The office holiday party
Posted on January 12, 2012
Filed Under Corporate Policy, Employment, Keeping your Job, Special Occasions and Celebrations, The Workplace | Leave a Comment
A popular seventeenth century political theorist once surmised that social order derives its stability from the innate ability of individual citizens to effectively dissimulate. Dissimu-what? Dissimulation relates to our ability to hide how we truly feel about something beneath a veil of pretense. Although our propensity for dissimulation may not seem like a positive trait—dissimulation is, after all, nothing more than an ornate euphemism for ‘liar, liar, pants on fire’ (you are certainly welcome to disagree). So what does dissimulation have to do with the workplace? Three words: office holiday party.
Have you seen the movie “Liar, Liar”? It is a cautionary tale about rampant, untactful, indiscriminate truth telling (and also lying). Jim Carrey plays a lawyer and absentee father name Fletcher Reed, and finds that he has been made the unwitting object of a reckless, yet justified, wish cast by his son. A serial liar, Reed begins telling the truth, regardless of circumstance and without regard for what telling the truth may cost him personally or professionally.
Although Reed eventually finds solace in truth telling, as we all should (lies can become a burden, impossible to shoulder), different social contexts demand different behavior. I think most would agree that we ought not to act on every impulse, even if not doing so may be a tinge dishonest. One such context is a holiday office party.
As MarketWatch contributor, Ruth Mantell, recently observed in her wryly titled article, Keep your clothes on and ooffice-party tipsther , an office holiday party isn’t really a party (depending on one’s definition). Although it may have all the trappings of a bona-fide party—like alcohol and, perhaps even dancing—an office holiday party is really a professional networking under the “party” guise. Or, as Mantell puts it, “In some sense, work parties are a set-up.” With a moniker that screams “FUN!,” an office party will inevitably lure a handful of unsuspecting employees to make a series of rather unfortunate decisions. “Workers hear the word ‘party’ and think the event is an opportunity to relax, let go, show colleagues what they’re really like outside of cubicle walls,” when really, the cubicle walls extend even into work parties, observes Mantell. In light of this, I would encourage holiday party-goers to wear a professional face when attending work parties. Who knows, one scotch too many could cost you your job.
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