What else happens when the clocks go back?

The clocks went back on Sunday and the nation gained an hour. In a word yes, summer’s ended.

But what is the impact of this gain of an hour? Apart from resetting watches, central heating boilers and radio alarms, an extra hour’s sleep does, I believe, affect people’s body clocks.

We end up getting up in the dark and going home from work in the dark – and speak to most people about the repercussions of all this and we feel that much more tired when our body clocks are out of sync.

There is also an increase in accidents when the clocks go back in the winter, which is thought to occur because people use the extra hour they gain to stay up later, making them more tired.

It’s also the time of year when your staff start thinking ahead to the holiday season and start Christmas planning.

I hear a deafening chorus of objections: “But it’s too early to start thinking about Christmas.”

But it’s this time of year. It soon creeps up and, before you know it, Christmas is upon us.

I object to seeing our stores and garden centres display their Christmas merchandise while it’s still in the summer months.

I actually never start to think of Christmas until the middle of November and I do think most of us resist the idea of starting early to organise Christmas – or am I thinking of us men, who perhaps, being honest, leave it to our better halves? My one big worry is my staff. With many of them now planning Christmas parties, we all have the responsibility of worrying whether they are going to over-spend and over-indulge.

It’s all too easy to be dancing to the season’s tune, not in charge of their own celebrations, resulting in debt, stress and holiday chaos.

As businesses we should plan ahead for the Christmas period and set aside a budget for any celebrations for staff, bearing in mind that tax implications and holidays need to be organised, because it’s about loss of income for many of us when our doors are closed.