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If you think of office Christmas party hook-ups in pop culture, there are some pretty dreamy examples out there. There’s Laura Linney’s character in Love, Actually slow-dancing with the hunky foreign colleague she’s long had an eye on, and The Office’s Dawn returning to the party in tears to kiss Tim while Yazoo’s “Only You” plays.
In reality, however, office Christmas do get-togethers are more readily associated with extreme drunkenness, ill-advised groping and deep, deep regret. Forget making your way home the following day, the true walk of shame is crossing the office floor the morning after the free work bar. Never is the phrase “don’t dip your pen in the company ink” more pertinent than in December.
But apparently, none of this is stopping us. A 2018 survey by www.AfterDrink.com found one in 10 of us has been fired or disciplined after a work Christmas party, with the main reasons being saying something inappropriate to/about a boss or colleague, getting into a fight, doing drugs, having sex and inappropriate behaviour. Yikes. 8% revealed they had left their job after a Christmas party because they could no longer face their colleagues. 65% of said they got too drunk and 45% had embarrassed themselves in front of their boss. More yikes.
So it's no wonder we hear fresh tales of Christmas party hook ups year after year. So if you have a few too many gins at your work Christmas party and wake up in the arms of your superior (or junior), try not to panic. And you never know, it doesn’t always have to end badly. But, let’s face it, as these stories from R29 UK friends attest, it usually does.
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