Ho ho hum when it comes to office festivities

Avaya polls 2,000 to confirm commonplace festive faux pas

Telecoms company employees are the best behaved, while IT staff are the ones most likely to spill too many beans at the office Christmas do, a survey by Avaya claims.

According to the telephony vendor, people in IT "spend much of their time worrying about how to keep information and data safe, but they are also the most likely to embarrass themselves by divulging too much personal information."

People in telecoms, on the other hand, "perhaps have a higher threshold" for what they consider acceptable conduct.

"Only 16 per cent [of telecoms staffers] said they had ever regretted their behaviour at a Christmas party," Avaya said in a press statement.

Despite a spate of recent announcements, it seems the vendor has clearly not been too busy in the run-up to Christmas - carrying out a massive poll of 2,000 home-based staff and office workers to discover what happens at work Christmas parties.

"Despite 53 per cent of respondents viewing the office party as a strategic opportunity to network and build contacts, 38 per cent of people admitted drinking too much, and 24 per cent wake up the next day regretting their behaviour," wrote Avaya's press team, excitedly.

"When it comes to faux pas, 27 per cent of people consider a cheeky snog with the boss or a colleague to be the biggest one you can make, yet 18 per cent confessed to having done that."

Other "findings" included that home-based staff are more likely to regret their behaviour at the office Christmas party.

"In fact, 22 per cent of them admitted to having snogged their boss, while 13 per cent said they have gone as far as to verbally abuse a colleague. For office workers, these figures sit at just 13 per cent and seven per cent respectively," according to Avaya.

Unsurprisingly, Facebook is one of the most feared destinations for Christmas party snaps to end up and some would be more afraid of having proof of their exploits circulated internally than shared on Twitter.

Almost half of those polled anticipate something similar to what they had the past few years, and 23 per cent expected a more modest affair.

Forty-four per cent of respondents said the worst thing about the office Christmas party is having to spend time with colleagues you don't know or like; 33 per cent said it was having to deal with drunken colleagues; and 21 per cent said it was having to act restrained in front of colleagues.

Half of office-based staff said they would actually prefer to stay home. We're totally shocked. Say it isn't so!