Christmas party gaffes rife

Written by Melanie Christiansen | News.com.au

Monday, 21 December 2009 13:40

IF the only thing worse than the hangover is the creeping embarrassment over what you vaguely recall you may have done at the office Christmas party, then at least you are not alone.

A new survey of more than 2000 Australians has revealed those morning-after regrets are something of a seasonal hazard.

The poll – admittedly of people responding to questions on an online dating website – found 56 per cent confessed to having kissed a colleague at an end-of-year office bash.

More than 70 per cent said they had drunk too much . . . and so emboldened, 44 per cent had slunk away to sleep with a co-worker, while one in three had livened up the party by removing some or all of their clothes.

At the end of a long night carousing with colleagues, one in five had passed out, 17 per cent had abused the boss and for nearly one in 10, it had all ended in tears.

Adding injury to their woes, at least half had – at some point in the evening – fallen over, according to the survey results released yesterday by the RedHotPie.com.au website.

Relationships expert Geoff Barker said results of the poll were "quite stunning", even given it sampled just one section of the workforce – mainly dating scene singles.

Mr Barker said it showed behaving badly at the workplace Christmas do was common.

"It's absolutely not advisable," he said. "It causes all sorts of trouble throughout the rest of the year . . . not the least of which is humiliation. And of course in the era of the mobile phone and YouTube, it can be mass humiliation."

Social etiquette doyenne June Dally-Watkins said workers were doing themselves a disservice if they drank more than two alcoholic drinks at a social occasion with colleagues.

"It would be a bad mark against them," Miss Dally Watkins said. "The boss and the people who work with them will always remember that they were drunk and disorderly.

"It just makes me sad that they don't even know why they are drinking too much."

CHRISTMAS PARTY CONFESSIONS

Drunk too much: 70%

Kissed a co-worker: 56%

Told co-workers dirty secrets: 54%

Fallen over: 51%

Slept with a co-worker: 44%

Left your co-workers to hit on randoms: 44%

Embarrassed yourself in front of your boss: 38%

Removed some clothes or stripped off: 32%

Been ejected from a venue: 26%

Passed out: 21%