A holiday party sign welcomes employees and their guests to the Ajinomoto Health and Nutrition North America holiday dinner Friday, Dec. 9, 2022, in Schaumburg, Ill. Say goodbye to virtual wine tastings, and bust out the karaoke. Love them or hate them, company holiday parties are back. – Say goodbye to virtual wine tastings, and bust out the karaoke. Love them or hate them, company holiday parties are back — in a toned-down kind of way.
“Everybody let loose,” she said, smiling the Monday after the party, where she accepted a recognition award for 15 years at the company. “It gets you into the holiday season.” It's a far cry from the giant bashes she remembers from her days just a few years ago working at Coca-Cola Co. in Atlanta, but Snavely said it's a better way to break the ice for people who haven't worked together in person much. Besides, she said, many of her teammates wanted the chance to leave work and get home early.
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’s survey found. "We will pitch away on Fridays and the response is always, ‘no one’s in the office. It’s too hard to get anyone to come into the office. No one’s going to come into the city on a Friday,’" Kulynych said.
“People make bad decisions in those situations. They just do,” said Pai, 41, head of operations and marketing at Worklytics. “There is definitely this expectation that you take part in all of it because that’s part of ‘team bonding.' But in fact, for women, it’s really fraught with a lot of challenges and risk.”