The pros and cons of tweeny days

We’re in the weird world of the middling days of Christmas: those between Boxing Day and New Year’s Day. This year they have been made stranger still by two so-called “Bank Holidays” on Monday and Tuesday because Christmas itself fell on a weekend. That means just three “tweeny” days — between one holiday and the other — this year. Nominally, these days are real working days but in reality very few people actually work on them.

When I worked on TIME magazine’s website we used to get the whole week off as a “Dark Week” because the magazine itself wasn’t being published — distribution of the printed product would have been a nightmare during that time so the TIME magazine Christmas Issue, the Person of the Year, was a double covering the whole of the holiday period. Since I left TIME in 2007, I’ve worked most “tweeny” days alongside my colleagues; one year I even worked Boxing Day. This year I have the luxury of “working from home”.

Actually, what that means is that I will probably work harder than all other previous years simply because I won’t have other “tweeny” day “wage slaves” around me who are, shall we say, more in the festive spirit. That’s a big reason that this post is such a short one. And what I will also miss is the easy travel you get this time of the year because so many people have taken leave to cover the “tweeny” days.

Don’t take this the wrong way but it’s almost enough to make you nostalgic for the office.

So, if I don’t get chance to talk to you before New Year: have a happy one and let’s hope there is some good in 2011!