The NZ Christmas break from work has become extreme - and it’s affecting our GDP
Monday, 8 December 2025
Are our summer holidays too extreme, and are they hurting our productivity? Read the original column below and have your say in the comments. Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, off the back of this column, was asked about it by Newstalk ZB’s Heather du Plessis Allan, declining to say if our summer shutdown was too long but agreeing the country’s productivity issues “needed sorting out”. Meanwhile, Auckland Business Chamber’s Simon Bridges told Stuff that Kiwis’ ‘I’ll get back to you in the new year’ attitude was likely harming business opportunities overseas, saying “Most of Asia, including China and India, are always on…if you want to do business with them, you need to be in that mode as well.”
Toss Grumley is a business adviser, director and investor in multiple New Zealand entities.
OPINION: New Zealand’s Christmas break has started to become way too extreme. And it is impacting our productivity on an individual business level, and at the level of the economy.
The summer break seems to be extending, leaving less room for leave later in the year. But the most concerning part is the “circle back mid-February” mentality, which means while many are at work, they aren’t doing much productive work.
This mentality of circle back in February seems to start late November or early December. But having 10 weeks of no productive conversations simply isn’t good for business.
Mentioning this in a recent Linkedin post I copped some heat - some comments suggest I needed to travel and get out more. Fear not, I’ve lived in Asia, studied in the UK and have a wife on an Italian passport. Other comments suggested I needed to spend more time with my kids - again, fear not, the kids have had multiple holidays away with dad this year and get lots of quality time. We are fortunate we get to spend so much time with our kids, and trust me, this is a priority.
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This isn’t about taking time off, or relaxing for periods. I enjoy that too and it's an important part of being a sharp business operator. This is instead about shutting down an economy for an extended period, then all wondering why as a country we feel poor.
Often in March/April, I’ll have a large number of client meetings where my business owner-clients are cash flow poor. This can be due to longer shutdown periods than necessary, and means that the benefit of the holiday gets washed away in what is now cash flow or money-related stress.
One also wonders about so much leave taken at the start of the year, leaving no space for breaks later in the year. This isn’t good for mental health. And what about the kids' other school holidays - don’t we want to be able to take a few days off then? Our schools have 12 weeks of school holidays during the year, one of the highest in the OECD.
People often state, “I wish I came back a week or two earlier”. In fact, I’m fairly sure most can unwind in two to three weeks. If you have the means to take longer off and it doesn’t affect you financially, that’s great; the issue is most cannot, and it’s frankly bad for business.
New Zealanders receive four weeks paid leave per year and now have an entitlement of 10 sick days per year. I’m not advocating for that to be reduced, but that is middle of the table compared to other OECD countries. Meanwhile, sick days taken have increased by 20% over the last three years.
Our productivity has grown at around 1.2% per year since 1996, while Australia’s has grown at around 1.8%. We are getting left behind. This means we need to work longer as we are producing less. Our productivity is around 15% below the OECD average. This is 30% to 40% below top performers like the US, Norway and Ireland.
This brings me to the point that it’s not just about the leave, it’s what we are producing when we are working. Is some of this lost productivity from the December and January period when we are mentally tapped out over the eight-week “Christmas period”?
This is about business cycle norms, not people using their leave entitlements.
While I culturally love them, the only other OECD countries with comparable cultural shutdowns are Spain, Italy and France - all economies that have struggled with low growth and productivity. They aren’t the economic models we aspire to replicate.
New Zealand is a country of SMEs. This means thinner cash flows, less planning, non-corporate governance structures and businesses that often cannot carry this load. March and April are the peak months for business arrears. This isn’t chance; it’s driven by business habits over December and January.
Additionally, our GDP quarterly volatility is in the top third of the OECD. This is again contributed to by the Christmas season. For retail, we have a huge October to December quarter, and then everyone stops spending all of January. Again, we are creating cash flow problems for our businesses.
While we all need to recuperate at times, in a country where our recovery is so fragile, we need to work hard up to the break, take some well-deserved time off, then get back into it and get our lives and businesses moving again swiftly.
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