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Work Christmas Party Guide |
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Location, Location, Location The venue choice can be critical to the success of the event. Hiring a nightclub with too many dark corners can lead to red faces the next day, or worse – harassment complaints. You might think a harbor cruise is a novel idea, but two years ago a large company had the same novel idea and all went well until someone fell over the edge and almost drowned. If you don’t want to spend the larger part of your night filling out police reports, keep it sensible. Perhaps consider confining the event to a lunch – people are more likely to behave themselves in the daylight. You could give them the rest of the afternoon off. Keep it light-hearted and informal. That way, employees don’t invest too much into it as “the social night of the year” and are less likely to get carried away in one respect or another.
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Alcohol
Some employers like to thank their workers for the year by having an
all-night open bar at the Christmas ‘do’ - but these employers may like
to think twice about their generous offer. With 72% of Australian adults
admitting their most embarrassing moments occur when intoxicated, you
may well be doing your employees a favour by restricting the drinks. It
is undeniable that the most damaging Christmas party incidents occur
when alcohol is involved. Sexual harassment complaints, accidents,
offensive conversations, embarrassing wardrobe malfunctions, karaoke –
they all happen more readily when aided by a little booze - or a lot of
booze!
As an employer, your duty of care extends to work functions. If you
thought your IT guy was a little clumsy, imagine him with 12 beers under
his belt. If you thought the marketing assistant was a little
flirtatious, imagine her after 6 glasses of champagne. Restricting
alcohol consumption at these events may prevent more than a hangover.
Try limiting the “open bar” part to the first couple of hours, and don’t
put shots or cocktails on the list of allowable drinks. If your party is
a sit-down dinner, limit the bottles of wine to one for every three
people and make sure there’s sufficient water and soft drink on the
table. If your party is a BBQ style event with drinks in bins of ice,
make sure you have plenty of light beer and low-alcohol options
available, and if it runs out, don’t do a bottle-o run to get more. If
having the office party in the office, remember that only qualified
persons are allowed to serve alcohol under the responsible service of
alcohol laws (and this doesn’t include “Vera” from Accounts, no matter
how many shots of Jägermeister she claims to be able to drink).
Consider hiring a bartender to serve the drinks (there are several
companies that offer this service) – that way, someone will be able to
keep an eye on how many drinks everyone has had.
Remember to encourage your employees to know their own limitations.
Above all, it is important that management ‘set the standard’ by
demonstrating that you can still have fun whilst being responsible. |
Getting Home
You can’t stop your employees going home with one another (employment
usually still stops ‘at the bedroom door’), but you can remind them of
harassment policies prior to the event. Also, advise your employees that if they intend on drinking, they shouldn’t drive. Provide Cab Charges or hiring a car/bus service for them to use to get home. Remember that your liability may extend to the journey to and from work, and work functions can fall into that category.
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Workplace Christmas Parties – Do’s and Don’ts
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Do have a good time. A
Christmas party is often a reward for a hard years work and good
employers us a Christmas party to recognise workers efforts during the
year and to build team morale.
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Do go off site if you can.
It can be a stress release to get together in a social setting in a
place other than where you do your work.
Set a resonable finishing time for the fuction as this may help
avoid excessive drinking.
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Do encourage workers to have a good nights rest the day before the
Christmas party as fatigue and drowsiness can set in much earlier when
alcohol is involved.
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Do ensure everyone understands the require standard behaviour.
A formal reminder at a staff meeting or at rest break can be a
good way to confirm that misbehaviour won’t be tolerated.
Company sexual harassment and anti-discrimination policies should
be in place and known by staff.
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Do ensure everyone understands the dangers of excessive drinking and
drink driving. If your
workers intend on drinking alcohol at the Christmas party remind them to
make arrangements to get home safely before the Christmas party starts.
The company should recommend that persons who consume alcohol
should not drive.
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Do ensure that your Christmas party properly caters for non drinkers and
vegetarians, and that people have plenty to eat and acess to water and
non-alcoholic beverages.
Remember alcohol is not essential to any party.
Persons serving alcoholic drinks should be appropriatly trained
in the ‘Responsibility Serve of Alcohol’.
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Do ensure a first aid kit and a qualified first aider is present for the
duration of the party. A
fully charged mobile phone and emergency acess details for the event
location should be available to the responsible manager who should
ensure that at the end of the party all employees have safely left the
venue
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Don’t forget behaviour that is ordinarily not tolerated at your
workplace is also not appropriate at a Christmas party.
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Don’t use the workplace Christmas party as a forum to ask for a raise,
air a grievance or tell the bosses what you think of them |
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