The Holiday Argument That Broke the Company
The December Fight No One Fixed
December is strange inside companies.
It looks cheerful.
Holiday parties.
Bonuses.
End-of-year pushes.
Last-minute numbers.
But underneath?
Pressure.
Deadlines.
Exhaustion.
Unmet goals.
Egos that feel exposed.
I have watched this pattern more times than I can count.
I’ve seen this in founder-led companies, coaching firms, private equity portfolios, and mature organizations. It is not rare. It is human.
And here is what often happens.
December: The Crack
Two founders argue.
Or a CEO and COO clash.
Or an executive calls out poor numbers.
The argument gets heated.
Someone feels blamed.
Someone feels embarrassed.
Someone feels entitled.
And instead of regulating…
They react.
Titles change.
Reporting lines shift.
People get reassigned.
Someone is quietly pushed out.
All within days.
No repair.
No explanation.
No ownership.
Just movement.
It feels decisive.
It is not.
It is emotional fallout disguised as strategy.
January: The Pretend Reset
January rolls in.
Everyone says, “New year. Fresh start.”
But nothing was resolved.
The argument was never addressed.
The team never heard the truth.
No one said:
“Here’s what happened.
Here’s what we’re learning.
Here’s how we’re stabilizing.”
So the company moves forward… on a fracture.
Employees feel it.
They don’t know the details.
But they feel the shift.
And humans are wired to read shifts.
Silence is information.
February: The Aftershock
Now it’s mid-February.
This is when it shows up.
People are anxious.
Top performers go quiet.
High achievers start updating resumes.
Meetings feel tense.
Psychological safety drops.
Not because of a new crisis.
But because of an unresolved one.
This is the part most leaders miss.
They look at February and ask:
“What happened? Why is morale off? Why are numbers soft? Why is the energy weird?”
The answer?
December.
Why December Is So Volatile
Here’s what I’ve observed.
The holidays amplify whatever already exists.
If a company is healthy, December is joyful.
If a company is fragile, December exposes it.
There are three reasons.
1. Burnout Peaks
By December, leaders are tired.
The nervous system is fried.
Sleep is off.
Travel is high.
Family stress increases.
When you are tired, you react faster.
You protect your ego faster.
You snap faster.
What could have been a hard but calm conversation becomes a rupture.
2. Financial Pressure Intensifies
End-of-year numbers matter.
Bonuses are tied to them.
Investor conversations are tied to them.
Sometimes even identity is tied to them.
If numbers are off?
Shame rises.
Blame follows.
And when leaders are not emotionally regulated, blame travels downward.
Fast.
3. Structure Gets Loose
People take time off.
Coverage gets thin.
Mistakes happen.
A procedure isn’t followed.
An oversight becomes a crisis.
Three days before Christmas, something explodes.
Now one leader carries it all.
Resentment builds.
And if that resentment isn’t processed?
It turns into reactivity.
And reactivity turns into structural change.
The Entitlement Fractal
Here’s the part almost no one names.
When leaders feel entitled in an argument, that entitlement trickles.
It becomes culture.
If a founder says, “I can change this team whenever I want,”
Managers start thinking the same way.
If executives make emotional decisions and call them strategic,
Middle management does too.
This is what I call fractaling.
One unresolved ego moment becomes policy.
One heated argument becomes reorganization.
One silent rupture becomes psychological unsafety.
And by February?
The company feels different.
No one can quite explain why.
But everyone knows.
Why M&A Leaders Miss This
If you are looking at a company in February for a merger or acquisition, you might see:
Performance instability
Unexpected turnover
Cultural drift
Confusing org charts
Defensive leadership behavior
And you might assume:
“Operational issue.”
Sometimes it is.
But often?
It’s emotional residue.
If you don’t know what happened in December, you’re reading symptoms without seeing the wound.
This is where human due diligence matters.
Not just financial due diligence.
Not just legal due diligence.
But emotional pattern recognition.
Because the numbers in February often reflect a conversation in December.
The Cost of Not Addressing It
When leaders don’t repair ruptures:
Employees feel unsafe.
When employees feel unsafe:
Innovation drops
Initiative drops
Candor disappears
Mistakes get hidden
Gossip increases
And here’s the worst part.
No one says, “We are unsafe.”
They say, “I’m just tired.”
Or, “It’s just busy.”
Or, “It’s just Q1 pressure.”
But underneath?
Trust fractured.
And no one repaired it.
What Should Have Happened
The argument in December was not the problem.
Arguments are normal.
Pressure is normal.
Disagreement is healthy.
The problem is what happens next.
Strong leaders:
Regulate first.
Name what happened.
Take ownership.
Clarify changes with context.
Restore safety quickly.
Weak leaders:
React.
Restructure.
Stay silent.
Blame quietly.
Move on.
And the culture absorbs it.
Every time.
This Is What I Do
I go into companies after February.
When leaders are confused.
When morale feels off.
When acquisitions don’t make sense on paper.
I observe what others miss.
Not the loud problem.
The pattern underneath it.
I watch meetings.
I listen to language.
I map emotional regulation inside leadership.
I find the fracture.
And then I help stabilize it.
Before it becomes irreversible.
Because here is the truth:
Most companies do not implode because of bad strategy.
They destabilize because of unregulated leadership moments that were never repaired.
And December is one of the most common entry points.
A Hard Question for Leaders
If you are reading this in February, ask yourself:
Did anything fracture in December?
Was there an argument that never got named?
Did someone feel blamed?
Did someone get moved quietly?
Did a structural shift happen fast?
If so, it’s not too late.
But silence will cost you.
Address it.
Name it.
Stabilize it.
Because employees always know more than you think.
And unresolved moments don’t disappear.
They compound.
About the Author
Kathie Owen is a private consultant specializing in leadership stability inside high-stakes environments. She works with founders, executive teams, and acquisition leaders to identify the human fractures that financial reports don’t show. Her work focuses on emotional regulation under pressure, psychological safety, and the hidden patterns that destabilize organizations during moments of growth, conflict, or transition.
With over 25 years of experience in fitness, wellness, leadership, and human performance, Kathie brings a rare blend of nervous-system awareness, pattern recognition, and executive advisory insight. She does not “motivate teams.” She observes what others miss inside leadership and stabilizes it before it costs you.
Her work is often engaged during mergers, acquisitions, scaling transitions, or post-conflict cultural drift—when something feels off but no one can name it.
For private advisory or speaking inquiries, connect directly at Contact Us.
About the Book: Human Patterns Under Pressure
If this article resonated, it expands inside Kathie’s book, Human Patterns Under Pressure. The book explores how unregulated leadership moments ripple through organizations, how entitlement and silence shape culture, and how psychological safety erodes long before performance does.
Written for founders, acquisition leaders, and executives navigating growth and complexity, the book provides real-world frameworks for recognizing fractures early—and stabilizing them before they compound.
You can explore the Reader Edition here: Learn more about the book here.
Read More Articles from Kathie Here
December leadership conflicts often create fractures that quietly destabilize companies by February. When arguments go unaddressed, psychological safety drops and dysfunction spreads. Learn how unresolved executive moments impact culture, morale, and M&A outcomes—and how to repair them before they cost you.
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