The nightmare before Christmas: is the party over for the office festive do?

London's hospitality sector is "booming", said Bloomberg, as bookings for office Christmas parties come "roaring back". 

Reservations have "soared" past 2019 levels, wrote the site's Ellie Harmsworth, following years "blighted" by Covid lockdowns and strikes. Restaurants, pubs and bars across the capital report being fully booked this festive season, amid "intense" demand for office parties and dinners.

Yet while many companies are scrabbling to secure venues, a growing number of employees are "RSVPing 'no'", said Startups. The Christmas party was once "an important diary entry in the professional calendar", Janine Blacksley of recruitment company Walters People UK told the business advice site. But this year "feels like there has been a tide change", she continued. 

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'Chance to let off steam and a reward'

From as far back as when Ebenezer Scrooge's former boss Fezziwig threw a Christmas party in Charles Dicken's "A Christmas Carol", employers have been hosting festive gatherings to "show their appreciation for their employees' hard work", said HR-Brew.com.

Today, in a hybrid work environment, staff may be "looking for occasions to connect with colleagues", said Emma Jacobs in the Financial Times. And if done well, company events such as Christmas parties "can boost morale".

After all, wrote Jacobs in another opinion piece for the paper, an office party is "a chance to let off steam, a reward for working hard, a reminder that work is a collective enterprise and an opportunity to discover new sides to colleagues".

Better team morale can mean "better staff retention" too, said TechRound, and boost productivity levels, which can all have "a positive influence on employees' well-being" as well as benefiting businesses.

'Give millions of people sleepless nights'

"Re-cork the prosecco and shut away the photocopier," said Startups's lead writer Helena Young. While many companies are steaming ahead with their Christmas party plans – in London, at least – recent survey findings from Walters People suggest that almost half (48%) of UK employees will be no-shows this year, while 20% will just "show their face" and then leave.

Of the no-shows, 37% said attending would be "too much effort", while 31% were worried about the associated costs. 

Fears about embarrassing behaviour are also a factor. A separate study, by Premier Inn, found that nearly three-quarters of workers believed office parties were a "cringe hotspot".

The research also revealed that festive parties "give millions of people sleepless nights", said the Daily Star. One in four reportedly "lies awake worrying over what we did or fear we're about to do" at the annual office bash. 

The lack of festive cheer isn't confined to staff either, amid "skyrocketing business rates and inflated commercial rent costs", said Startup's Young. The Walters People study found that 59% of workplaces across the country were scaling back celebrations, or cancelling them entirely, to "cut costs". 

It's the same story across the Atlantic, said Anne Marie Chaker in The Wall Street Journal. Many firms that used to throw "opulent dinner parties" are downsizing to "low-key office potlucks", partly because employees have said "they won't show up to anything outside of work hours". 

Some workers "echo a longstanding refrain", added Chaker, that companies should "forgo celebrations and distribute the money saved directly to staff".