5 reasons to tell your boss ‘no’ during the Christmas rush

Dustin Siggins is founder of Proven Media Solutions. 

Every December, otherwise rational managers and clients start to believe that PR professionals are Santa Claus. While the rest of the world wraps up for holiday break, we’re being asked to deliver press releases, op-eds and interviews like we have eight reindeer and a sleigh that can just drop them down the chimney.

If you’re a more aggressive person, it’ll be tempting to tell such people to dunk their heads in eggnog. If you’re more of a people-pleaser, you’ll work until midnight on Christmas Eve trying to get it all done.

The first person will get fired. The second will burn out. And in both cases, not much will actually get done.

That’s why public relations professionals should give ourselves an early Christmas present by saying “no” to end-of-year demands in ways that gain your time back and earn respect with leadership and clients alike.

Here are five of those ways.

Journalists aren’t working. The world’s best pitch won’t land if there’s nobody reading it. Newspapers cover breaking news over the holidays with an even-more-skeletal-than-usual staff, but trade and business publications will largely be shut down between Christmas and New Year.

Since there is no point in pitching when no journalist is working, this is the easiest rejoinder to make — and the easiest to use for arguing that your time can be better spent doing anything else.

The “new” idea missed the news cycle. Pitching Christmas-related themes on Dec. 20 is about four weeks too late. By then, editors have their content lined up for the next two weeks. They’re starting to slip into vacation mode, which means they’ll read your email — but do very little about it unless it’s an absolutely stellar story that must be told immediately.

This one’s a bit harder to make clear, as many employers and clients are working harder as the holidays close in. This may be one of the times when you use data to make the point, such as by doing a limited number of pitches and comparing the success rate to pitches pre-Dec. 10 and post-Jan. 8. You’ll earn a bit more breathing space this year and arm yourself for December 2026.

The spokesperson’s on vacation. When you haven’t got anyone to comment because they’re already taking time off, it’s time to say “no comment.” Strategic silence is a key part of effective communications, and you wouldn’t be doing your job properly if you let an unqualified spokesperson flub an interview.

Again, not all bosses get this one. So, put the question to them: Do they want someone to go viral for flubbing an interview or state the organization’s product details incorrectly? If the answer is no, you’ve probably won the day.

The team’s on leave. Planned absences like holiday vacations and unplanned ones thanks to flu season pile up at the end of December. Hold the line by pointing to what must be done in the next month compared with what the new demands add to the schedule.

The priority is planning. Every minute spent on a rushed tactic or task in the last few weeks of 2025 sacrifices planning strategy for next year.  Again, the solution here is to ask which medium and long-term objectives that align with organizational success should be sacrificed.

Turning “no” into “yes”

To paraphrase former FBI negotiator Chris Voss, the best “no” creates a later “yes.” In this case, by saying no to delivering on Santa’s last-minute good list in the right ways, you are:

• Respecting your time
• Putting the organization’s outcomes first
• Ensuring minimal burnout on your team
• Showing management and clients that you aren’t a doormat — or a bull in a china shop

And that will create many yes opportunities, such as:

• More respect before next year’s end-of-year rush, perhaps including asking for your feedback before it starts
• What you need to succeed during next year’s end-of-year rush (authority, budget, etc.)
• Greater general understanding of what you do — and that it’s not just creating press releases with AI

So, as people try to rush you through tasks that are not just pointless but completely impossible, don’t chase journalists on a pitch that won’t work or stress about getting “urgent” tasks done. Instead, just remember — we don’t have nine reindeer and a sleigh.