Office parties changing amid harassment backlash

There may be less booze and more daylight at your office holiday party this year.

Some companies are rethinking their year-end celebrations as sexual harassment accusations proliferate in business and entertainment. The result? More lunch-hour parties instead of boozy nighttime affairs, and events with a more limited selection of alcohol. A few have even canceled parties this year, according to firms that track the celebrations.

Chicago employment consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas said 11 percent of the 150 companies it surveyed nationwide will not have holiday parties this year after throwing them in previous years. That's more than double the number that skipped them last year.

Companies are also less likely to serve booze, use expensive outside services like caterers or extend invitations to nonemployee guests this year, according to the survey, conducted in October and November.

Businesses "want to ensure workers have a safe and happy holiday season, not one marred by a disturbing workplace party experience," said Andrew Challenger, the firm's vice president.

Kathleen Jenkins, director of sales and events for Chicago caterer Northern Fork, said there's been a "little less" demand this year, and fewer bookings for alcohol-focused parties. Instead, more companies are choosing to have lunchtime holiday celebrations at the office.

Jenkins said she doesn't know if these trends are entirely due to heightened awareness of sexual harassment. In recent years, as workplaces have become more comfortable environments with vast amenities, businesses have increasingly held their parties at the office. Jenkins also believes that younger workers prefer to avoid the pomp and circumstance of a huge off-site event.

But although the current climate may temporarily change holiday party traditions, Dale Winston, CEO of Battalia Winston, an executive search firm that also tracks holiday parties, doesn't think companies will phase out holiday parties in large numbers because of the growing significance such events have for employees.

"The workplace is very different today. We have fewer people doing more. The last vestige of social interaction is the holiday party," she said.

For Tom Gimbel, CEO of staffing agency LaSalle Network, scrapping his firm's annual holiday event — a lavish affair with nearly 1,000 invitees — wasn't an option.

"I'm not naive [about sexual harassment concerns], but not once did I think about not having a holiday party," he said.

Gimbel said the company has measures in place to prevent workplace harassment, but that even the toughest sexual harassment policies can't prevent every bad situation.

LaSalle Network, which has about 200 employees, opens its holiday parties to clients and other guests.