Claus for concern
CorPorate’s sozzled season is in session. But between warnings from business bodies against inappropriate behaviour and last orders on drinks above 4% ABV, is anyone still celebrating?
It should have been a disaster. It was the early 2010s and Victoria* had just landed her first reporting job at a regional newspaper when she turned up at the Christmas party with hiccups. She was drunk; by her own admission, too drunk. The ambitious English graduate had been feeling out of place at work; struggling to gel with her colleagues, all at least a decade older, her professional optimism hadn’t lasted her probation. And with a tongue loosened by several gin and tonics, she cornered her line manager – an ‘acid man with a biting tone’ – to tell him as much. ‘I think he was a bit taken aback,’ the now 32-year-old writer recalls. ‘But the following week, he took me out for a coffee and was really nice about it. He told me where he saw me going and asked what he could do to help. Things got better after that disclosure.’
It shouldn’t have been a disaster. Bea* was in her early twenties and working in the leisure industry. The annual Christmas party took place at the company’s office and, for the first couple of hours, she had a nice enough time. When an ‘incredibly drunk’ male colleague started dancing against her, a work friend pulled him off, but he returned –this time, ‘rubbing himself’ over his trousers. The next day, Bea reported the incident to her superior, only to find out the man had been let off with a warning – the implications of which were hazy. With no choice but to share a professional environment with him, she did what she could to get through her working hours; she got on with her work and started wearing headphones in order to, as she puts it, ‘block everyone out’.
Do alcohol and colleagues mix? It depends on who you ask. To some, the work Christmas party represents an annual opportunity to enjoy the ethanol-lubricated bonding that the normal working week –with its diminishing resources, budget cuts and groaning in-trays –doesn’t allow for; bonding that could even bolster your professional future. To others, it’s the AGM of a culture in which you’re as likely to be KPI-ed on your weekly units as you are on your ability to empty your inbox. And when you reward the consumption of alcohol, you reward the behaviour that comes with it; behaviour that sits on asliding scale from borderline inappropriate to downright illegal; behaviour that’s defined by abuses of power; behaviour that, this year, has dominated the news agenda.
Back in March, awoman was awarded £19,000 by an employment tribunal after a colleague touched her bottom at a Christmas party. Two mont
