Encouraging your employees to ‘switch off’ over Christmas

For many organisations, Christmas is the longest continuous break of the year. It is also the point at which a lot of people discover they cannot actually stop, because the work has followed them home or the pressures waiting at home are worse than the ones at the office.

Helping your people switch off properly is not a soft gesture. Rest is what allows the rest of the year to work, and the festive period carries its own set of pressures that have very little to do with the job. This guide covers what those pressures are, what employers can realistically do about them, and where the line sits.

Why switching off properly matters

The evidence on rest is stronger than it is often given credit for. A meta-analysis published in Frontiers in Psychology, covering 91 samples and more than 38,000 employees, found that psychological detachment from work was most strongly associated with lower fatigue and exhaustion, and with better wellbeing and sleep. It is worth being honest about what that research does and does not show. The links to task performance and creativity were small, and in some cases slightly negative. So the argument for a proper break is not that people come back as better workers. It is that they come back less exhausted, and exhaustion is what eventually turns into absence.

What makes Christmas harder than an ordinary break?

A fortnight in July and a fortnight in December are not the same thing. Several pressures land at once, and most of them are invisible at work.

Money

This is the big one, and it is well evidenced. StepChange found that more than one in four British adults, around 14.3 million people, expected to struggle to afford Christmas, rising to 31% of parents with children at home.

This is not confined to people out of work. StepChange's research on in-work debt found 2.8 million UK adults in full-time employment are in problem debt, with a further 11 million showing at least one sign of financial difficulty. Some of those people are on your payroll.

Loneliness and difficult family situations

Office for National Statistics data collected across the 2023 festive period found that around a quarter of adults, 27%, reported feeling lonely always, often or some of the time.

The festive period is hard for many people:

• Money worries • Disrupted routines • Estrangement • Bereavement, • Relationship breakdowns • Difficult family relationships • The pressure to appear happy if you are not.

For a workplace, the practical point is that the person who seems fine at the Christmas lunch may be dreading the fortnight that follows it.

Reduced access to support

Over the bank holidays, a lot of ordinary support closes. GP surgeries, therapists, pharmacies and some helplines run reduced hours exactly when people may need them most.

That matters for how you communicate your own wellbeing provision. Support that runs 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, is far more useful in late December than support that runs office hours, but only if people know it exists before they need it.

Alcohol

Drinkaware found that almost two thirds of drinkers, 64%, intended to drink more over the festive period than they usually do, and that 57% of UK drinkers were likely to binge drink on Christmas Day.

Separately, Alcohol Change UK found that almost two thirds of UK workers drink alcohol for work-related reasons, with 38% of those drinking more to cope with stress at work. The NHS guideline is no more than 14 units a week, spread over three or more days.

None of this means policing what your people do at home. It does mean thinking twice about how much of your festive social calendar is built around drinking, and making sure there is something to do at the Christmas party for people who do not.

Not everyone gets to switch off

In retail, hospitality, logistics, care and emergency services, December is the busiest month of the year. Any article about switching off that ignores those workers is only talking to half the workforce.

For them, the questions are different. Is the rota fair and published early enough for people to plan? Are rest breaks actually being taken? Is anyone working alone late at night?

Customer-facing staff also take the brunt of festive tempers. Usdaw's 2025 survey of shopworkers reported that 71% had experienced verbal abuse in the previous twelve months, 48% had been threatened by a customer and 9% had been assaulted. This is a union member survey rather than official statistics, but it is consistent with what HSE says about violence and lone working.

Six things employers can actually do

1. Plan the wind-down, not just the shutdown

Most of the stress happens in the fortnight before the break, when everyone tries to clear everything. Two or three weeks out, have an honest conversation in each team about what genuinely has to be finished before the close and what can wait until January. Then say out loud that the second list is allowed to wait.

2. Be specific about who is on call

Vague arrangements are the enemy of rest. If someone needs to be contactable, name them, agree what counts as urgent, say how they will be contacted and make sure they get the time back. Everyone else should be able to assume that no news means no work.

3. Set the expectation on email explicitly

There is no statutory right to switch off in the UK. The government has committed to delivering one through a Code of Practice rather than legislation, but nothing has been consulted on or published, and it does not appear in the Employment Rights Act 2025 or its implementation roadmap. In the meantime, the expectation in your organisation is whatever your managers' behaviour says it is.

Acas guidance notes that constant or unnecessary contact can cause stress and affect morale. If you send emails over the break, say in the message that you do not expect a reply until the return date. Better still, schedule them to send in January.

4. Give proper notice if you are closing

If you require staff to use annual leave over a Christmas shutdown, there is a legal notice period. Acas explains that an employer must give at least twice as many calendar days' notice as the number of days' leave they want people to take. For a five-day Christmas closure, that means at least ten days' notice.

Acas also confirms that an employer can decide to shut over Christmas and require staff to use holiday entitlement, even if the business has stayed open in previous years, though you should check contracts and custom and practice first. One thing worth knowing for your records: since 6 April 2026, section 35 of the Employment Rights Act 2025 requires employers to keep adequate records of annual leave entitlement and retain them for six years.

5. Lead by example, visibly

If the managing director sends emails on Boxing Day, nobody below them believes the policy. The single most effective thing a senior leader can do is take their own leave, say so, and be unreachable.

6. Think about the return as well as the break

January is harder than December for a lot of people. NHS England data shows mental health referrals rose from 458,809 in December 2025 to 501,386 in January 2026. January has more working days than December, so some of that gap is simply a counting effect, but the direction is clear enough to plan around.

A first week back that is not wall-to-wall meetings, a check-in with anyone who was struggling before the break, and a reminder of what support is available will do more than any January wellbeing campaign.

How Wisdom Wellbeing can help

The practical difficulty with Christmas is that the moment someone needs help is usually the moment your organisation is closed. That is the gap an Employee Assistance Programme(EAP) is built to fill. Our EAP gives your people confidential access to qualified counsellors 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, including Christmas Day. They reach it directly, without a referral from you and without telling anyone at work, which matters a great deal for the person who would never raise money trouble or a family situation with their manager.

Because so much festive pressure is financial rather than emotional, the service covers that ground too, with confidential guidance on money worries and debt alongside counselling for the anxiety that tends to come with them. Treating the two together usually works better than treating either alone.

For the quieter, everyday end of self-care, the Wisdom app sits in your employees' pockets rather than on a noticeboard. It gives them wellbeing tools, guidance and in-the-moment support they can use at eleven o'clock at night in their own front room, which is a more realistic point of contact over the holidays than anything that depends on being at work. It is worth reminding people how to download it before the break rather than after it, because very few people go looking for an app in the middle of a difficult evening.

For managers, the value is knowing there is somewhere to point people. A manager who notices that someone is struggling in mid-December and has a concrete, confidential route to offer is in a far better position than one who can only suggest they try to enjoy the break.

Conclusion

Switching off properly is harder than it used to be, and Christmas layers money worries, family pressure, grief and reduced access to support on top of an ordinary break. Some of your people will be working through it, and some of them will find the time off harder than the time on.

Employers cannot fix most of that, and should not try to. What you can do is clear the decks sensibly before the close, be specific about who is actually needed, give proper notice if you are shutting, model the behaviour you want from the top, and make sure everyone knows where confidential help sits before they need it. That costs very little and it is the difference between people coming back in January rested and coming back flat.

Frequently asked questions

Can an employer make staff take annual leave at Christmas?

Yes, if the business is closing. Acas confirms employers can require staff to use holiday entitlement for a shutdown, but must give at least twice as many calendar days' notice as the days of leave required, so ten days' notice for a five-day closure.

Is there a legal right to switch off in the UK?

No. The government has committed to a right to switch off delivered through a statutory Code of Practice rather than legislation, but no draft or consultation has been published and it is not in the Employment Rights Act 2025.

Can we expect employees to check email over the Christmas break?

There is no law preventing it, but unnecessary contact may cause additional stress and lower morale. If someone must be contactable, name them in advance, define what counts as urgent and give them the time back.

What if an employee seems to be struggling before the break?

Have the conversation before they go, not after they come back. Ask an open question, listen, and make sure they leave knowing exactly how to reach confidential support over the holidays, including on bank holidays.