Christmas With Obstacles: When Santa Claus Messes Up At Work

Self-Employed In Christmas Chaos

The Christmas season is another particularly stressful time for many freelancers and self-employed. It's time to tidy up the things that have accumulated over the course of the year and getting things in order as successfully as possible. For one very special self-employed person, however, this is probably the busiest time of the year - with all kinds of risks for mistakes...

Christmas Preparations At The North Pole

While most people are gradually coming to the end of the year, stress levels are rising at an owner-managed company at the North Pole, as all preparations have to be completed by 24 December. For Santa Claus, distributing the presents is of course a matter for the boss, but without the support of his helper elves, this cannot be done in the short time available.

There is already enough hustle and bustle: presents have to be made, wrapped and allocated to the correct wish lists so that everything ends up in the right houses. Unfortunately, the completely overworked helper elves get things mixed up, which means that some of the presents are in a real hurry to be delivered on Christmas Eve.

Subcontractor to Save Christmas

To save Christmas, Santa finally decides that additional help is needed quickly! He finds it with a subcontractor. The elves employed there are to help load the presents. Now that this problem seems to have been solved, it's time to plan the appropriate routes for delivering the presents. To do this, the people involved use the in-house route planning software created by the elves in the IT department and Christmas Eve takes its course.

After the elves have filled the sleigh, Santa sets about distributing the presents. However, one elf was in a particular hurry to complete his task. Perhaps it was due to the frustration of having to work at Christmas or the precarious employment situation at the subcontractor. Whatever the reason, the elf didn't take care to secure the presents properly when loading them.

And so the disaster took its course: during a particularly rapid manoeuvre with the sleigh, part of the load fell out and several presents were broken. But that's not all: one present also falls on the head of an unfortunate pedestrian. The man suffers a laceration and a severe concussion and has to spend a few days in hospital.

Nasty Surprise After The Job Is Done

After a rather bumpy Christmas Eve, Santa and his elves are happy to have completed this demanding phase of their work. But back at the North Pole, more bad news awaits. Not all the presents have been delivered to the right recipients. We remember: the completely overworked helper elves had problems producing the gifts during the preparations.

As it now turns out, some of the wish lists were mixed up in the hectic rush. As if that wasn't enough, a little research into the causes reveals that the route planning software contains some glaring errors, as cyber criminals had smuggled a virus into the system. As a result, even more presents have gone astray.

To rectify this misery, Santa commissions his programming elves to put the programme in order. However, this effort is associated with considerable additional costs, as the elves have to work overtime on top of their usual workload. But the extra work doesn't stop there - after all, quite a few presents didn't end up at their destination.

So now it's time to quickly produce the missing presents again or collect the ones that were delivered incorrectly. Santa now has to harness the reindeer to the sleigh again and make an extra round to ensure that every present reaches its destination after all.

This extra effort means that millions of people celebrate a peaceful and wonderful Christmas. They have no idea that their Christmas Eve almost fell victim to a mixture of faulty software, overworked elves and negligent sleigh loads.

Covered For All Scenarios

Of course, this botched "project" is completely fictitious. However, some of the incidents mentioned here are not so far removed from reality and can also affect freelancers and the self-employed in the "real world". These absolutely real risks can be covered with Professional Indemnity Insurance through exali:

Coverage In the Event Of Third-Party Claims For Compensation

If, for example, the households that had received the wrong gifts had made claims for compensation against Santa Claus and his elves, the insurer would have checked the claims for justification. It would then have settled justified claims and defended against unjustified claims on Santa's behalf. Incidentally, the insurance cover also extends to your employees should they (like the elf who mixed up the wish lists) make a professional mistake.

Subcontractors: Also Insured

If you have hired subcontractors and are held responsible for their mistakes, they are also insured at no additional cost. In the case of the inadequately secured sledge load, the insurer would also have covered the costs here. On the one hand for reimbursement of the damaged goods delivered, but also for the sum that would have been necessary to restore the health of the man who was hit.

Insure Damage To Your Own Business

But what if you don't cause damage to others, but suffer a loss yourself? Even then, your Professional Indemnity Insurance is at your side. For example, in the event that in-house software that you urgently need for your work has to be revised at great additional expense due to a virus attack. For such cases, you can extend your insurance cover with our optional add-on modules, such as the Additional Add-on for First-Party Cyber and Data Risks Insurance (FPC), which protects your business against the consequences of hacker damage, among other things.