OG Tuesday Issue #222

🎉 So you thought your office holiday party was wild…

🍪 Easy-to-make desserts that look and taste decadent.

⚖️ Legal insight on the office holiday party with a Love Actually twist.

📜 The rarely discussed history of holidays and slavery in the U.S.

The holidays bring both joy and stress. Here are some ridiculously easy ways to prioritize comfort and joy throughout the season.

When your patience is threadbare and everyone seems thrilled about bickering and getting into petty arguments, try to…

• Empathize. You do not have to engage further with the disagreement or discussion. Put a pin in escalating conflict by reaffirming you understand where the other person is coming from, and with hope, moving on from there. Some key phrases to keep in your pocket are: I hear you. I understand. I get where you’re coming from. [Wisdom credit: Psychotherapist Erin Leonard via Psychology Today]

When you’re feeling like everyone’s holiday plans and activities are just sooooo much better than yours, try to…

• Stop comparing, or more realistically, work toward not comparing yourself to others. Notice when you’re doing it, label the thought, and nudge your mind away from that pattern of thinking. Your holiday is your holiday. It will be different from everyone else’s, and that difference is a cause for celebration. Wishing you’d thought to do a certain activity or wondering if you should have spent more time and energy on some endeavor will only dampen your own much-deserved sense of satisfaction. [Wisdom credit: Clinical Counselor Melissa Montgomery via Greentree Counseling Center, Inc.]

When you’re just completely overwhelmed, even in a good way, try to…

• Be still for a moment. Things may be hectic. You’ve got places to go and people to see, but you’ll expand your capacity for joy and presence during those activities if you give yourself little breaks. Stop moving. Stop thinking. Focus on deep breathing until you feel more balanced. [Wisdom credit: Clinical psychologist via Huffington Post]

When you want to spread joy without succumbing to materialism or running up your credit card balance, consider…

• Writing people letters complimenting their strengths, talents, and individuality. Bonus points if you use pretty stationary or try your hand at calligraphy.
• Choosing a book from your shelf with special meaning or significance. Write a heartfelt message inside the cover and pass it on. Ask them to do the same when they feel the time is right.
• During your daily travels, keep an eye out for found objects that remind you of the person. It could be an interesting rock, a fallen seed, or a piece of shiny paper you saw blowing across the road. Tell them why it made you think of them.

When eating, drinking, and making merry has you feeling icky and sluggish, try to…

• Stay hydrated. Hydration is always a positive. It’s especially important to choose water during the holidays, when you might be surrounded by many tempting drinks. (Not to point fingers, but…we’re looking at you, eggnog and hot chocolate.) According to the experts at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health: “Drinking enough water each day is crucial for many reasons: to regulate body temperature, keep joints lubricated, prevent infections, deliver nutrients to cells, and keep organs functioning properly. Being well-hydrated also improves sleep quality, cognition, and mood.”

The holidays are here, and half the office is either skiing, baking cookies, or “working remotely” from somewhere suspiciously sunny.

But while everyone’s juggling travel plans and ugly sweater parties, work doesn’t stop. This is where Slack becomes the secret ingredient to keeping your team connected without playing phone tag or drowning in “Hey, just following up…” emails.

Holiday Slack Survival Tips

1. Schedule Those Messages: Nobody wants a ping at 7 AM while they’re sleeping off eggnog. Use Slack’s scheduled messaging to send reminders or updates at sane hours. Bonus: You’ll look organized and thoughtful.
2. Respect the Do Not Disturb: Holidays are for family, food, and rewatching Home Alone. Respect everyone’s DND hours and encourage the team to set their availability. Urgent message? Hit Notify Anyway.
3. #Holiday-Mode Channels: Create a dedicated holiday channel for non-urgent updates and water cooler chatter. This will keep the rest of Slack focused on actual work.

Gearing Up for Q1

Start planting the seeds now! Use Slack to set up goal threads for next year, recap 2024 wins, and drop ideas to tackle when the whole squad’s back in January. A little prep now saves that painful “Where were we?” feeling later.

• Pin Key Goals in Slack Channels: Create threads or dedicated channels for 2025 priorities. Use them to capture ideas and goals as they come, so when January hits, there’s no “Wait, what were we doing again?” moment.
• Drop Recap Messages in Project Channels: Before the OOO wave fully crashes, post quick summaries of project statuses. It’s an easy breadcrumb trail for the team to follow when they’re back in full swing.
• Set Gentle Reminders: Use scheduled messages to surface important Q1 deadlines or meeting invites before everyone’s inbox explodes in January.
• Q1 Brainstorm Thread: Encourage the team to toss in ideas for the new year, even if they’re half-baked. Some of the best sparks happen when minds are relaxed.

Simple Holiday Slack Messages

1. “Cheers to wrapping up another year with this team. Excited for what’s next – but first, some well-earned rest.”
2. “Enjoy the downtime, team. Grateful for all the hard work this year – looking forward to what we’ll build together in the new one.”
3. “Thanks for making 2024 a success. Here’s to more wins (and maybe fewer meetings) in the new year!”

Avoid the post-holiday slump with these easy and restorative tips.

1) Veg out.

The Everygirl has the scoop on why it feels so good to pile on the veggies:

“Thanks to ditching food rules, you bet I will be enjoying Christmas cookies, eggnog, and pasta. But I also know that those foods just don’t make me feel good. […] To stay my healthiest self and enjoy this time with my family as much as possible, I’ll still eat whatever I want (totally guilt-free), but my focus for each meal will be adding more veggies to the plate. Holiday side dishes like Brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes, and the salad that no one touches are filled with good-for-you nutrients that will make me feel energized and satisfied. I’ll fill up my plate with the nutrients my body needs, while still being able to enjoy the traditional holiday foods that I love.”

2) Get outside and play.

According to the lifestyle gurus at Chopra, “Humans can tend toward hibernation in the fall and winter seasons. Shortened days can lead to less time to engage in outdoor activities. Holiday traditions like ice skating, hiking, and even raking leaves get you back outside. The fresh air and sunlight are good for your body and the time with others is good for your soul.”

3) Write a love letter to yourself.

Expound upon how wonderful you are and outline in detail all the ways you plan to treat yourself right. Lynn Rossy recommends including:

4) Flow back into the flow.

A little yoga can boost your mood and reduce stress, and as the Rituals team says, practicing it regularly “will help you hold on to that relaxed and rosy just-back-from-vacation feeling, even long after it’s over.”

December is chaotic enough—tight deadlines, endless emails, and a calendar full of meetings that probably could have been emails. But team building? That doesn’t have to be another thing people dread. Confetti’s lineup of fun, slightly competitive activities guarantees no one’s pretending their Wi-Fi “cut out” to escape.

Here’s how to bring some real cheer to the end of the year—or kick off the new one with less awkwardness:

❄️ Winter Taboo: One second you’re confidently explaining “sled,” and the next, you’re miming wildly as your brain short-circuits. Hilarious and chaotic.

🌿 Holiday Wreath Making: Wreath-making that actually delivers front-door masterpieces. When the neighbors ask, “Where’d you buy that?” you can proudly say, “I made it.”

😌 Managing Holiday Stress: Therapy vibes but with fewer tears and more laughs at holiday burnout absurdities.

🗣️ Holiday Coworker Clash: Like Family Feud but fueled by deadlines and caffeine. Chaos and surprises guaranteed.
No Zoom cringe, no boring lectures—just good vibes.

Explore all Confetti events here.

P.S. TA members get $75 off their first Confetti event with code SNACKNATION24.

Be a great person to work with. 3 quick tips for this:

1. When providing an answer to a question, include 1-2 sentences on why that’s the answer.
2. Deposit in the bank of good will – say thank you, ask how people are and mean it, apologize if you mess up.
3. Assume best intent – assume everyone’s trying their best and that if they don’t do something the way you wanted/needed, that they didn’t know or had conflicting direction. Then collaborate to get it where you need.

— Nicki S. (Director of Sales)

☁️ Wrap yourself in ultimate coziness with the Barefoot Dreams blanket.

🗓️ For seamless scheduling, Vimcal EA is the calendar designed for executive assistants.

🎧 Stay focused and comfy with these high-fidelity ear plugs.

🧠 Learn smarter, not harder, with Brilliant’s interactive lessons—designed for busy, ambitious pros like you.