re: Reducing Payroll

If this is an annual occurrence to need to cut hours/staff every December-January....

Let 2 employees go. Better to only affect 2 employees by letting go the 2 least productive ones than to piss off everybody by cutting their hours by 20%. Not sure what industry you're in, but might cause you to lose good workers if they start looking elsewhere after you cut their hours.

Plus, when business picks up again and you need to re-hire, you can hire new employees that don't have 7 weeks PTO grandfathered into their employment contracts. And just let new employees know up front that they'll be furloughed around this time of the year and advise them to look for seasonal job. Plenty of Christmas related seasonal work they can pickup for a month or 2.