Corporate culture: who said the British are staid?
by Miki Saxon
We hear all the time about the nightly drinking requirements in Japanese corporate culture, but the image most of us have of British business is one of dark suits and furled umbrellas.
The traditional British office party offers up a vastly different image—definitely not a role model.
Dixie Dean, an emergency care specialist with the London Ambulance Service, compared the Christmas season in Britain to New Year’s Eve in New York — except that here, the binges run nightly for two solid weeks leading up to Dec. 25… Gill said American companies based in England are a bit “more concerned about litigation” arising from boozing at late-night Christmas celebrations and typically shut down their parties at 9 p.m…
This month, Prime Minister Gordon Brown convened a summit meeting on binge drinking at his office.
But, despite the warnings, many in Britain are standing up for parties with an almost patriotic vigor. As one enthusiastic commentator on “Comment is free,” the popular forum on the Guardian Unlimited Web site, recently noted, “Projectile vomiting is our birthright.”
Fewer companies seem to be holding parties at the office, going along with a recommendation by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, which has noted a number of Christmas party injuries related to office furniture and machinery.
“Meeting room tables were designed for weighty documents, not overweight executives dancing,” said Jo Stagg, a society spokeswoman.
She noted that partygoers seem to find great amusement in photocopying intimate body parts. Stagg recalled one incident in which a man at his Christmas party sat on the copy machine, broke the glass and ended up in the emergency room with shards of glass in his bottom.
What’s the wildest thing that you’ve seen/done at an office party?
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