Welcome To The “It’s A Wonderful Life” Season For Execs (Good Luck Finding Them)

Offices are a bigger ghost town than early COVID from Nov. 20 until Jan. 2nd

This point doesn’t need to be belabored, so I won’t belabor it. From about November 20th — or, roughly, the Monday before Thanksgiving in a given year — until about January 2nd/3rd, it is nearly impossible to find decision-makers in U.S. businesses. If they are truly world-builders, i.e. big companies and big net worth, they are likely in some tropical destination with their families. If they’re high middle managers, the out-of-office is on constantly. You may see them at the holiday party, if your company is doing one, but you may also get a prerecorded video message or all-hands email before or during the holiday party, where they put a generic work backdrop over their current view of Fiji. You know the drill.

This whole discourse is why the whole hybrid and remote banter of the last 2–3 years is so infuriating. We should treat everyone like top sales guys (or even middling sales guys): if your “numbers” are good, you can be anywhere you want and no one will bother you that much. If you need to be at Little League or school pickup or your mother-in-law’s multi-level marketing wine scam, go do it. Just don’t miss opportunities with customers and prospects…