Courtney Wadhams is in charge of her company’s holiday/Christmas/end-of-year party, and she thinks she’s got her bases covered.
Her 150 or so co-workers at R&R Partners, and plus-ones, will gather around 7 p.m. inside the absurdly angled walls of the Frank Gehry-designed Keep Memory Alive Event Center downtown. Early arrivals will be welcomed by a cocktail party featuring electric violinists performing classic rock and holiday music. The party will gravitate to the main dining room, where a live band will accompany the clatter of dinner dishes bearing salads, entrees such as slow-braised Angus short ribs and salmon, and sides such as truffle macaroni-and-cheese and roasted vegetables.
By now the partygoers will be well stoked by the premium liquors poured at the host bar, chased by desserts including cakepops, holiday cookies and a hot cocoa station with sides of cinnamon, whipped cream and marshmallows.
Because nobody will want to leave with the music still playing and the bartender still pouring, a late-night menu will be offered around 11 p.m. — mini-beef sliders, chicken satay, and grilled-vegetable and four-cheese pizzas. And ladies will be able to save their now-aching feet by shedding their high heels for complimentary flip-flops.
No worries about drinking-and-driving or even having to call a cab. Those who are finally party-pooped — and possibly inebriated — will be taken home by a car service already out front, while others can take a shuttle to the East Fremont entertainment district for more revelry.
“We work hard and we party hard,” said Wadhams, who most of the year is director of the R&R Partners Foundation.
Many office parties this time of year are chances for bosses to speechify about the year’s successes, or to offer an enthusiastic view and goals for the year ahead. At places like R&R, it’s a big thank-you for a job well done.
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This season’s holiday parties will run the gamut, from small gatherings over a lovely — and probably catered — meal at the boss’s home, to affairs for thousands that will last all day and night.
MGM Resorts International, for instance, has too many employees — a combined 50,000 workers on three shifts at its Strip resorts — to throw a party that everyone can enjoy. But no worries: the 24-hour employee buffets — nice spreads even on regular workdays — will be laden with such holiday fare as prime rib and roasted turkey, chocolate fountains and cheesecake, in a dining room decorated to the holiday hilt.
Caesars Entertainment will host a party, knowing that of the more than 20,000 employees, just 3,000 to 4,000 will attend. The event will be held at a Caesars’ ballroom, where boss Gary Loveman will offer remarks and guests will enjoy a buffet, open bar, entertainment and dancing.
“It’s a chance to get dolled up,” company spokesman Gary Thompson said. “This is a chance for the employees to be thanked for a job well done.”
Robyn Yates, who owns Windermere Real Estate, hosted a holiday party last year at her home for about 70 people — a catered affair with entertainment and games (including matching employees with unidentified pictures of them when they were young children).
This year she is shifting to a larger venue — the company’s new office. In addition to a catered spread, guests are invited to bring food reflecting their cultural backgrounds as world music plays in the background. To monitor alcohol consumption, guests will each get two drink tickets for the bar.
Yates said she anticipates this year’s tab will be under $5,000. “I’d have paid more than $20,000 if I went through a hotel, and I don’t think it would have been any more enjoyable for the people attending,” she said.
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For the end-of-year party for the Penta Building Group, the largest general contractor in the Las Vegas Valley, employees and their spouses from out-of-state offices in Tulsa, Okla., Los Angeles and Phoenix are being flown in to meet the local gang. About 300 people are expected to attend the event, on the panoramic-view-terrific 19th floor of the Eastside Cannery. The out-of-towners will have rooms for the night.
“This will be a great opportunity for remote folks to meet others for the first time,” Human Resources Director Marisa Paloma said. It will be a casual, four-hour affair — jackets and jeans are fine — where guests will enjoy a full buffet and dessert bar while a DJ provides music. As for booze, the bar will be hosted for only the first hour. “We’ll close the bar fairly quickly but for those who continue to drink, we’ll reimburse cab fares or rooms on the property,” she said.
“We’re looking forward to a pretty mellow, relaxed holiday party,” she said.
PARTY ETIQUETTE
Sometimes the best part of the office party comes the morning after, when the emails and instant messages fly about so-and-so’s outrageous behavior, or fashion choice, or gluttony at the buffet line.
The rules for behavior are rather obvious — but seemingly forgotten after one-too-many flutes of champagne or cups of egg-nog-and-rum.
• And that’s No. 1: Don’t drink too much. It can lead to all sorts of embarrassments. Sip something clear, people will think you are imbibing and the morning after, you will have the best of stories because none will involve you.
• Choose your guest carefully because it will reflect on you. If you are married, let’s hope you chose wisely.
• Dress appropriately. You’re not clubbing and you don’t want to draw looks for the wrong reasons. Holiday bling is fine; provocative is out.
• Don’t smother the boss. Give her room to mingle. But on the other hand, don’t avoid her, especially if it’s a large company and this is a chance to introduce yourself. This is a time for pleasant conversations — with the boss as well as your co-workers.
• Speaking of which, this is the perfect setting to meet people from other parts of the company you don’t know well. But don’t gossip and don’t talk shop; it’ll bore the spouses to death and besides, this is supposed to be a fun evening.
• Enjoy the buffet, but don’t try to juggle four plates at once.
PLANNING ADVICE
Jacqueline Whitmore, a Palm Beach, Fla., consultant who lectures and writes on office etiquette, has this advice for employers throwing parties:
• Offer a reasonably specific dress code on the party invitations. “Party wear” can be interpreted too many ways. This is an opportunity for guests to dress up — maybe the only time this season — but they don’t want to be over-the-top.
• Load the buffet with easy-to-eat foods. This isn’t the time for ribs, lamb chops or chicken wings, not only because they may be tough to handle in one hand while holding the plate, but because “you can’t network when you have greasy fingers.”
• Minimize liquor consumption with a two-drink maximum or a cash bar at the get-go. In fact, alcohol is the single most worrisome wildcard at an office party, Whitmore says. She recalls speaking at an office party — hired to speak to a seminar on dining etiquette — and by the time she took the podium, the audience was sloshed.
Well into her presentation, “it became pretty clear that nobody was listening,” she said. “So I just stopped. I ended it. And no one knew the difference.”