Say goodbye to virtual wine tastings, and bust out the karaoke. Love them or hate them, company holiday parties are back 鈥� in a toned-down kind of way.
After more than two years of working in pajama bottoms and clinking glasses over Zoom, many office workers seem to be yearning for a bit of glamour. The same is true for some front-line workers who saw festivities canceled even as they showed up to work every day during the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic.
鈥淚t just always makes me feel special,鈥� said Shobha Surya, who missed treating herself to a new dress every year for the dinner and karaoke party thrown by Ajinomoto Health and Nutrition North America, a Japanese-owned company based in the Chicago area. She was so excited the party was back for the first time in two years that she picked out her black-and-white cocktail dress two months in advance.
鈥淓verybody let loose,鈥� she said, smiling the Monday after the party, where she accepted a recognition award for 15 years at the company. 鈥淚t gets you into the holiday season.鈥�
More than 57% of companies are planning in-person holiday celebrations this year, according to a survey of 252 U.S.-based companies conducted by Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a hiring firm. While that鈥檚 still notably fewer than the 75% that threw parties in 2019, it鈥檚 a big leap from 26% in 2021 and 5% in 2020.
Still, not everyone is ready to party like it鈥檚 2019.
Many parties will be more intimate, as companies try to accommodate workers that are increasingly remote and far-flung. Some businesses are opting for spas, juggling shows and even private movie theater showings to lure out employees who have relished working from home. And a few are sticking to bonuses or extra time off they have offered instead of parties during the pandemic.
Cari Snavely鈥檚 team of 20 opted for an afternoon of pickleball when her Boston-based software company gave them a budget to decide on their own how to celebrate.
It鈥檚 a far cry from the giant bashes she remembers from her days just a few years ago working at Coke in Atlanta, but Snavely said it鈥檚 a better way to break the ice for people who haven鈥檛 worked together in person much. Besides, she said, many of her teammates wanted the chance to leave work and get home early.
鈥淲e really wanted to make sure that as many people as possible could go,鈥� said Snavely, who works in finance. 鈥淧eople have home commitments, kids.鈥�
Quickbase has 700 employees but many of them are remote 鈥� and as far away as Bulgaria 鈥� so it didn鈥檛 make sense to have a big party at headquarters, said Chief People Officer Sherri Kottmann. Instead, the company left it to individual teams to organize their own fun. Even in Boston, she said only 30% to 40% of employees come to the office in the middle of the week, when it鈥檚 busiest.
But one thing seems sure: People are fed up with getting on screens for cocktail mixing or secret Santa exchanges. Fewer than 2% of companies are hosting virtual celebrations this year, compared to 7% last year and 17% in 2020, Challenger鈥檚 survey found.
Jeff Consoletti, founder of Las Angeles event production company JJLA, said he has received zero requests this year for the gift boxes and cheese-and-wine pairing kits that helped keep his business afloat for the past two years. Instead, he has seen a 100% increase in bookings for in-person events, though they are much smaller than the 5,000-person revelries he often staged before the pandemic.
Ksenia Kulynych, director of operations at Monarch Rooftop & Indoor Lounge in New York, said she鈥檚 seen a 30% increase in small group reservations this year 鈥� and often, a drastic undercount or overcount of guests as planners struggle to gauge how deep the enthusiasm for parties goes. Lunches are surprisingly popular, and Fridays are out.
鈥淲e will pitch away on Fridays and the response is always, 鈥榥o one鈥檚 in the office. It鈥檚 too hard to get anyone to come into the office. No one鈥檚 going to come into the city on a Friday,鈥欌�� Kulynych said.
Even before the remote work revolution, some people were pushing back at the idea of 鈥渇orced fun鈥� at work, particularly in corporate cultures where heavy drinking is intertwined with networking.
Shwetha Pai, who works from home in Cincinnati for a small workplace analytics firm, said big holiday parties stir up memories of her early career days in investment banking, when her guard was always up at male-dominated nights out, and she often used her commute home as an excuse to leave early.
鈥淧eople make bad decisions in those situations. They just do,鈥� said Pai, 41, head of operations and marketing at Worklytics. 鈥淭here is definitely this expectation that you take part in all of it because that鈥檚 part of 鈥榯eam bonding.鈥� But in fact, for women, it鈥檚 really fraught with a lot of challenges and risk. 鈥�
Bill MacQueen, 46, is far removed from big city nightlife as assistant director of commercialization at Ajinomoto鈥檚 manufacturing plant in Eddyville, Iowa. And he doesn鈥檛 drink.
But count him in for bingo.
MacQueen said his heart gave a 鈥渓eap for joy that we were back to pre-COVID鈥� when he got his bingo card at the entrance of Ajinomoto鈥檚 dinner party for its plant workers, an event he has cherished since he started working there 28 years ago, two days after graduating high school.
鈥淚t was just so nice to hear everyone in that hall talking and laughing, and people teasing each other,鈥� MacQueen said. 鈥淎nd sounding cheesy, it was just kind of like a family reunion.鈥�
鈥擜lexandra Olson, The Associated Press
