Firm but fair policies for staff vacations and holidays.

Paid holiday and vacations are a wonderful employee benefit for your staff. However, without some firm policies in place that anticipate and avoid problems, holidays and vacations can backfire in a medical practice and become a source of problems both for the practice and for the staff. This article provides concrete tips for reducing vacation and holiday conflicts and particularly for structuring a firm-but-fair vacation policy for new employees. It provides guidance for solo practitioners' vacation scheduling and offers a list of the most common paid holidays in professional practices today. In addition, this article offers answers to common holiday and vacation scheduling questions such as how to handle holidays that fall during a vacation and weekend holidays. Finally, this article offers specific advice for making the December holiday season a pleasant and trouble-free one for your staff.