It’s the biggest event in the office calendar and hedonistic Brits are planning to party harder than ever at this year’s Christmas bash.
Boozing, smooching and everything else in between are all on the menu according to new research from reputation experts, Igniyte.
One in five prospective party-goers freely admits they’re going to do something naughty, with one in ten getting ready to declare their love for a colleague when the drink starts flowing.
More than one in four have already disgraced themselves in the past by enjoying a sneaky snog with a co-worker, while a third admits spending previous parties flirting with colleagues.
With party season almost here, another one in ten workers has guzzled so much grog at previous Christmas bash that they’ve had to call in sick the next day.
And it isn’t party-loving youngsters who can’t hack the pace. Middle managers – those aged 35-44- are the ones who are most likely to stay off following the knees-up, with lily-livered men pulling more sickies than women.
We might love being wild at the time but facing up to the music the next day isn’t always as much fun. A worried one in six of us (15 per cent) has had ‘the fear’ after the office do because they’ve misbehaved and regretted it. Another four per cent have been caught out and dumped by their partner, while an unlucky three per cent have lost their jobs following bad party behaviour.
So it’s no wonder one in ten (nine per cent) of us are thinking about missing this year’s do to make sure we don’t do anything daft. A quarter of us (26 per cent) are going but taking it easy – drinking less to try and stay out of trouble.
As Igniyte’s research reveals, it isn’t just booze causing us problems, social media plays it part too and can often make a bad situation worse as people share the evidence or news of our misdemeanours online.
Five per cent of the British workers they quizzed say they had argued with their partner because of content on Facebook and another one in 20 had rushed to delete potentially incriminating posts before they were spotted.
Those living in Northern Ireland are set to have the wildest time, with 36 per cent confessing to kissing a colleague – more than in any other region. They’re the worst at handling hangovers too with 27 per cent being too ill to face the office the next day.
Igniyte’s managing director and reputation expert, Simon Wadsworth, thinks our love of social media has the potential to make Christmas bash problems public.
Wadsworth adds, ‘In the past there was an understanding that ‘what happened at the party, stayed at the party’ but the advent of social media has changed everything. Now when staff drink too much and go a bit crazy at the Christmas do there’s a very real danger it will seen by lots of people – including their boss or other half.’
He concludes, ‘All it takes is one person to share a dodgy picture or snap you doing something you shouldn’t and you’re in serious trouble – at home and at work.
‘As so many of us are deciding, the best way to stay out of trouble is to avoid drinking too much or losing control in the first place.’
Further reading on office parties
