NEW YORK — Stress during the holidays is a given for many people, and those who work for a small business may feel particularly pressured if they want to take time off for their children's holiday plays, to pick up relatives at the airport or even to get some shopping done. Many small company owners find ways to help their workers out — and actually get more productivity out of the deal.

First, an owner needs to have the attitude that a worker's personal life matters, even if the staff is small and there's plenty of work to be done.

"The more an employee feels contented in the workplace, and believes in management, the more productive they'll be and care about the goals of management," said Frank Kenna, president of The Marlin Co., a workplace communications consulting company based in North Haven, Conn.

So, he suggests, let the employee go for a few hours to attend a child's performance, or to do whatever he or she needs.

"If you have that employee sitting there from 3 to 4:30 knowing the play is on and you didn't allow them to go there, they're going to be anti-productive," he said. "But if you let them go, they'll feel much better about working for the company, and they'll probably make up more than that hour and a half that they missed."

Flex-time, which some owners call flex-scheduling, is a popular way for small business owners to make life easier for everyone during the holidays.

Smith-Winchester, a Southfield, Mich.-based company that provides advertising and other business communication services, has a year-round policy that allows workers to leave early when they need to, as long as they make up the time.

Frank Morisette, the chief operating officer, says the policy more than pays off — workers stay late, sometimes until 10 p.m., knowing that the company will be understanding when they need some flexibility.

"We've found that if you treat the people with respect, and you're not a martinet, they're going to work with you. They'll understand," Morisette said.

Traci Bisson, owner of Bisson Barcelona, a public relations firm in Barrington, N.H., has what she calls a flex-lunch policy. It allows workers to take only half an hour instead of an hour for lunch, bank the time and then leave early on a Friday.

She also has a liberal time off policy, and closes the office for Christmas Eve and the day after Christmas.

"All these ideas are a function of everything that I really hated when I was working for other people, especially in the corporate arena," Bisson said.

Kenna goes further, saying "one thing companies can do is not add to the pile" employees are trying to tackle during the holidays. So he advocates that owners shift as much work as possible to pre- and post-holiday periods to lighten everyone's load. For example, he said, year-end inventories could be done a little earlier or a little later rather than smack at the end of December.