Is it 2001 yet?

Holly, holly on the wall, who's the most distressed of all? uComics.com had Wirthlin Worldwide do a survey to find out just that. Make with the clicks here for a look at some results.

Career collisions:
Head-on holidays

In this story: Makin' a list Eating elephant RELATED STORIES, SITES

By Larry Keller
CNN.com/career Senior Writer

(CNN) -- "I find that some people are just really hassled and harried by the whole thing."

Marjorie Brody is talking about the workplace equivalent of "The Perfect Storm." December -- that time of year when at many companies there's a convergence of disparate events that cause maximum havoc in workers' lives.

QUICK VOTE
	December is two weeks gone. How stressed are you? No problem. Doing fine. I was OK until I read this story. Why'd you bring it up? A-a-a-u-u-u-g-g-g-h-h-h-! View Results

The calendar pages are flying by and there remain mergers to make, deals to get done, bookkeeping to be finalized, office parties to plan. And, for many, time for holiday shopping and merrymaking is scarce.

Brody, president of Brody Communications Ltd. in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania, trains and consults with business professionals and has contributed her expertise in the past to CNN.com/career's "Corporate Class" column.

"They've got the personal side," she says of careerists at this time of year, "and lots of responsibility as well.

"When people get to feeling paralyzed by having to do so much, they're ineffective in everything. Others, however, tend to slack off. I find a lot of people saying that nothing really gets done with the work. They're really into going out to lunch and having more festivity around it. So I see it going both ways."

Especially at companies with fiscal years that coincide with the calendar year, this flurry of deadlines is inevitable. There may be tax and legal considerations, for example, behind the last-minute push to get contracts signed or acquisitions completed.

"What seemed to be doable in July all of a sudden seems to drag and drag, and at the last minute, there's this crunch to meet shareholder expectations or the accounting end of things," Brody says.

LIGHTEN UP, WILL YOU?
	uComics.com has issued what it calls its "humor report card" in the form of some survey results about stress and the holiday season. If you're not too despondent to reach your mouse, click here for the details.

"So everything gets crammed in, not to mention that a lot of people take time off."

At a time when work is piling up as deadlines draw inexorably nearer, some workers are taking vacation leave, either because of family obligations or their company's use-it-or-lose-it policies, Brody says.

While this year-end crunch may be unavoidable to some extent, it doesn't have to be a month of madness.

"If you know that you have a certain amount of commitments coming up within this time frame, it's really a matter of sitting down for a few minutes and prioritizing your time," says Anne Lang, U.S. director for human resources at Arthur Andersen.

"Maybe make a work-related to-do list and a personal to-do list to ensure you can merge those together in a time frame that makes sense."

Brody agrees. "Everyone needs to lay out on paper what needs to be done," she says. "They need to look through the list and decide what can be delegated. A lot of times there are things, especially in the family, that can be delegated or shared. One person doesn't have to do it all.

"Determine what really has to be done and what's just nice to have done. Same at work. What's critical within those time frames and what can be put off until the next year, or not done at all? Delegate and prioritize. Then you begin to see that you're successful because you're actually getting things off the list."

Company managers can lessen these December crises by planning better, Lang and Brody say.

"We try hard to schedule ahead of time what our known work is," Lang says.

"There's always going to be some unknown work that comes up. Then it's just a matter of communicating with your people and letting them communicate back what they can and can't take on at that time."

Marjorie Brody

"I think for many people, if they started their planning earlier and had better deadlines, they could probably avoid it," Brody says. "It's a good idea at the beginning of January to lay out for the year what are going to be some of the big things you're going to need to think about.

"I don't think people schedule for surprises in their lives. They schedule as though things are going to work smoothly, and they rarely do."

Planning for smaller, predictable events also can reduce the degree of frenzied activity late in the year, Brody says. Her firm required employees to submit in July the names of clients to whom Thanksgiving cards would be sent this year, leaving flexibility for late chances. This allowed the company to know how many to order before the holiday crunch period came, she says.

"We had them starting October 1 and they had to have them signed by November 15. When you start realizing there are certain things that have to be done every year -- whether it's planning a party or working on your budget -- why do they come as a surprise?

"It's like eating that elephant, one piece at a time. As long as we can break it down, it's all doable. It's too good a time of year to feel resentful and hassled. You should be enjoying it with your colleagues and employees, as well as family."

Cost of rudeness at work
December 12, 2000
Overworked, overwrought: 'Desk rage' at work
November 15, 2000
Mirror on management
October 31, 2000
Review: Killer jobs
October 30, 2000
It's a man's job: Managing workplace stress
January 11, 2000
Coping with job-related stress
February 15, 1999
Families and Work Institute

Arthur Andersen
Brody Communications Ltd.
Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety
Mayo Clinic: Workplace stress
uclick.com
uComics.com
Wirthlin Worldwide

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.