How to Survive Your Work Holiday Party

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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC and we'll wrap up today's show for our last 15 minutes with your office holiday party survival tips and horror stories. Your office holiday party survival tips and horror stories. 212-433-WNYC. Obviously, we ask because it's that time of year where workplaces are gathering employees for a bit of holiday cheer. We know these parties among coworkers can get a bit dicey. To help everybody else navigate the blurry boundaries that office gatherings can create, we are crowdsourcing your tips and also your horror stories as cautionary tales. 212-433-WNYC. Who has one of either? 212-433-9692. Do you have do's and don'ts of attending a party at your workplace? Do you abide by the one-glass-of-wine rule, for example? Maybe you have dress code guidelines that you like to keep to demure mindful attire. Are there any topics you try to avoid in conversation? How do you maintain the balance of loosening up because it's post work hours, but maintaining your reputation as a competent professional? Tell us how you managed to have fun at a work function but not cross any lines you would regret having crossed or any horror stories about people who did. 212-433-WNYC. 212-433-9692. I wonder how many of you have stories from holiday parties past where either you, or a colleague, or the company seriously messed up. Maybe you won the award for drunkest employee one year or witnessed an inappropriate dance break. Here's a fun story along this vein from Reddit user Powell WX in a thread about work holiday party SH shows. "Company party for about 150 people that says decide to have a talent show after dinner. Initially nobody signs up. They dangle like a $100 prize. Next thing you know, Karen is showing pictures of her trip to Jamaica where she climbed up a waterfall and the janitor is singing Copa Cabana karaoke style without music. Everyone left. The talent show was never repeated." I guess that one is a relatively benign horror story about something that just turned into a boring stage show at a holiday party. Does anybody have a Pete Hegseth kind of one? Just to remind you, here's a news story, for example, from The Daily Beast last week. "Boozy Hegseth quizzed by Fox News HR over Christmas party." "Boozy Hegseth quizzed by Fox News HR over Christmas party." You get the idea. Who has tips and tricks? Who has guidelines to protect yourself or others? Who has a really, good, and useful because it might help others avoid this kind of thing, work holiday party horror story? 212-433-WNYC. 212-433-9692. Call or text and we'll take your stories right after this.

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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Now to your office holiday party survival tips or horror stories. 212-433-WNYC. Sharon in Brooklyn, you're on WNYC. Hi, Sharon.

Sharon: Hi, Brian. Love you. Love your show.

Brian Lehrer: Thank you.

Sharon: A couple of tips. Do not bring a plus one with you. Do not drink too much. Make sure you go to the party and make sure your boss sees you. You don't have to stay, but make sure your boss sees you. Don't talk too much about work.

Brian Lehrer: Keep going.

Sharon: Don't talk about work, work, work, because people don't want to talk about work at the party. They just want to talk about the latest vacation, what you've been watching. Talk to people that are outside of your circle. If you know everybody in department, you don't want to talk to them. Talk to another department. When that I did that, I got a new job regarding working in personnel from working for administration.

Brian Lehrer: That's good [crosstalk]

Sharon: Try to go and maximize.

Brian Lehrer: You've got so many. You should write a book on this, Sharon. Let me follow up on one that you said. Don't bring a plus one. Why not?

Sharon: Because what happens is you will focus more on the impression that they're making than what you're doing.

Brian Lehrer: Definitely, you should write a book on this. Sharon's going to sell a million copies if she can get a publisher. Sharon, thank you very much. Benjamin in Crown Heights is calling to say the exact opposite thing about a plus one. Right, Benjamin? Hi. You're on WNYC.

Benjamin: Yes, thanks very much. I actually did some Googling this morning with respect to the role of alcohol at the parties. Actually the Wharton School of Business has looked at this. We're so influenced by alcohol advertising to see alcohol as a social lubricant. That can be very risky in the office because we all need to be somewhat inhibited at work of what we say and who we say it to. One of the suggestions was to bring your spouse or significant other so that they can be there in case you get close to crossing a line. I suppose, unless your significant other, themselves, is always known to over and buy. Yes, it runs counter to your previous caller.

Brian Lehrer: Interesting. Well, I guess we've heard the pros and cons of bringing a significant other to a workplace holiday party. Benjamin, thank you very much, Emily in Brooklyn on the alcohol question. Emily, you're on WNYC. Hello.

Emily: Hi. It's hard to say no to an open bar, right? Especially when your work is paying for it. The suggestion I heard is to drink something that you actually really, really do not like the flavor of. Whatever drink you would never order at the bar, order that for the holiday party.

Brian Lehrer: That is hilarious. Whatever drink you don't like, and that's hard to chug, for you, order it for the holiday party. Emily, thank you very much. Some coming in, in text messages. One person just writes, "Office parties? Just don't go. You spend about half your waking hours with these people. Spend the time with your family and friends instead." Another one on the alcohol question just writes, "Don't drink, just pretend to." Another one. Horror story. This isn't really about the party, but horror story. "As a lone Jewish employee, I received a gift of a ham from the company owner." Another one on the plus one, "Be careful of the rogue, wasted, spouse. I had to carry a colleague's spouse out of the party because he was so drunk. Ten years later, it's still office fodder for this colleague, like how drunk he was." Boy, oh boy. Another text. "Here's a tip for companies throwing the party. Include sober guests when coming up with the drinks menu." This is saying, remember your sober workers when coming up with a drinks menu. It says, "Good nonalcoholic drinks are just smart hospitality in this day and age." Marty in Kansas City, you're on WNYC. Hi, Marty.

Marty: Hey, how you doing? An unfortunate real life Wolf of Wall Street story at a major financial institution which still exists today. Office party went awry. There was a Secret Santa. Everybody showed up with a bottle of alcohol. The culmination, the end of all holiday parties, at least at this branch of the institution. A woman was encouraged to swallow the worm from a bottle of tequila and not long after caught her heel in a rug, toppled down, broke her arm in three places. Everybody saw.

Brian Lehrer: Well, yes. This was like--?

Marty: They blamed it on the worm. They blamed it on the worm.

Brian Lehrer: Right. It was really the drinking culture and the kind of peer pressure to keep going, it sounds like. Marty, thank you very much. I guess we could do a whole other one on what to put into an office Secret Santa. Maybe we'll do that before the end of the year. Listener texts-- Still on this debate about plus one. "Bringing a guest can inhibit networking with other company employees." Here's a social justice one. "My take, stop having holiday parties and use that money for holiday bonuses. Nobody wants to spend time with their colleagues more than they need extra money." There's another one like that. Let's see if I can see where it went. Well, somebody-- Let's see. Sorry, this one flipped off my screen already, but it basically said don't go to your holiday parties if the company is underpaying the employees. Okay. One more. Calling anonymously. Does that mean it's going to be a good story? From Los Angeles. Hi, you're on WNYC.

Caller: Morning, Brian. This is back when I lived in New York City. I got so drunk at my company's holiday party, my work buddy had to put me in a taxicab. Next thing I know, I woke up in Mount Sinai strapped to a gurney the next day and the nurse said to me, "Oh, are we being nice now?"

Brian Lehrer: Thank you very much for that anonymous story. Another cautionary tale. Listener writes in a text, "A former boss would tell the office to have a great time. Don't have an epic time." On the story about the broken arm, listener write, "Does workman's comp cover the broken arm?" We're going to leave it there with that question that I can't answer, but probably yes because it was in the context of work, I think.

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That's The Brian Lehrer Show for today. Produced by Mary Croke, Lisa Allison, Amina Serna, Carl Boizman and Esperanza Rosenbaum. Our interns this term are Andres Pacheco Hiron and Olivia Green. Megan Ryan is the head of live Radio. Zach Otto Cohen edits our daily politics podcast. We had Juliana Fonda and Milton Ruiz at the audio controls. Take all those tips to heart if you go to your workplace holiday party. Talk to you tomorrow.

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