The Wave

The Holiday Office Party – Recession Version!

I have a close friend in the hospitality business here in San Diego who says the bookings for company Christmas and/or Holiday parties are way down this year. In fact, I’ve heard that some hotel properties and swanky venues - which just a few years ago had their ballrooms and party rooms booked up a year or more in advance – have no bookings at all…zilch, nada, zero.

Does this mean that companies are not hosting parties this season?  No: that would be too Scroogelike, especially now that we’re seeing so-called “green shoots.” Company parties can be good morale boosters.   So, it’s more likely companies are planning to stage scaled-down, low-key events on their own premises, or in some senior manager’s home.

So, what could possibly happen at these small-scale-recession-era-office-parties that we all need to be concerned about?  Just about the same things that happen at the massive good-economy blowouts of yesteryear.

If there’s alcohol, someone will drink too much.  In this regard, I stand by the same three recommendations I’ve made annually since I started issuing these warnings 10 years ago:

1. Issue drink coupons (2 per person), collect all the booze in place and have someone dole it out.
2. Prior to the event designate and train a few “observers” who will not drink at the party and who have the ability to remove over-imbibers quickly and quietly.3.
3. Have a car service or taxis standing by for anyone who drinks too much and should not drive home.

- If there’s alcohol, someone will engage in inappropriate jokes or conversation.  This is trickier, more in the “gray” area, because one person’s hysterical joke is another’s offensive joke.  My recommendation: consider the party and its location as if it’s a normal workday meeting in a workplace conference room. If you think the joke you’re about to tell, or the political/religious comment you’re about to make might offend one of your listeners – or someone who happens to overhear it – for goodness sake, don’t tell it.

- Even if there’s no alcohol, people get emotionally sloppy at holiday parties.  Parties are an excuse for people to “let it all hang out,” when it comes to their feelings about others.  For many, the informality and conviviality of the event becomes an excuse to disclose a crush or a dislike: major and lingering embarrassment potential here folks!  Once again, those trusty and trained “observers” can play a useful role here – spotting discomfort (laughing a little too loud, or sudden silence) – and stepping in to change the conversation or group makeup before it all gets too awkward.

I like to party (and dance awkwardly) as much as the next person, so my apologies if this post is a serious downer.  But, better safe than sorry: with a few careful precautions our recession-era holiday parties can be the joyful, upbeat events they're meant to be. And if hosting a company party doesn’t seem right in these times of 10%+ unemployment, consider encouraging employees to donate their time and money to local or company-supported charities.

Merry Christmas, happy and safe holidays everyone!

Deport Them All?

Three years ago I was asked to write a research article titled “Can Diversity Tension Lead to Workplace Violence?” for a trade publication.  The request came shortly after the London bombings of 2005 in which British nationals who had become radical Islamists, exploded bombs in the underground and on buses.  My primary argument at the time: there are Muslims in many American workplaces, and whenever there is an attack on civilians that can be linked to terrorists who espouse extremist Islamic views, there will be an increased potential for violence against Muslims in our communities.  “Well, duh!” you may say, “That’s obvious.”

And indeed, here we are, one week after the Ft. Hood massacre and many cable news pundits, politicians and online “bloviators” are already branding Major Hasan a jihadist and terrorist, adding that Muslims ought to be banned from serving in the US military, and even rounded up and deported.  They point to the unproven allegation that he shouted “Allah Akbar!” as he began firing as proof of his radical religious views.  And yet, Hasan is an American citizen, born and raised here – yes, he was raised in the Islamic faith – but he is an American nonetheless and has every right to serve in the military and live in the country of his birth.

The fact is that until we hear what Hasan has to say about why he did what he did, no one will really know what his motives were.  Of course, many people of all political persuasions (including me) are fully prepared to accept that he really does espouse radical Islamist views – his Army colleagues apparently expressed concerns to each other about him for a number of years.  Maybe he really did decide to engage in jihad.But, from this we conclude that we need to round up and deport Muslims in America? That’s like saying we should have deported all Libertarians because Timothy McVeigh (the Oklahoma City bomber in case you’ve forgotten) espoused radical libertarian views and blew up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building killing 168 people in order to destroy the US government.  And that’s like saying we should deport everyone who calls themselves “Pro-Life” because a radical extremist in their midst decided to murder a doctor who legally performs abortions.

Oh, and what do we do about one quarter of all American Muslims who are African Americans?  Should they be deported too, or are they “OK to stay” because they’re “real” Americans?

The reality here is that this horrific act of violence is being used by “fearmongerers” and “fringers” with a cable news platform to advocate wholesale persecution of entire groups of people – including liberals - in the name of national security.  They forget that this is what authoritarian and fascist governments do, like the Nazi’s, the Khmer Rouge and the Islamic Republic of Iran.  We’re a far, far better nation than that, in fact we’re the greatest nation in the world because of our diversity, not in spite of it.