Read the text about Christmas office parties. Phrases about parties have been highlighted in bold and are explained below. There is also a section about avoiding repetition and don’t forget to do the short quiz.
Christmas is the main time in the UK for office parties to celebrate the end of the working year. They offer a great opportunity to let off some steam and have a good time with friends and colleagues from work. But how much fun should employees have at these events?
British office parties often involve alcohol and dancing which can lead to some rather undesired behaviour. According to statistics, around 2 in10 office workers are disciplined for inappropriate conduct in every company following the annual festive bash. Examples of unsuitable behaviour include use of foul language to co-workers and insulting bosses, as well as the infamous drunken photocopying. Sexual harassment complaints are also on the increase following office celebrations by male and female employees.
It is increasingly common for other employees to receive an abusive email sent during one of these end-of-year events. While the popularity of social media sites and mobile phones has resulted in countless embarrassing photos appearing all across public Facebook and Twitter pages. Unfortunately, the average boss takes a very dim view of such action as it can cause a loss of reputation and distrust and could possibly damage the entire company’s image. As a result, social media policies have begun to appear in company handbooks which when not followed incur disciplinary action or can even lead to redundancy and legal action.
One solution some companies have come up with is to discontinue office get-togethers all together, forcing Christmas revellers to celebrate in more suitable venues like bars and discos on their own time. Yet for many office staff, the Christmas party is something to look forward to all year and a tradition, as much as drinks on a Friday after work, so it doesn’t look like we’ve seen the back of it just yet.
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Vocabulary & Phrases about Parties
- to let off some steam
- To relax
- to be disciplined
- To be punished for doing something bad
- Foul language
- Swear words
- Sexual harassment
- Unwelcome verbal or physical behaviour
- An abusive email
- An email with aggressive language and/or insults
- Embarrassing photos
- Sensitive photos (people doing things they shouldn’t be doing in an office)
- X takes a very dim view of something
- X does not like certain behaviour
- Loss of reputation
- A good image/reputation is destroyed
- Distrust
- Being unreliable
- Social media policies
- Rules about social media
- to incur disciplinary action
- Lead to punishment
- Redundancy
- When a job is cancelled and the person is
fired - Legal action
- The act of hiring a lawyer to solve a dispute
- to come up with
- To think of
- to discontinue
- To stop doing/producing something
- All together
- Completely
- Christmas revellers
- People celebrating Christmas
- On their own time
- When they are not being paid to work
- Seen the back of it
- It has finished and will not happen again
Avoiding Repetition: Don’t repeat yourself
The text uses different synonyms and related phrases so that it is not repetitive. Here is a list with their exact definitions.
- Colleagues
- People who you work with
- Co-workers
- People who you work with
- Employees
- People who work for someone else
- Office staff
- People who work in an office
- Undesired behaviour
- Doing things which are not correct in this situation
- Inappropriate conduct
- Doing things which are not correct in this situation
- Unsuitable behaviour
- Doing things which are not correct in this situation
- Parties
- Events where people come together to celebrate something
- Festive bash
- A party at Christmas time
- Christmas party
- A celebration during the Christmas period
- Office celebrations
- A party at the workplace
- Office get-togethers
- A party for staff
- End-of-year events
- A party in late December
