From telling your boss what you really think of them, to an ill-advised hook-up with a colleague, the traditional British office Christmas party usually supplies enough drama to provide ammunition for workplace gossip well into January.
Now, though, the annual booze-fuelled debauch appears to be falling out of favour as companies respond to changing cultural mores and home working – not to mention the mounting legal risk posed by festive impropriety.
These days, bosses are just as likely to reward staff for a year of hard graft with scavenger hunts, a Sherlock Holmes murder mystery experience, or even an aerial tree-trekking adventure at Center Parcs.
“I don’t think [the office Christmas party] is dead, it’s just that people demand more than ever from their companies,” said Francesca Hubbard, the founder of Big Smoke Events.
“More” includes activities such as giant Jenga, trivia quizzes and crazy golf. The company’s client roster, according to its website, includes everyone from the Premier League to corporate giants such as Meta (the owner of Facebook), Deloitte and Amazon.
Big Smoke Events is far from the only player in this market, with rivals such as Sharky & George offering car rallies and sports days as alternatives to a couple of hours in a pub’s function room.
For those who enjoy solving problems with colleagues in a setting that doesn’t involve key performance indicators or quarterly metrics, escape rooms are an increasingly popular festive option. Fans of the BBC’s adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes stories can unleash their inner Victorian detective at the Official Sherlock Escape Rooms in London, which leans heavily into the Christmas party market – and offers a “speakeasy” bar for workers who want to partake in a cocktail or two.
Such events typically cost about £40 a head, arguably a reasonable expense compared with putting thousands behind the bar or on a restaurant tab. For businesses willing to spend a bit more, even Center Parcs is getting in on the act, flogging its “festive meetings in the forest” to companies focused on wellbeing rather than whisky.
At such events and away-days, drinking isn’t banned, but Hubbard says corporate demands have changed: “Clients are saying they want to move away from booze being the focus of the event. People can have drinks, but that isn’t the focus, it’s more about bringing people together.”
She cites three key factors behind shifting norms: first, the well-documented rise in sobriety among Gen Z, a cohort of young adults among whom the proportion who do not drink is as high as 28%, according to some estimates.
Second, companies are, for good reason, working hard to be more inclusive, ensuring that those who don’t drink for cultural or religious reasons aren’t effectively excluded from Christmas events, or made to feel awkward or unwelcome.
Lastly, the pandemic has led to an increase in home working, meaning fewer employees are gathered in the same workplace and able to head around the corner to the nearest boozer. This has allowed events companies to offer virtual experiences, something pubs can’t do.
But the move away from Christmas booze-ups isn’t just about respecting workers’ wishes. It’s also about protecting them – or for the more cynical-minded, minimising employers’ legal risk and the associated financial costs.
Companies are increasingly considering the worst-case scenarios of a social event at which alcohol flows freely, in the context of the Me Too movement, high-profile cases of workplace sexual assault, and a changing legal landscape.
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According to the employment lawyer Lucy Trynka, a senior solicitor at the law firm Rollits, companies are already “vicariously liable” for the actions of their employees in the workplace. The boundary that defines the office can extend to the Dog & Duck if a work-related event takes place there.
“We’ve seen quite a few cases in recent years of successful sexual harassment and discrimination claims, even claims that people have been promised bonuses or extra benefits while the boss was drunk and then going back on it when they’re back in the office environment,” she says. “But most of the claims are about discrimination or sexual harassment.”
Yet despite the growing range of available alternatives to the traditional boozy Christmas work party, large pub chains say that this year is looking up compared with last year, when the cost of living crisis and a series of transport strikes crimped revenues.
Mitchells & Butlers, which owns O’Neill’s and All Bar One, and the more London-focused pubs groups Fullers and Young’s, have all reported strong trading in recent weeks. Young’s recorded a 33% increase in Christmas bookings.
The figures indicate that some traditions are hard to break but companies – and their workers – appear to have more choice than ever before.
Hubbard argues that there is something more egalitarian about experiences, compared with parties, where senior staff often end up mingling with one another rather than the rank and file.
At one of the scavenger hunts, she says, it’s the opposite of the old-fashioned corporate cliche of letting the chief executive win at golf. “Everyone wants to beat the boss.”