Two Weeks On, One Week Off

For those of us not planning to work the days between Christmas and New Year's this year, tonight marks the cusp of the final two weeks of work before a week of rest, relaxation and reciprocal gift-giving.

I had planned to spend some time this weekend making some notes on a few work-related issues that the Agile Manager - that's me - really ought to be getting more involved with. Sadly, I just couldn't work up the necessary enthusiasm for it and so nothing got done. I blame the impending holidays for my poor behaviour, as it just doesn't seem like the time of year to be burning the candle at both ends.

In fact, it's always interesting to see what the work environment's like during the last couple weeks of the year. We've had years where there were big deadlines coming up and lots of pressure to get tons of work done before year-end. There was even one time when we were told that we all had to take the week off around Christmas, in order to get all that vacation time off the books, and then at the last minute we were asked to all work it, so that a deliverable could be finished. Now that's a mixed message!

I'm hoping this year will be more low key. We finish up an Iteration at the end of this week, so the last week leading up to Christmas should be more of a fun time. But as noted above, things can always change!