The HR Professional and the Office Party

By John Lowe

Welcome back from your four-day turkey-induced haze. This is a quick reminder that in the coming sprint before the holidays, there is yet one more thing to worry about besides your in-laws visiting.

The employment attorneys at Kegler Brown annually don Scrooge outfits and attempt to scare human resource professionals into threatening their fellow employees into not having any fun at their company's annual holiday party. This year is no different.

First, to those of you who are good enough people to genuinely enjoy mixing with your fellow employees – the same people who skip their open enrollment meeting and then call you with questions – make sure that your conversations do not stray from small talk about the weather, the punch and/or their kids. Stated another way, you are likely privy to certain information that others may not be. A couple glasses of the CEO's "Famous Eggnog" is no excuse for asking an employee about the status of their wife's athlete's foot-related insurance claim.

To those of you who would, rather than make small talk, swallow the keys to the lock on your new "this is for the confidential stuff" filing cabinet, we suggest that when mentioning an employee's kids, you keep your questions related to those kids over whom they have historically shown a modicum of interest and support.

Our list of party "dos and don'ts" is much the same as in years past:

• Don't make attendance "mandatory" or "strongly encouraged."
• Make taxi cabs available if at all possible, and provide payment vouchers.
• Think about hiring a catering company to serve alcohol, and contractually require them to (1) monitor employee usage, and (2) refuse to serve those who are intoxicated.
• Take car keys from those who have had too much.
• Check with your insurance agent to ensure your liability policy provides coverage for liquor-related incidents.
• Promptly investigate and/or appropriately react to any post-party harassment complaints.

Building on experience from last year:

• Keep the copy machines unplugged. Nothing good comes from intoxicated people messing with the copy machine.

If you still have open-enrollment meetings coming up, Godspeed. (Remember, annoying the HR staff at open-enrollment meetings is, we believe, a perfectly legal basis for termination.)