Christmas shambles makes me fear for milestone party
Straight-talking common sense from the front line of management
Q We have been planning to treat our employees, later this year, to mark an amazing 10 years since starting our company. However, I really feel let down by my staff ’s behaviour at our recent Christmas party. It makes me wary of giving them another excuse to let their hair down. People got outrageously drunk, kissing like teenagers and causing so much havoc the venue says we will not be welcome back next year. I am tempted to cancel the whole 10th Anniversary – am I being too harsh?
A
I have attended a number of cringe-making Christmas parties which still make me go cold at the very thought. Most vivid among my memories was the typing pool’s “Get John” Competition, with a prize going to the first person who could get me on the dance floor. The worst was when a husband persistently prodded me in the chest while explaining why our business was ruining his wife’s life. That was before he realised he was part of another party in the function room next door. Fortunately that wasn’t the year a fight started outside the venue.
Catastrophic Christmas parties usually fall into chaos because they are poorly planned, often fashioned in a fleeting moment and run on a shoestring. If you rent a cut price room above a pretty ordinary pub, supplying little more than chips, burgers, beer and cheap Rioja, don’t be surprised if the alcohol takes over.
Your 10th Anniversary is totally different. It marks a big company landmark, so don’t be stingy, make it really special. Start by picking an impressive venue, somewhere your colleagues would regard as being fantastic, perhaps a country hotel or, even better, a marquee in your own garden.
When our company celebrated 150 years in business in 2016, we decided to push the boat out by taking 150 of our best front colleagues on a five-day trip to Malta. The reaction was amazing and many of the guests still have a detailed memory of it. So successful was it that, three years later, we took a plane full of colleagues to Iceland.
Some ingredients help to make a company celebration successful – a structured programme, a detailed dress code and a proper printed invitation. If you have space, produce a strict seating plan – it adds to the feeling of a formal function and helps to create more respectful behaviour. When told to wear a jacket & tie some will still be in tee shirt and trainers and although the start time is on the invitation, expect the odd guest to be more than 30 minutes early. But don’t worry, these nervous acts are a sign that they are keen to keep to the rules.
The most successful marquee events have been those with a special twist. (We have staged a Timpson type of Stars in your Eyes, Timpson’s Got Talent and our own version of The Oscars.) All these ideas provided first class entertainment and showcased the wealth of ability that our colleagues possess.
Your badly behaved Christmas party could have done with one or two bouncers but if you follow my suggestions, your 10th Anniversary celebration just needs one senior executive to keep an eye on proceedings so that you are free to enjoy yourself.
You may think that extravagant celebrations are an inappropriate way to spend your company’s money at a time of financial uncertainty. Apart from giving part of the hospitality industry a boost, it will give a very positive signal to your colleagues. But this is a thought that seldom seems to sit so happily in the public and charity sectors. About 20 years ago I was a trustee at Childline so, while I had a marquee on my lawn for other events, I used a spare night to invite local Childline volunteers to walk around our garden and stay for a buffet. That was when I discovered that no one in Childline received any form of long service award. I put that right for those at my garden party, but not without a certain amount of criticism. “You can’t use charitable donations to give prizes to volunteers,” some said. I disagree; every organisation should recognise the people who deliver its front-line service.
One day I was talking about bonus perks and rewards to a room full of hospital workers. There was plenty of enthusiasm in the room but, in the lift, as I left, a woman told me: “You can’t apply your ideas to the NHS about trusting front-line colleagues and finding ways to say well done, after all you would be spending government money!”
It’s not the only answer, but I can’t resist thinking that a few social nights and a bit of upside down management would help the NHS to become a better place to work.