Has your office Christmas party been cancelled this year?

Less than a fifth of UK companies are still planning on having a workplace Christmas party this year.

This was discovered by Protectivity, a provider of specialist insurance, who found that 15 per cent of companies still intend to have a Christmas party.

Today (18/09/20) Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London announced that London’s New Year’s Eve fireworks have been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mr Khan said:

We simply can’t afford to have numbers of people congregating.

We are working on something people can enjoy in the comfort and safety of their living rooms on TV.

The Mayor of London did make it clear that another event is needed to replace the fireworks as they are a “really good opportunity for the rest of the world to see how wonderful our city is”.

Out of all the UK cities, Liverpool are the most willing to throw a Christmas party at 27 per cent, with Norwich coming in second at 21 per cent.

Edinburgh is the city least likely to throw a Christmas party at 6 per cent.

The two areas who have the most people planning on throwing a Christmas party is the finance and legal sectors at 22 per cent.

Manufacturing and utility workers are the most willing to return to the office at 41 per cent, arts and culture at 39 per cent and HR at 32 per cent.

There is a list of reasons why certain people do not want to return to the office. Almost a quarter (24 per cent) say they get distracted by their colleagues when they talk too much and 16 per cent said they do not miss people’s loud conversations. With 11 per cent said they have liked not hearing doors slamming whilst working at home and 10 per cent saying their colleagues eat and chew food in a very loud way.

Also, over a third (37 per cent) said they are not planning on attending work-related events in 2020.

 

 

 

 

Darius is the editor of HRreview. He has previously worked as a finance reporter for the Daily Express. He studied his journalism masters at Press Association Training and graduated from the University of York with a degree in History.