Mike Urbonas – Product Marketing/Personal Branding/Business Intelligence Blog

By Mike Urbonas

The usual December landscape of Christmas trees, lights and jam-packed shopping malls is also often accompanied by the annual workplace event known as the company holiday party.

The cacophony of well-meaning advice-givers on “how to survive the company holiday party” runs annually along these lines: Yes, you must go to the company party, or yes, your career will suffer. And be glad about going; don’t be grumpy, but don’t be too jubilant either. Wear something that will draw attention, but not too much attention. Yes, drink alcohol and be sociable, but not too sociable. By all means eat, but not too much, and for heaven’s sake, mind those manners!

Some well-meaning columnists suggest you should also plan in advance some clever witticism you will say to the CEO. Another columnist recently cautioned workers that the company holiday party is in fact “work,” and impressing the CEO and navigating the minefield of potential party gaffes is absolutely essential to enhance your career.

Here’s some radically contrarian career advice for next year’s company holiday party.

Don’t go.

Yes, that’s right, don’t go. And not going, ironically, will actually help your standing at work.

That’s the advice from Jeffrey Fox, author of nine business books offering succinct, no-nonsense career advice, including his most recent book How to Get to the Top. He also leads his management consulting firm on marketing strategy and execution and publishes an e-newsletter through his website, www.foxandcompany.com.

Fox’s recommendation to pass on the company holiday party is not new, either: his advice first appeared in his New York Times bestseller How to Become CEO published in 1998. Fox says that advice is as sound today as it was when the book first hit the stores.

“All the advice to workers on how to conduct themselves at a company holiday party is basically telling people how to do the wrong things right,” Fox says. “So much of that advice, such as wearing red to get attention at the party, isn’t just bad, it’s plain dumb! The wrong thing in almost all cases is to go to the company holiday party.”

There are exceptions, of course, Fox adds. “If spouses or dates are also invited, then going to the party may be OK. Still, you go to the party, drink a club soda, thank your host, and then leave. You don’t linger. You put in your appearance and leave.”

“Nothing but bad things come from going to the holiday party, especially by yourself, and drinking with your co-workers,” Fox adds, leading to another piece of sound advice from his How to Become CEO book: don’t drink with the office gang after work and become just another cube dweller sharing your gripes over booze.

Ironically, not going to the company holiday party will improve your standing at work, Fox insists. “By not going to the holiday party, by maintaining your own personal social life and family life, you are actually drawing favorable attention to yourself. It will lead others to notice you and say, ‘Oh, Joe/JoAnne isn’t here, let’s pay attention to him/her back in the office.’ Ironically, your position and work may well gain more recognition, because you have added a mystique to yourself that raises you above the fray of partygoers vying for the CEO’s attention.”

Fox also insists the CEO would prefer not to be regaled with party-going employees reciting their clever witticism/self-serving diatribe. “I put that on a par with employees who plan ahead to sit next to their CEO on a five-hour flight to bend his or her ear, thinking it will boost their career,” says Fox. “Don’t do it! Again, it’s an example of doing the wrong things right, which will only harm your career.”

In fact, the fancy company holiday party is on the wane, with many organizations replacing the annual ritual with catered office parties during work hours, or doing away with it completely. Perhaps this trend is a sign that Jeffrey Fox’s advice is right on target. Perhaps some readers of Fox’s books have indeed become CEOs, and are now applying a corollary of Fox’s advice: Don’t have a company holiday party in the first place!