This month Quentin muses on personal responsibility when it comes to behaviour at the office Christmas party. Should HR even get involved?

It’s that time of year again. For many it is a religious celebration of great significance, for others it’s an excuse for a series of parties and seemingly endless expenditure, which, like the national debt, has to be repaid at some time. So what about the partying? Innocent fun or the HR practitioners’ nightmare? Most years there is sage-like advice about what to and what not to do at Christmas parties. This year the advice has gone further with staff being advised to leave their mobiles at home if they can take photos.

Of course any advice about Christmas parties presupposes that employers will be providing parties this year. Many places have seen the party in its format of yesteryear disappear; perhaps to be replaced by a staff funded evening with the employer making a very small contribution.

This year’s most newsworthy advice comes from Jonathan Whittaker, a leading employment lawyer. Jonathan’s advice is that organisations prohibit staff from taking photos at their office party with their mobile phones – but a digital camera will be fine.  The rationale for this advice is that it is so easy to transmit photos taken on a mobile and doing so could amount to a breach of privacy. The argument runs that a normal digital camera is much better in that it allows the person taking the photos to reflect a minute before sending them all over the world – or at least their world.

This of course begs the question as to why apparently normal, sociable staff turn into very different characters at the Christmas party – and in any event should we be worried what goes on? Of course we all know that employers can be responsible for employees’ actions at work events, and Christmas parties come under that heading. But should it all be down to the employer? What price personal responsibility?

So if people go to a Christmas party and make a fool of themselves, who do they have to blame except themselves? And if someone takes a photo and passes it round for all to see, should employers really be bothered about this? Why should people expect to apply a right to privacy if they do things in public they would rather others didn’t see? To some extent this is getting close to the mindset that says “if there’s no evidence, it didn’t happen” and so if you suppress photos of what you would rather not see it’s as if it never happened.

I find this concept of almost whitewashing what goes on a little strange to comprehend. Is it too naïve so suggest that if people want to do offbeat things at a Christmas party then they should be prepared for others to see them?

So what can those who have an HR responsibility do at this time of year? Should we issue the normal warnings about bad behaviour leading to disciplinary action? Is our role to police events and decide what behaviour is acceptable and what is not? I personally hope not, I firmly believe that responsibility for individuals lies with themselves and if there are issues with behaviour that that is for the line manager to manage. Okay, we can advise them, but what should HR be placed in the front line on this one?

So what has your experience of Christmas parties been? Have you had to prise individuals apart and handle the type of disciplinaries that the tabloids relish? What do you feel has worked well in managing parties? Share your experiences with usin the comments below, or you can vote anonymously in our poll to tell us what option your organisation has chosen this year when it comes to Christmas.

Quentin Colborn is an independent HR consultant based in Essex who advises management teams on operational and strategic HR issues. Quentin can be contacted on 01376 571360, www.qcpeoplemanagement.co.uk or via [email protected]