The Employee Holiday Party
If you haven’t been to, or put on your annual Holiday staff party already, it’s coming this week.
I think most people who read this newsletter are in the stage of life where parties are the center of cultural life. Heck, it used to be mine: a never ending series of themed employee parties that were as much fun for me and my partners as for the employees.
The Holiday party is special though, and you may hate it, or love it, but I have found it to be such an important mortar for building a family feeling, even in these weird Covid - “I quit” - dystopian times we are living in.
These days when we put on an employee party, it is for the employees of course, but also their partners and children too. The employees always get a gift, but we try to get something for the kids as well. We provide the main part of the meal, but we ask people to make something and bring it too.
The reason for this isn’t because we are cheap, but rather the employees feel more ownership if they actually make something that they feel is special to share with their co-workers.
We also dress up a bit. Sometimes there is a theme, like sweaters, or weird hats, or something that looks awful, but because everyone is participating, it’s funny. Given the chance, employees actually like to dress up. In day-to-day America, we hardly ever get a chance to, and isn’t it fun to see how people interpret that?
Here’s the thing about it. You may pay really well, but still, your employees don’t make a whole lot of money. We run a brewery, not an engineering firm. So for them getting dressed up and treated special - which they are - makes them actually feel special. You can see it in the awkwardness once they arrive, and the hugs that go around at the end of the evening as they are leaving.
How lucky we are that we don’t need to rent out a facility to hold the party, and of course we don’t have to buy beverages either. Our place is small, so while we keep an eye on the bar (owners don’t drink, or not much) we let the employees who are old enough pour their own beer or wine. They like that, and there should be some benefits to working in a brewery, right?
Don’t dread the holiday party. Stay sober enough to make sure everyone and everything is safe, but allow yourself to relax and be happy. You have made it another year in these strange times and in the final analysis, you own a brewery, and that should be celebrated!
