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Businesses To Give Staff Time For Inauguration

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 18, 2009

NEW YORK (AP) - Millions of workers at small businesses across the country will take time next Tuesday to watch Barack Obama be sworn in as president - and will do so with their bosses' blessings.

Many companies will allow workers to take a break to watch the swearing-in on TVs or their computers, while others are making rooms available so staffers can gather. Still others are planning celebrations to mark a historic event, and some owners are giving staffers the day off.

At BlissPR, a New York-based public relations agency, many employees will be in the conference room watching Obama's inauguration on TV. Abby Barr, the firm's managing director, said the company recognizes the historical significance of the day, and that "in moments like this, people want to be in a community."

BlissPR isn't doing anything to mark the day other than making the TV available, in part because there's still work to be done. Also, the company is aware that not everyone might be an Obama supporter.

"That was our strategy, to welcome people but not obligate anyone" to take part, Barr said.

Flashpoint PR, a San Francisco-based PR firm, will be holding an inauguration party in its media lounge.

"We decided it's very important for us," said Kristin Greene, a principal with the company.

But, like the managers at BlissPR, Flashpoint is letting employees know they're not required to take part. "We're going to endeavor to make everyone comfortable," Greene said.

That kind of approach - giving staffers a chance to watch the inauguration but not demanding that they be part of a celebration - is smart managing, according to human resources consultants and labor lawyers.

Beverly Kaye, an employee retention consultant in Sherman Oaks, Calif, says it can create a lot of goodwill.

"If ever there was a chance for managers and leaders and business owners to use this as a chance to say to your team, 'I appreciate you, I want to bring us closer, I want to share this with you,' this is it," Kaye said. "It is a great rallying cry and step toward coalescing your team."

It's a good idea to treat the inauguration as a historic rather than a political event, to try to lesson any tensions among staffers with differing viewpoints. To head off any problems, Kaye suggests giving staffers time off, perhaps two hours, to watch the swearing in, or for whatever the staffer might want to do.

Attorney Jonathan Segal of Philadelphia-based Wolf, Block, Schorr and Solis-Cohen LLP noted that a substantial portion of the voting population didn't cast their ballots for Obama, who took 51 percent of the popular vote.

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