Christmas Party 2021! Cancel, or not? - Feedback - Community Feedback

44 Christmas Party 2021! Cancel, or not?

30 Nov, 2021 09:53

I am seeing articles in City AM and the FT of large companies (EY, Slaughter & May), who are cancelling their large firm wide Christmas parties in favour of smaller teams parties this year (due to Omicron, or Covid generally).

We are only a headcount of 60 and are still deciding what to do. What are you doing?

1357 views

Rachel | 0 Posts

8 Dec, 2021 10:29

Hi there,

last year and this year we have taken the decision not to hold a staff party - for all the obvious reasons, what we have done is taken the staff party budget and split it between everyone and gifted them the equivalent in rewards in our reward hub to be able to buy something lovely for themselves. They have all been very understanding and enjoy the alternative!

Rachel
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Rhianna | 0 Posts

9 Dec, 2021 09:02

Hello,

Is there anyone in here who was holding one and now isn't sure what to do with the new guidance?
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Peter Stanway | 0 Posts

9 Dec, 2021 09:25

In reply to Rhianna:
I am sure there are but Government guidance says they can go ahead.
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Johanna | 0 Posts

CIPD Staff

9 Dec, 2021 09:55

Hi everyone, the CIPD statement in response to the PM's latest briefing is here for ref: www.cipd.co.uk/.../081221working-from-home-guidance and also contains a section on social events: 'The duty of care as employers extends to company organised social events as well. We’d encourage organisations to follow the spirit of today’s revised guidance and to avoid any in-person end of year parties, while recognising individuals are still free to meet in a personal capacity.'
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Steve Bridger | 0 Posts

Community Manager

9 Dec, 2021 09:56

In reply to Johanna:
Just beat me to it, Johanna
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Rachel | 0 Posts

9 Dec, 2021 10:11

There are only 10 of us and we were going to just have a lunch today but we've decided not to go ahead in light of the 'work from home' message. We didn't feel that going out for lunch together fitted with this new approach, despite mixed messages from the government. Our main concern is not to disrupt anyone's plans for Christmas, nobody wants to be in a situation where they have to isolate over the festive period due to being a close contact.
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Rhianna | 0 Posts

9 Dec, 2021 10:24

In reply to Peter Stanway:
I was just curious to get some feedback from real life scenarios
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Alys Martin | 0 Posts

9 Dec, 2021 11:12

In reply to Rachel:
We've done the same. We're really small so wouldn't have been a huge gathering but we've made the decision today to give everyone the afternoon off and try and tie some form of celebration into the launch of a new product later in the new year instead. Disappointing but everyone completely understood.

Just have to hope no one bought anything perishable for the Secret Santa now!
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Rachel | 0 Posts

9 Dec, 2021 11:20

In reply to Alys Martin:
We were going to do Secret Santa today too but we've resorted to posting the gifts and hoping they get there in time for a virtual unwrapping on Teams next week! Not quite the festive gathering we wanted but I personally want to minimise the risk of having to isolate and not being able to see family over Christmas.
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Steve Bridger | 0 Posts

Community Manager

9 Dec, 2021 14:59

In reply to Rachel:
Quite. Absolutely front of mind for many.
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David Perry | 0 Posts

9 Dec, 2021 16:16

In reply to Johanna:
Quite right Johanna

Just follow the PMs advice and/or personal example and call it a meeting in 'personal capacity'.

Everything will be alright. :-)
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Maya | 0 Posts

9 Dec, 2021 19:11

We cancelled ours - it was going to be a large gathering with multiple companies in one of those hotel ‘Christmas party’ situations. We cancelled yesterday morning, so we got out in front of Boris’s slightly confusing new ‘rules’.

As someone said on Twitter “if you wanted a Christmas party last year you had to pretend it was a business meeting. If you want a business meeting this year, you need to pretend it’s a Christmas party”…!
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Marc | 0 Posts

10 Dec, 2021 09:15

In reply to Steve Bridger:

Thank you for the link.
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Alan | 0 Posts

12 Dec, 2021 23:44

Smaller parties all have to be vaccinated (sorry if you all don’t agree) and daily lateral flow testing before and after
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