems founder and owner Darlene Johns knows that some of her employees have squeezed in online orders at their desks in recent weeks. But she is also confident they didn't miss a beat at the Raleigh information-technology networking company.

"We're a sales company, so we need to keep the orders coming in," Johns said.

Many of her corporate customers are making 11th-hour investments while they still have money in their budgets. Alphanumeric's salespeople make one last push to get their numbers up before the calendar year ends, Johns said.

Some will even work all next week, while most of their co-workers are off, to make sure no business opportunities are missed, she said.

Some employers take pity on their stressed workers and try to help.

Several corporate clients hired Cary concierge service Expedite Group to set up gift-wrapping tables in business lobbies this year. Some invited vendors, who sold gift items to employees during their lunch breaks, Nancy Piepho, the service's founder and owner, said.

The Expedite Group has received a steady stream of e-mail requests in recent weeks from workers who needed help buying presents, finding cookie recipes, researching possible gifts and completing other tasks for which they couldn't find time.

"We've been slammed," Piepho said, "ever since the week after Thanksgiving."

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Copyright (c) 2005, The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.

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Source: The News & Observer

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