Member Article

How to lose your job this Christmas

Christmas is traditionally a time when people start to wind down at work. Plans are put in place for the New Year and we begin to look forward to festivities such as Christmas parties. This is obviously a happy time, but it can be easy to get carried away in the spirit of the season.

It is not unusual for employees to find themselves in disciplinaries after the festive period is over, relating to behaviour at the employer’s Christmas party. A Christmas party, or indeed any work-sponsored social event, is an unusual hybrid. On the one hand, employers are keen to reward staff, whilst seeking to maintain order, standards of behaviour and safety on the other. At the same time, social events are likely to involve alcohol, which can present problems when it comes to maintaining a professional level of responsibility.

Another feature of alcohol-fuelled events can be sexual and other types of harassment. A hand in the wrong place or a word said in jest can have unforeseen consequences the following day and leave an employer (and the perpetrator) with more than just a hangover.

Just a few office party antics that could get you into trouble with HR include:

• Fighting
• Sexual harassment
• Bullying a colleague
• Stealing
• Taking drugs
• Inappropriate use of social media
• Stalking a colleague
• Being drunk at work the next day

Meredith Hurst, partner at Thomas Mansfield, adds, “An important factor for employers is to gently remind staff in advance of any social event – particularly those occurring off site – that even though this is a social event they still represent the employer. It would be prudent to remind them of the existence of drug and alcohol misuse policies, as well as any key points in their contract, without putting a dampener on the whole thing.

“I’ve seen cases where employees thought that their actions would be taken as a bit of light-hearted flirtatiousness, but actually turned into quite serious sexual harassment claims. In fact, a one-off comment can be sufficient to amount to sexual harassment.”

In the vast majority of cases, trusting staff to act in the right way can reap its own rewards. Most Christmas parties pass by with a few colleagues mildly embarrassing themselves and ending up with severe hangovers. Make sure you’re at least in the embarrassed but still employed camp this Christmas.

For more information, and to see the full image campaign for this story, you can read more here: http://www.thomasmansfield.com/blog/posts/dont-get-dismissed-this-christmas

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Thomas Mansfield .