In a 2005 survey by Hewitt Associates, 59 percent of companies said they would not award holiday bonuses. But more than three-quarters of firms offer performance-based bonuses that must be reearned each year.

Among 1,500 small businesses, 39 percent plan to give employees holiday bonuses this year, according to Constant Contact, an e-mail marketing service for small businesses. That is up 2 percent from last year.

"For small businesses, cash flow and cash management are more difficult issues," says Gail Goodman, CEO of Constant Contact. "It is harder to see out to the future and understand where cash will be next quarter and next year. It takes more confidence for a small business to pay a bonus."

Whatever a company's size, employees are frustrated by a "lack of clarity about how one qualifies for that bonus," says Bill Kuntz, vice president of Princeton One, an outplacement firm. "They want to be treated fairly and have clear expectations."

Increasingly, workers are simply not taking paid days off from work, even when weeks are made available to them. More than one-third (37 percent) of respondents said they anticipate not using all of their time off this year.

Fourteen percent of respondents polled said they hadn't taken a vacation this year longer than a long weekend, while 24 percent of workers reported that they had not taken a single vacation day this year.

The news doesn't improve among those who are actually using their vacation benefits. Thirty-nine percent of professionals polled said they check in with their offices most days, if not every day, while on vacation. In total, 72 percent of respondents said they maintain at least some connection with their employment headquarters while away, via e-mail and phone.

It's not just the worker ants staying connected while they're supposed to be winding down—87 percent of managers in the survey reported that they keep in contact with their offices while taking time off.

Many argue that the technological advances in communication and connectivity have led to a state of over-connectedness and an inability to unwind.

Photocopier manufacturers are anticipating a 25% rise in call outs over the festive period because of workers abusing the machines.

Manufacturer Canon said a third of its technicians called out over the Christmas period have to deal with the consequences of staff sitting on photocopiers to make pictures of their bottoms.

In response, the company has increased the thickness of the glass on the machines from 3mm to 4mm to take the strain.

David Smith, marketing director at Canon UK, said: "People obviously let their hair down at Christmas time and the photocopier tends to get a bit of extra-curricular activity."

Office holiday parties are like blind dates: Wear the wrong shirt, tell the wrong joke or drink one too many martinis and your potentially happy future is over before it began. Each year amid the jovial flow of cocktail franks, gin-and-tonics and choruses of Fill Me Up, Buttercup, someone becomes a footnote in their company's holiday folklore, forever labeled as the guy who thought it would be funny to teach the boss's wife to dance the Macarena.

The delicate task of navigating this half-social, half-professional occasion leaves many employees wishing they could simply stay home.

But according to executive coach Marjorie Brody, the office holiday party is an ideal opportunity to raise your profile at work in a positive way and make connections that can help your career.

"Most people think it's a party, and either they don't want to go or they'll go and just eat and drink with their friends. Both of those are mistakes," Brody says. "It's a chance to be talking to people you don't normally speak to and a good opportunity to create an impression."

Global outplacement firm Challenger, Gray and Christmas points out that last year, retailers added nearly 700,000 workers in October, November and December to handle the onslaught of shoppers. More than half the workers were added in November.

CEO John Challenger says there are several things you can do to raise your chances of landing a job. Among them, start now. He also says consider becoming a fill-in. You can get a foot in the door by offering to start working now as an on-call fill-in for vacationing staffers.

As always, early applicants will have the most options, but it also pays to stay in the game into peak season.

"We start as early as possible and stagger our hiring," says Sheliah Gilliland, a spokeswoman for Blairs, Virginia-based online retailer eToys Direct. "We begin the big hiring push in early September, then continue into November, according to our forecast and week-to-week sales." According to Gilliland, eToys projects it will hire more than 1,300 seasonal associates in 2005, in roles ranging from "fulfillment, pick-and-pack and quality control to smaller numbers of recruiters, IT and loss-prevention specialists as well as maintenance people."

Fifty-nine percent of companies say they won't be giving out holiday bonuses in any form this year. And of those that will, only 13 percent said they will be giving out bonuses in cash.

The rest will opt to give food gifts, gift certificates or retailer gift cards, according to a survey released Monday by Hewitt Associates.

Among the companies that said they would be giving cash, the average holiday bonus planned is $683, but the cash bonuses slated range between $25 and $2,500.

Employers said they would spend between $10 and $150 on gift certificates; $10 to $50 for food gifts; and $10 to $100 on retailer gift cards, according to Hewitt's survey.