The Great Recession is making quick work of making company Christmas parties a thing of the past. According to a new survey tracking trends of Christmas in the workplace by My Merry Christmas.com, 43% of companies are foregoing Christmas parties this year in the name of fiscal prudence. That number comes on the heels of a steep drop last year in a similar survey. Despite the drop in company sponsored parties the survey did show that the Christmas spirit is thriving in other ways in the workplace.
“We saw the big jump last year when more than 20% surveyed said they would cut back on paid company holiday festivities. But this 43% drop in 2010 is shocking because it shows just how little things have improved in the workplace or have, in fact, become worse.” said Jeff Westover, editor of My Merry Christmas.com, which has conducted similar surveys about Christmas in the workplace since 1994.
This year’s survey polled 3,784 companies, large and small, across a broad spectrum of industries.
“It is clearly driven by the economy and the bottom line for companies,” Westover said. “Respondents indicated overwhelmingly that parties were eliminated due to lack of funds and the impact that such events had on worker productivity.”
The shift in numbers is reflective also of a shift in attitudes about holidays in the workplace. Political correctness has clearly been displaced by money as the sticking point in whether or not to have a Christmas party at work.
“From 1999 to 2007 we saw a period of increasing sensitivity to politically correct terms in the workplace.” Westover said. “We saw ‘Merry Christmas’ replaced by ‘Happy Holidays’ and many companies stopped calling it a company ‘Christmas’ party altogether, out of deference to the diversity in their workforces. That whole issue seems to have taken a back seat to fiscal realities.”
The survey did indicate a big surprise with Christmas in the workplace: while company parties are out, Christmas card exchanges are back in.
“Many respondents said that in lieu of parties many have re-instituted or expanded the practice of exchanging cards. We saw a small uptick in this practice a year ago with 3% more saying they would bring it back over the year previously. This year it is up another 19%, which is a remarkable statement in this age of email and electronic correspondence.” Westover said. The reverses a negative trend of workplace card exchanges dating back 9 years to 2001, the last time card exchanges showed an increase in the workplace.
The annual survey tracks not only workplace trends but also consumer attitudes of holiday spending and activities. My Merry Christmas.com is the largest Christmas-specific portal online, publishing unique content related to Christmas in an effort started offline in 1991.
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