As Holiday Parties Lose Luster, Charity Now Begins at the Office
Holiday office parties have traditionally offered perks (free food and drink for employees) and drawbacks (potentially boring conversation and phony smiles with stuffy white-collar types). With the good and the bad has also come a high cost to employers.
To ring in the season this year, some local companies will show their holiday spirit through charitable festivities, where employees can volunteer instead of partying together--and the company isn’t left footing a hefty bill.
Merrill Lynch in downtown Los Angeles held a small party last week, but it set aside a good chunk of its party funds for a staff volunteer project. Today, about 25 Merrill Lynch employees will spend three to eight hours helping 90 senior citizens--selected and transported by the Los Angeles Department of Aging--place calls on Merrill Lynch telephones to anywhere in the world. The seniors will be able to talk for up to 30 minutes at the company’s expense.
“This is what we want to do for our community. Everyone is very enthusiastic about volunteering,” said administrative assistant Viola Yiu, who is coordinating the Christmas Calling program.
The project will cost Merrill Lynch at least $4,000--considerably more than this year’s staff party, Senior Vice President Rod Hagenbuch said. “That is the way employees wanted it.”
For the second year in a row, California Federal Bank is spending about $15,000--its entire annual Christmas party budget--helping 70 charities that employees have chosen. They include schools, hospitals, runaway shelters, homeless residences, senior citizen homes and needy families with children who otherwise would not get toys.
Employees have also been raising money to supplement the company donation. One way is by donating $15 a month to any charity; in exchange, the employee earns the privilege of wearing casual clothes at work for a month.
“I won’t have to wear nylons until next year,” said Louise Grove, an executive secretary in CalFed’s Rosemead office and a member of the committee in charge of collecting and donating money.
“We just really got into it,” Grove said of the volunteer projects, adding that few employees expressed regret that there will be no party this season.
“I don’t know if I would have gone,” said Grove, who described past parties as overwhelmingly large, impersonal and hard to get to. “I’m sure some people enjoy it, but I personally didn’t really miss it.”
Researchers and party planners alike blame the economy for the recent dive in holiday galas.
“My impression is that companies are scaling back,” said Hilary Kraft, a human resources consultant at William M. Mercer. “Ten years ago, parties were probably more elaborate. But with this economy, companies don’t do them quite as they used to.”
“It doesn’t look too good to have these big celebrations when people are being laid off,” said Milton Moskowitz, author of “The 100 Best Companies to Work for in America.”
“You don’t have to do a dinner dance to do a holiday celebration,” said Vanderbilt University business professor William Jenkins, who, with fellow Prof. Terrence Deal, co-wrote “Managing the Hidden Organization: Strategies for Empowering Your Behind-the-Scenes Employees,” due out in March.
If all festivities are taken away, morale could go down, Deal says, but charitable events could be just as effective if they are suited to the employees’ concerns.
“A holiday event needs to be a reflection of what the company values,” Deal said. “If you’re going to have a holiday celebration, it needs to be authentic. If not, employees can see right through it.”
Evidence that office parties are in less demand can be seen on the calendar of San Fernando Valley-based party organizer Sami Medina. She said requests for holiday parties have all but dried up this year. Last year, she needed as many as 18 workers to help serve and prepare food for parties; now she calls on only two. In the second two weeks of last December, she was planning up to three parties a day, but this year she has nothing lined up on some days, she said.
Still, some companies hold fast to tradition and are continuing to throw holiday bashes. In fact, some are even expanding their celebrations.
Air LA, a regional airline with 50 employees, had a bigger party this year than last.
“We’ve been involved in NAFTA, which is going to help our business,” so employees and their guests were treated to a dinner party in early December, said Bill Wolf, vice president of marketing.
And not all caterers have been idling: Requests for office party catering are up at Aunt Kizzy’s Catering in South-Central Los Angeles. Today alone, Aunt Kizzy’s will cater 12 parties, and the company has catered more functions this holiday season than last, owner Gregory Dulan said.
Spelling Television managers say an annual Christmas party for the company’s 100 employees is what the workers deserve, the economy notwithstanding. “We care about our employees, and this is our way of showing them that we think about them at the holidays,” said Vice President Renate Kamer.
