Modern manners: the work Christmas party
November 30, 2009 by admin
Filed under Career News and Advice
A man and a woman dancing at a Christmas party. Photograph: David Ellis/Getty Images/Digital Vision
I met an ex-colleague for a drink recently, and, after feeding her a choice titbit of gossip from our old workplace, I was rewarded with a brief rundown on her new workmates. “Ali, my boss, is quite good fun, although she’s constantly on a diet. Mark, who I sit next to, is a bit of a sleaze, and then there’s Simon.” She smirked. “Simon’s been there forever, and he’s pretty quiet, but someone told me that, at last year’s Christmas party, he went up to the finance director, squeezed her boobs, then walked off.” What happened to him? I asked her, agog at his no-nonsense approach to sexual assault. “Oh,” she said, when she’d finished giggling, “nothing much, I don’t think. He was quite drunk.”
The unfortunate Simon (and his even less fortunate victim - names have been changed to protect the innocent) popped back into my mind this week when I read that, according to a Chartered Management Institute survey, only 42% of firms are planning a Christmas bash this year.
The principle reason, of course, is the chilly economic climate, but I have a suspicion that bad behaviour has something to do with it as well. Back in 2005, research by Peninsula Legal Services found that …
Read the original article at Guardian
