The Holiday Party and the Layoff
In the early 2000’s remained a breed of web development agencies who had it all. The modern offices, the top-name clients, and the upwardly striving and oft difficult-to-appease staff. However a little alcohol went a long way, working like balm on the run-roughshod employees. It helped as they reeled from long hours and often brutal travel schedules.
As a reward, the holiday party was expected: a bit of fun, made more or less awkward depending on where you were in the creative-to-technology / cool-to-nerdish spectrum.
Arriving at said event, you find yourself approaching a bombed-out warehouse on the seedier side of town. Once you overcame your fear of the valet attendant single-handedly jockeying a mess of cars, you entered a wonderland.
In a party womb of rich curtains and plush velvet couches, you go into orbit around a beckoning sun: the full service bar. Gazing at modern decorations, fuchsia and blue uplighting, and lavishly catered food stations, you felt you had “arrived”.
Sinking into a parlor-style daybed with your significant other, you twirl the fringe of a nearby metallic string curtain. Across the room, laughter emanates from the photo booth area, as team members don props like feather boas, oversized glasses, and jaunty hats. While on the opposite end, a professional photographer snaps pictures of smiling faces and fit figures in their cocktail-attire best.
The cavernous space gets louder as the booze flows, the live music begins, and costumed performers meander around for your entertainment. As the volume grows intolerable, you take respite in an adjacent room. Settling back in, you enjoy a much lower-key piano bar experience complete with sing-along.
This party even has a name and logo — designed by some on-the-bench graphic designer — emblazoned on your departing swag bag: Indulge.
You couldn’t help but leave the event with a glow, thinking: how lucky I am to work here. Indeed: you did Indulge. But then again, you might also constrain, inhibit and stifle shortly after.
Because alas, much like your glow necklaces the morning after the rave, the color and light fades by the next morning. To be more specific, the layoffs followed almost to the day, on January 2, like clockwork. The first to go?: that benched designer who designed the party logo.
Why?, it left us wondering. Why would the company spend their money on such a lavish affair every year, followed by having to layoff workers immediately following the holiday? Couldn’t that money have been used to at least extend a job or two?
And there you have the fallacy of the holidays. From a corporate perspective, the holiday months are simply “no-go” time for layoffs. If you layoff then, you simply look like a Scrooge.
And then, there’s the “money suck” of the holiday party your employees come to “expect”. The expense that in effect turns you into a Scrooge right after the bar is closed. Double whammy.
The result is just another source of sarcasm and distrust for the Gen-X’ers who lived the early digital boom days or other popular careers.
It made an impact. Now that we’re the Directors, VPs and C-Suiters, we make the decisions. Perhaps that is why the “company holiday party” is no more. We learned that we’re satisfied and well-served by considering less ostentatious and more heartfelt holiday celebrations.
As always, I hope you enjoyed this and it brightened your day.
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