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Editorial comment.

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
AuthorPrickett, Ruth
PositionEditorial

The traditional view that the festive season is a time for winding down is fast becoming one of those "I remember when ..." legends of idyllic Christmases in years gone by. Hazy memories of whole afternoons spent chatting up receptionists under garish office paperchains or sitting for hours in the local pub with a "client" are now as old-fashioned as bewhiskered gentlemen with tail coats and sideburns talking to ladies in crinolines while carving the fatted goose.

Memories, particularly of the rose-tinted variety, are notoriously unreliable, and it may be that firms were never quite as reckless with their time and money over Christmas as we now like to imagine. Certainly, ostentatious spending on corporate hospitality merely to outdo the competition fell from favour after the boom years of the 1980s. Equally clearly, imaginative and targeted entertaining is still alive and well (page 18). It seems that firms are becoming more creative and canny about how to spend their money to create the maximum effect. Successful hospitality is hard work and mistakes can be expensive, but companies that attract the right people to the right place at the right time will be able to enjoy a very happy Christmas indeed.

While firms may now be expecting their staff to work harder at, and show more results from, seasonal jollies, the end of the year is still a time for celebration and for taking stock of achievements. This can cut both ways, of course. Those who can clearly demonstrate success should expect their firms to offer suitable recognition. Those who cannot may find themselves sidelined or even penalised. This is why, according to the latest work by Sir Andrew Likierman...

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