Office Christmas Party Won’t Return This Year, Poll Suggests

Nearly a dozen of Quebec’s top employers said they will host a holiday event online or delay it entirely.

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Despite a loosening of COVID-19 health regulations that have prevailed in the province for more than a year, Quebec workers will likely once again celebrate their company’s Christmas party behind a computer screen this year, it suggests. an informal survey of employers.

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A survey by the Presse Canadienne of nearly a dozen of the province’s top employers found that all of them will host an online celebration or delay the event.

Mouvement Desjardins plans to host a virtual holiday event, while Bombardier has no plans for a Christmas party, instead inviting employees who wish to celebrate to host their own small gatherings.

The organizer of the Suite22 event says that many employers prefer to wait until the beginning of 2022 to hold celebrations, hoping that by then there will be further easing of health regulations.

Suite22 founder Nadine Ménard said she has 20 bookings so far for January and February, when business tends to be much slower. He said that many calls to stage events came in at the last minute.

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Ménard noted that most of those contracts are for virtual events rather than face-to-face.

“I think they don’t want to carry the load if something happens.”

Ménard said hybrid events, with some guests attending in person while others attending online, are also popular, as are smaller celebrations. Some employers send personalized gifts to their workers.

The lack of rules specifically regulating parties in office could explain why employers are cautious, Ménard said, adding that things are not made easier by the fact that the government could amend regulations almost daily.

Ménard noted that another complication caused various places, such as hotels and restaurants, to interpret the latest regulations differently, meaning there could be strict rules in one place and less strict in another.

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Quebec’s labor shortage is another factor to take into account, he said, as some hotels can accommodate 200 party guests, while kitchen staff can only feed 60.

While Ménard understands that the Ministry of Health “has a lot on its plate,” he says the regulation of corporate celebrations has been largely ignored.

“They (the ministry) have not considered that employees have been telecommuting for a year and a half and some new employees have never physically met their bosses,” he said, noting that Christmas events would be the “perfect pretext” for establish those links. .

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