What drives people to work during the holidays

"By the end of October, David, who works at a roughly 2,000-person finance firm in New York, already knew he'd be working during the holiday season this year. Usually at the office, he learned he'd at least get to work remotely between December 26 and January 1-with the way the financial calendar fell, it was inevitable that he couldn't just disappear for clients (like institutional investors and family offices) during that time."

"David (who, like other employees Fast Company spoke with, is using his first name only to avoid professional repercussions) is one of many office workers who stay on the clock during winter holidays. He says the schedule doesn't really bother him. "I'm not in a trench in the middle of a battlefield here. I'm not laying bricks," he says. "It's not terribly unrealistic work that they're asking us to do." Mainly, he's expected to respond to emails and move forward client processes already in the works."

"Per a 2023 CalendarLabs survey of more than 1,000 full-time U.S. employees, 24% reported planning to work on Christmas Eve, 12% on Christmas Day, and 27% on New Year's Eve. Exclusive data from 2024 and 2025 shared with Fast Company by Stanford University economics professor Nicholas Bloom show that these figures tend to be higher for remote workers, 13.3% of whom work on Christmas Day compared to just 1.9% of those who work in person, while nearly 39% of remote employees work the day after Christmas, versus 16% who work in-office."

Many finance and office employees work through the Christmas–New Year period because client needs and the financial calendar make absences difficult. Remote workers report higher holiday work rates than in-office employees, with notable percentages working Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Eve. Employees often mirror managers' behavior, handle time-sensitive tasks, and worry that stepping away could risk job security during an uncertain economy. Some workers frame the duties as modest (answering emails and advancing existing client processes) rather than onerous labor, and employers frequently do not explicitly require formal holiday attendance but expect availability.

Read at Fast Company