Barking up the wrong tree

Watching the office Christmas tree die was not much fun. Exactly the same thing had happened last year, so this time we went to a different '“ we hoped better '“ supplier, who promised to provide us with a good-quality tree with a reservoir which could be topped up with water thus keeping the tree alive, kicking and giving the clients something cheerful to look at as soon as they entered our office.

True to form the tree was beautifully decorated by the provider, but within days of installation the needles started falling, the branches sagged and a deathly pallor took over the tree which started to look rather more grey than green. As the tree was outside my room and clearly visible through my windows, it was miserable watching this inevitable process run its course.

So, what do we do next year? A plastic tree? An eco-friendly driftwood tree? Or no tree at all? Sadly the modern centrally heated air-conditioned office with artificial light and a fluctuating temperature is no place fora Scotch Pine.

Time for a change

Life is full of traditions and things that we think we must do, but constantly we have to question whether those traditions are worth continuing with or whether we need to change with the times. For instance, an organisation that sends me a certain amount of work had been sent several Christmas cards by myself and members of my staff and, unusually, instead of a thank you we received a rather curt complaint about our being unfair to the trees and how we should only have sent one card or perhaps sent no card at all and donated the money to charity instead. Certainly I received fewer Christmas cards this year, and I wonder whether that long-standing tradition is another about to hit the buffers.

While I suspect that this year there were fewer Christmas cards because of the uncertainty surrounding the postal workers' strike, I have seen an increased tendency for people to send absolutely awful email cards which seem to serve no purpose whatsoever. To my mind, the email Christmas card is an abomination, and, while designers of such cards are obviously doing very well financially, I certainly hope this is not a trend that continues to develop. A few years ago, my website provider persuaded me to spend an inordinately large amount of money on Christmasfication of my website '“ putting on snowflakes, Santa hats etc. '“ but I received no feedback and clearly none of those who were looking at the website were in any way impressed by the fact that my designers had made the site seasonally jolly.

A sure barometer of the recession over the Christmas period is the number of presents received from clients. Judging from the fact that I did not receive a single present, I can only conclude that the recession is still up and running with a vengeance. Nevertheless, we did give the staff an extra day off over the Christmas period and the office closed on the 23rd for the first time in our 51-year history, and did not re-open until 4 January; so everyone had 11 days off. Clients never understand this kindness to the staff, and when I returned to the office several of them still gave the impression that we should have been working 24/7 over the entire period. Again, this begs the question do we need to work over the entire Christmas period? We are a service industry and clients' problems do not go away just because it is Christmas. Several colleagues were working between Christmas and the New Year and maybe staff will have to learn to adapt to different ways of working.

A cracking night

One thing that has not changed is having a staff Christmas party. When I was a trainee solicitor at my current firm, this always used to take the form of a party with clients, bank managers, barristers and staff. Legends of what happened at these events are now part of popular mythology. This party developed in to staff outings and we did trips to Paris and Brussels, and in the better years when fortune shone upon us we did weekends to Rome, Lisbon and Madrid. That is something we can no longer afford in these lean, mean years of recession, so this year we took the staff to see The Nutcracker followed by a spaghetti house meal. Everyone enjoyed this enormously and it was a surprise to me how few of the staff had ever been to see a ballet. It is something that everybody hoped to repeat next year and we shall have to see whether indeed we can afford to have a Christmas event next year. If next year is as lean a year as 2009, we will have to reflect on that as well as Christmas trees and Christmas cards.

Cosmo the dog did okay. Clients did not mind bringing him in a bone or a bag of treats. He even received an extremely aerodynamic Frisbee from a member of staff! Cosmo had a good Christmas '“ some things never change.