10 Reasons Why Employees Loathe Holiday Parties

10 Reasons Why Employees Loathe Holiday Parties10 Reasons Why Employees Loathe Holiday PartiesIts the holiday season again, and its time for the company party. Whetzu sich its a Christmas, New Year, or Year End Party, your company is having one, and its fantastic. You go to a great deal of effort for the party, but youremployees seem somewhat unenthusiastic. Why is that? Here are ten reasons why your employees loathe the holiday party. 1. You Charge Employees to Attend Heres a little hint If something costs money, its not a party. Sure, your employees may have fun, but a party is something the host gives to his guests. In college, everyone chipped in for food and drink, but this isnt college. When you make employees buy a ticket for themselves and their plus one (if allowed to attend), it doesnt feel like a gift from the employer. This makes sense, of course, because its not. Even if the business is covering the vast majority of the cost, employees dont want to have to pay to go to a party. 2. Its an Evening Event and Plus Ones Arent Invited Its your company, so you want just the employees there. That makes perfect sense, except that your employees see you and each other all day every day. They want to spend the weekend and their evenings with their significant others. Having to leave that person at home so they can go to a work obligation doesnt feel like a party. If you want an employee only event, hold it during work hours. If you want an evening event, pay for your employees significant others to attend 3. Babysitters Required While adult only evenings are great, if a lot of your staff has young children, it becomes a major expense and a pain in the neck to come to your party. Not everyone has a grandma living next door. Most people have to hire and pay for a babysitter. Yes, it was their choice to reproduce. It doesnt mean that finding a babysitter during the busy holiday season is easy, especially when your employees are scheduled for multiple holiday events. 4. Babies Everywhere On the flip side, if you invite children, the holiday party can turn into a kids party, which is fine if your staff is comprised of only families. But this is likely to leave your childless employees feeling like they arent even guests at the party. If youre thinking that you cant win on this, youre right. If your party requires babysitters, the people with small children may feel put out, and if you have a family party, your childless employees will feel overlooked and undervalued. The key here is knowing your employees and asking what will work best for them. Remember the party isnt about you, its about rewarding your employees for their contributions. 5. Lousy Food A party is only as good as the food and drink, and if you rent the fancy hotel ballroom and then cheap out on the food, people will be annoyed. Additionally, you can no longer just assume everyone can eat everything. You need to take the major allergies into considerationan d have vegetarian and (sometimes) vegan options available. Yes, its impossible to meet every little dietary consideration, but you need to try. If your business is small, you should be able to meet everyones needs. In a larger group, consider having people pre-order, or make the menu available in advance so that people dont show up to a party they where they cant eat anything. Or, make the dinner a buffet with a variety of choices to meet the needs of every employee. 6. Attendance Is Voluntary Many companies have parties where you dont have to come, but, if you dont come, the managers will note your failure to attend and hold it against you. Jane isnt a team player- she didnt even come to the holiday party. If you are going to hold non-attendance against people, then make that clear. Dont say attendance is voluntary and not mean it. Employees will certainly figure this out. Additionally, keep in mind that there are plenty of people who have religious or personal reasons for why they may not want to attend a party. If its labeled a Christmas Party, you may have employees of other religions who feel left out. If you have free-flowing alcohol, you may have a recovering alcoholic on staff who would rather not attend. Make attendance at holiday parties truly voluntary. 7. Everyone Gets Drunk Excess imbibing in alcohol doesnt have to be everyone to make the holiday party uncomfortable. When everyone knows that the marketing manager is going to get sloshed and make a fool of himself, no one wants to see it happen. When the director of schlussverkauf has too much to drink and forgets her sexual harassment training, her behavior can open up the company to potential liability. Additionally, if you serve alcohol, you need to provide a way that ensures that people will get home safely. 8. Long Executive Speeches Youre the boss and thats great. But, no one wants to hear much from you at the holiday party. If you have atendency to give a long speechabout anythin g, people will avoid your party like the plague. Heres what you can say, Were so glad to have all of you here tonight. We had a great year and Id like to thank you for all your hard work. Have a great evening. Thats pretty much the limit. The employees dont want to hear a year-end reportor a critique of the latest advertising campaign. They dont want to hear your innermost thoughts on the plan for the future. Save those for a meeting. Executives should keep their mouths shut at the holiday party. 9. A and B Parties Its okay for a manager to have a party and just invite her direct reports. Its not okay, for the CEO to throw a party and invite only certain people (unless its just her direct reports). While people arent paid the same amount of money, its not a good katechese to send your lower level employees that they arent good enough for the cool party. If your company is too large to invite everyone, then dont have a company party- have division heads or whatever level is pract ical- hold a party with everyone reporting up to them invited. Divide the parties by location, or function. All is fine, as long as the parties are equal. HQ employees shouldnt get caviarand champagne while the warehouse employees get pizza and soda. (Although, frankly, many people would prefer the latter.) 10. Forced Gift Giving Remember Miss Manners rule of gifts at the office They go down, not up. That means the CEO never, ever, gets a gift from her employees. At the most, they can give her a card, a group box of chocolates, or homemade cookies, but never anything beyond that. Dont hold a party where employees are expected to shower the senior team with gifts and praise. It should always go the other way. Polly-Annas, White Elephant Exchanges and Secret Santas are fun as long as participation is truly voluntary (see above) and there is a price limit that is strictly enforced. Never, ever, question why a coworker is not participating. Its only $20, you might say. But you dont know if your coworker is managing a mortgage on her own because her husband just got laid off and her mother-in-law has just moved in. Remember, fun activities are only fun if they are voluntary. If your employees arent jumping for joy at the announcement of this years holiday party, look at this ten-item list and figure out what youre doing wrong. Make sure that you fix your errors to ensure that your employees ?enjoy the work-related holiday season. Suzanne Lucas is a freelance journalist specializing in Human Resources. Suzannes work has been featured on notes publications including Forbes, CBS, Business Insider and Yahoo.