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Christmas party season

By Helen Beckett

With Christmas comes the office party. While most of us enjoy the chance to let down our hair a bit and kick up our heels, such behaviour can be fraught with hazards. Here are a few tips on how to enjoy yourself – and keep your job.

Christmas revels
Staying within the limits of decorum is hard when the riotous office party has become an institution: restaurants and bars are no strangers to semi-clad workers doing a song and a dance at this time of year.

Staying within the four walls of the office doesn’t dampen spirits either. According to a UK survey, 4% of workers have photocopied parts of their body at an office party.

Pure pantomime
This can be innocent fun and a necessary part of letting off steam. In fact, the more conservative the industry, or the more shy the person, the wilder events can become. One totaljobs.com user recounts the antics of a colleague, known in the office for being “a bit of a grump”.

“At the Christmas party last year, boy, did he let his hair down.” But his pantomime endeared him to his colleagues. “He may have looked like a medallion man but he wasn’t afraid to make people laugh and it really changed our perspective of him.”

Party etiquette
Lots of workplaces recognise the value of a spot of revelry to lighten the mood and make the office party a protected zone. One retail manager made it simple: “What happens at the party stays at the party.”

This stood her in good stead last Christmas: “With my umpteenth glass of fizz held high in the air, I declared my undying hatred for the worst employee I could ever have inherited, who also just happened to be the best friend of the previous manager.”

Get a grip
Other offices are not so lenient. Unless you’re with close colleagues, it’s wiser to err on the side of caution. Stray beyond professional boundaries and offend a customer or colleague and it could cost you your job.

One president of an advertising and public relations firm issues this advice to his staff at the start of the Christmas season. “Consider yourselves jobless at the beginning of the office party: if you behave, you’ll be rehired on Monday.” It certainly focuses the mind.

Tricks of the trade
Holiday reps have to learn quickly how to manage themselves when the drink is flowing. First Choice’s 2wentys brand offers this advice to reps:

• Ensure that you eat to line your stomach before you have a drink.
• For every alcoholic drink that you have, make sure that you drink a glass of water
• Before going to bed, take a multivitamin drink (this replaces lost fluids), which will ensure that you make it in to the office the next morning.

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