Be prepared for Christmas party mishaps

As you may have read in yesterday’s blog, the Honeydew team went for our annual Christmas meal and it was a great success! As a team, a love of good food and wine is something we all have in common so at a group meal we were in our element at the Clapham based Italian restaurant.

We were all in high spirits and we explored some new sights within London but thankfully, none of the ‘usual’ office Christmas party mishaps occurred.

According to the HR Review, 9-10 employees have had an employment issue arise from their work Christmas celebrations and 1-10 know someone that has been dismissed or formally disciplined for antics that occurred at the party.

It was recently suggested that HR should be responsible for ensuring that employees don’t get too carried away at the Christmas party but that left us thinking, when would it be HR’s turn to let their hair down? Surely more mishaps would arise from disgruntled employees being told to ‘lighten up on the alcohol’ by HR than if people were left to their own devices?

It should be made clear before the party that bad behaviour will not be tolerated and issues should be dealt with after the event. If employees are being chastised whilst the party is in full swing it will only work to dampen the mood of the festivities and it will quickly become something employees may dread, or avoid altogether! Notwithstanding the fact that HR themselves may not feel too comfortable with the situation.

Social media is of course another problem to deal with in any work social situation. Drunken tweets and Facebook statuses can create a legal and disciplinary storm. So HR Review have also published a short guide on avoiding the perils of social media after the Christmas party. However, many companies have now began to protect themselves.

Given that Honeydew are an absence and attendance management service provider, we would love to hear about the hangover fuelled absences as a result. Does your company accommodate for this or do you simply expect to have half the workforce missing the next day?

Let us know your method for preparing for high rates of absences throughout the year!