EVERYONE FEELS like winding down in December. Even if you do not celebrate Christmas, the New Year is approaching and most people take a few days' break. In many workplaces this feeling of "mission accomplished" is accompanied by an established tradition: the office party. In boom times these can be truly lavish affairs. Robbie Williams sang at Deutsche Bank's global-equities party in 2001. A Bloomberg event in 2000, based on the seven deadly sins, was said to have cost £1m (then $1.5m). At the "Googlym-pus" in 2006, the internet group had tents named after different Greek gods while staff amused themselves at the "wine cork shooting gallery". Few companies today desire the publicity that tends to follow such events. The natural question is, if you are spending that amount on a party, how much are you charging clients? Companies are rightly more sensitive than they were about the risks involved when workers lose their inhibitions after consuming too much alcohol. A survey of American companies by the suitably named Challenger Gray & Christmas, an outplacement firm, found that 59% had discussed, or planned to discuss, the dangers of "inappropriate celebrating" with staff.
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