Holiday Office Party Advice to Help You Avoid HR Disciplinary Action (or Worse)!

By Rev. Michael Robinson, M.S., Adjunct Professor, Fox School of Business, Temple University

I absolutely love the Christmas holiday season, it’s filled with great joy, exuberance, and great merriment abounds!? When it comes to holiday office parties, the merriment can sometimes cross the line and violate rules, policies, and laws that can land an overly-exuberant partygoing employee in deep trouble with the Human Resources department, and/or local law enforcement.

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Holiday parties are great opportunities to have great social time with gathered employees and managers, but such parties can also be potential high-risk events for people behaving badly, especially if booze and other intoxicants are indulged by participants.

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Here’s some fun trivia, HR Digests reports that the first recorded holiday office party “took place in 1923 at the Engineering Societies Building in New York City. The event was organized by the Society for Personnel Administration and featured a buffet dinner, dancing, and a visit from Santa Claus.” It was a festive, yet mundane holiday event.? Fast forward 100 years later to 2023, many of today’s holiday office parties are far from mundane. Many modern day holiday office parties include a DJ, up tempo music, festive decorations, assorted foods and snacks, and a happy hour with open bar. ?

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“According to a survey by the Society for Human Resources Management ( SHRM ), the most popular type of office holiday party is a luncheon or dinner (50%), followed by a cocktail party (27%).” NOTE: When alcohol is provided, that’s when the potential for high-risk bad behavior rises exponentially.

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“A survey by the National Safety Council found that 40% of workplace injuries during the holiday season are due to slips, trips, and falls. These injuries often occur at holiday parties, where people may be distracted or impaired by alcohol or other substances.” – HR Digest.

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Alcohol, cocaine, weed, molly (ecstasy), and other popular party drugs/intoxicants, can impair a person's sound judgment while also dramatically reducing his/her level of inhibitions.? When a person’s inhibitions are lowered (or abandoned totally), he/she is more likely to do things (behaving badly) at the holiday party that warrants some form of serious intervention and/or discipline.

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“Adding alcohol to the mix of any employer-sponsored event may cause employees to forget that they are in fact at work and may blur the lines between management and employees, as well as among employees themselves.” - Tannenbaum Helpern Syracuse & Hirschtritt LLP (law firm).

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A sad and horrific consequence of some holiday office parties include “an exponential rise in?drunk and drugged driving?incidents, burglaries,?domestic violence encounters, and even purse snatchings.” - The Kronzek Law Firm. One particular crime that “seems to increase during the holidays, is sexual assault.”

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Rape, attempted rape, and sexual battery are felony crimes; unwanted and non-consensual sexual contact or touching are lower-degree felony offenses; “Under certain circumstances, a sexual assault is a?misdemeanor offense.” - FindLaw.com .

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Behaving badly at a holiday office party can cost you your job, loss of clients, resentment and ire of co-workers, potential lawsuits, arrest, and reprimand. In a November 2022 news story reported by CNBC news outlet, regarding employees behaving badly at holiday office parties, “26% of employees received reprimands, 21% switched workplace teams, and 17% lost clients due to their behavior.”

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Here are my top ten things to avoid doing during the holiday office party, otherwise, you’re at high risk for being reprimanded, fired, or arrested:

1.????? Stealing.

2.????? Gossiping.

3.????? Using racist or hateful religious epithets.

4.????? Fighting, assaulting, God forbid - - killing someone.

5.????? Breaking, damaging, vandalizing company property.

6.????? Stripping off clothes, and/or flashing private body parts.

7.????? Getting excessively high (impaired by alcohol and/or drugs).

8.????? Driving while impaired/under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs.

9.????? Telling offensive jokes about race, gender, ethnicity, religion, body weight, sexuality.

10. Kissing, groping, inappropriate and unwanted touching of co-workers, subordinates, supervisors.

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Forbes magazine provides a list of employers/employees preference for specific types of holiday parties, “As for office party activities, over half of corporate Americans (51%) wanted a dance party. Some employees were ready to dress the part: 12% said they would wear clubbing or "going out" clothes to their office party. Other favorite activities included low-key options like gift exchanges (44%), movie nights (42%), comedy nights (41%), and board games (39%). Employees also thought the best reason to have a party was for the company's anniversary (68%), followed by the winter holidays (51%).”

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Bottomline, hosting holiday office parties are great well-intentioned social events. Such events can boost morale and foster greater camaraderie among employees and management.? It's very important to consider the potential risks that come with providing booze at such events.? It’s safer to just plan a ‘dry’ holiday party without the booze; with the money saved, spend on catered food, a DJ for music, fun games, and/or gifts.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Rev. Michael Robinson, M.S. is an award winning university executive and corporate leader.

He is Director of Community Outreach and Hiring at Temple University Lenfest North Philadelphia Workforce Initiative; Adjunct Professor, Leadership and Organization Management, Fox School of Business, at Temple University; and Senior Pastor of Greater Enon Missionary Baptist Church, an urban ministry in North Philadelphia.