Socially Distanced Santa

Andy Jordan is President of Roffensian Consulting S.A., a Roatan, Honduras-based management consulting firm with a comprehensive project management practice. Andy always appreciates feedback and discussion on the issues raised in his articles and can be reached at [email protected]. Andy's new book Risk Management for Project Driven Organizations is now available.

 

On my visit to the North Pole to check in on Santa this year, it’s fair to say that things were a bit different. The entire complex was way bigger than it was last year for a start. Now granted, real estate prices at the North Pole are extremely reasonable, but still, there had been a lot of expansion. The elf showing me around explained it was because of the requirements for social distancing. Santa had needed to greatly increase the number of workshops he had because the elves were not allowed to work closer than six feet apart from each other.

There were also a lot more dormitory buildings than previous years. Elves were tending to stay over for longer periods rather than flying in for a little while and then returning home. So, at any point in time there were a lot more elves in residence, and of course that meant the need for more beds, a larger canteen and several other adjustments.

It was clear that there was a lot of stress among all the elves at the time of my visit. You might think that everything at Santa’s workshop is jolly all the time, but in truth elves can get extremely wound up when things aren’t going well, and the reindeer don’t always help matters by trying to provoke the elves even further. (As an aside, the sight of a reindeer that has just played a practical joke on a group of elves and is now trying to look all innocent is …

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