On Wednesday we had our company holiday dinner at a restaurant called Circa, a San Francisco hot spot and home of last year’s Top Chef contestant Erik Hopfinger. We in fact met him which was very cool. A few folks had mentioned that this year was more humble of a celebration than years past. Regardless, I enjoyed getting to know my team better outside of the office and low key or not this year, everyone felt good about our dinner-social.
This brings me to the purpose of my post. In my last post on AMEX I gave kudos to the exec(s) that made the decision to continue certain customer service gestures that humanized the brand, such as sending flowers. I mentioned how in this economy companies should cut back carefully and closely review the ROI with each of their spends.
Well recently I read this article on MSN, Recession? What recession? Let’s Party!, about hard economic times and companies’ decisions on whether or not to host holiday parties. To this point, AMEX, amidst layoffs earlier this year, made the executive call not to throw a holiday bash. Some other companies who have also experienced massive layoffs on the other hand plan to continue with their annual tradition. One company featured in the article claim they must go on with party plans simply because event venues had been booked months prior to any layoff announcements, and canceling would mean throwing away all that money already spent.
As I thought about it myself I could understand both sides of the issue– management not wanting to throw a holiday celebration when a company has had to let go of hundreds of people right before the holiday (sort of bad PR), but also the necessity for them to keep spirits up and thank those hard working individuals who have shown commitment to the company (a good corporate message).
So I pose the question. If a company is forced to lay off in masses, is it appropriate to have a holiday party?
