16th December 2025
Santa’s Christmas Eve Mission: A HR Nightmare
Santa’s mission on Christmas Eve is a magical story told across the world throughout the festive period. However, we believe that Santa may need a new HR team. As much as the story is fictional, some of the issues Santa should have addressed are legitimate concerns that employers fail to address adequately on a day-to-day basis.
Working Time Regulations
NORAD estimates that Santa spends on average 24 to 25 hours delivering all his presents on Christmas Eve, meaning that the reindeer will be going for a day or potentially longer without a break. Further to this, in order to ensure that all presents are ready for Christmas Eve, it is likely that the elf’s are exceeding the 48 hours per week maximum hours.
It’s important for employers to remember, regardless of how busy it gets around the festive period, that employees are entitled to a mandatory 11 hours off in 24 hours and hours should not exceed 48 hours per week unless the employee opts out themselves. Employees are also entitled to at least one uninterrupted 20-minute rest break during their working day, if they work more than 6 hours a day. No matter how busy it gets, it’s important to always ensure the relevant breaks are being afforded to members of staff.
Health & Safety at Work – Unsafe Working Conditions
On the evening of Christmas, the reindeer are told to fly at high speeds at a significant height throughout the night. Santa should therefore have conducted a risk assessment to ensure his employees are safe before starting the journey. There seems to be no account of any risk assessment done by Santa despite the potential adverse weather conditions, fatigue suffered by those working and most importantly, the fact that the sleigh is solely guided by one reindeer’s nose.
Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, businesses have a duty to ensure that any work-related risks are assessed, and employers are providing a safe environment for training and welfare. If employees are expected to work in unsafe conditions, this may result in a claim.
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance
Santa keeps an infamous naughty or nice list with personal data on billions of children. However, this list will contain the names, addresses and other important information about children all across the world. This information should be safely stored and should not be used in any way other than what the children gave permission for it to be. Further, if a name or present accidentally gets sent to the wrong house, this may be a breach of GDPR.
To ensure that companies are being GDPR compliant, they must take conscious steps to ensure that they are only taking data that is necessary and that this data is only being used for what it was taken for.
Bullying And Harassment
The success of Rudolph is often spoken about due to the importance of his red nose to the operation on Christmas Eve. However, laughing at Rudolph, calling him names and excluding Rudolph from reindeer games may form part of a grievance or tribunal claim. This sort of behaviour may be unwanted conduct against Rudolph’s dignity, and it may create an offensive working environment. As a result, this behaviour may be unlawful and linked to a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010.
It’s important that employers ensure that they are shaping a particular type of culture where bullying and harassment are unacceptable in the workplace. Further to this, in the event that employees do feel as though they are being bullied or harassed, it’s important that employees have somebody they can speak to at the Company.
As much as the above-listed issues are fictional, they represent a number of issues that can easily occur in the workplace day to day, especially when it gets busy in and around the festive period. It’s important to ensure that these issues can be addressed and are not overlooked, as if these issues are left to snowball, they may turn into claims.
