Time to cancel the Christmas party

This article was written by Isabelle Oderberg

It’s time to cancel Christmas. Well, the Christmas or end-of-year work party, that is. Bear with me… there’s method to this bah humbug madness.

It’s December. We’re all exhausted. Each year feels like it gets longer and harder.

The kids and grandkids, nieces and nephews are headed towards school holidays (which is always a disaster for parental/guardian energy levels) and everyone is saving their pennies for gifts and festive food few of us can afford.

For the office Christmas party, it’s a battle to get a booking anywhere you’d choose to go any other time of year, unless you’ve been planning it since June.

You’re extremely likely to get hit with an expensive festive season set menu if it’s more than six of you eating and to add insult to injury, often you have to lay down a huge deposit to even secure the booking.

And if you would like to do a dinner rather than a lunch, staff getting home, especially vulnerable staff, can be a challenge with Ubers and taxis in short supply.

Certainly the 13th Pro Bono Australia Salary Survey recognises that giving your staff acknowledgement and showing gratitude for jobs well done is crucial to staff retention.

But who says it should be in December? Surely this is non-sensical.

I’ve long been a proponent of the Christmas IOU. I can acknowledge that it’s not as sexy as a big box under the tree, but why give someone a beautiful homemade gift voucher for something you know is going to be on sale in a few days and not just blindly line the pockets of retail shareholders?

Let’s also not forget that Christmas can be an incredibly triggering time for so many people. People who’ve lost parents or children or even been through divorce. Also, with an ever-diversifying population, there are now many Australians who don’t even celebrate Christmas.

I hereby petition to move the end-of-year get together to the start of the year and call it a “new year kick-off”.

It’s still warm, most staff have had a break from the office (even if brief),  some time to rest and reenergise, we’re looking out on the start of the year and kicking off with our aspirations and new year’s resolutions.

Surely that’s a much healthier time to be catching up with workmates? Even early February would be a more optimal time than December. Equally, the hospitality scene is quieter, less expensive and easier to navigate.

Why not reward your employees when everyone is in a better frame of mind to connect and socialise? 

Or you could even go one better.

At a time of year that’s a financial struggle for so many, made worse by a cost of living crisis, why not let staff have a self-catered a brown bag lunch or picnic together for anyone who wants to join in, then use the budget for the Christmas lunch to buy everyone grocery or gift vouchers to take the financial pressure off? Gifted with an actual, personalised card for each person expressing gratitude for their work the previous year?

Anyone who has ever been in therapy knows that one of the first lessons is to always question use of the word “should”. Who says you “should” do something? Why “should” you do it? Who says it “should” be an end-of-year party and not a new year kick-off?  

It’s time to start thinking outside the box in terms of employee retention and recognition.

Let’s start this silly season!