Office Good Cheer Can Lead to Much More than Just a Sore Head

- 27% say or do something to a colleague they later regret

- 23% admit to telling a white lie to their partner about what they did

- Of items lost at the office party ñ underwear fourth most referenced item, after mobile phone (34%) and purse/wallet (23%)

- 6% have become the victims of threatening behaviour
- 4% claim to have resigned via an SMS message

With the annual Christmas office party season shortly to hit full swing, the results of an online poll by FollowUs, a mobile phone location service, offer a cautionary warning to us all.

Based on the responses of over 1000 people, 48% openly admitted to drinking too much at the last office event. Whilst in itself perhaps no great surprise, what happens to people as a result of alcohol is a lot more worrying.

According to the poll of primarily office based workers:

- 42% of respondents have lost the main group during a party

- 35% have had problems making it home ñ of which over 8% ended more than 50 miles away from home (16% over 30 miles)

- 4% have resigned by sending an SMS

- and 11% have lost personal items at the event. Indeed, the probability of losing something more than triples for those that drink too much compared to those that do not - 18% compared to 5%.

Of lost items, the most frequently item to go missing was the mobile phone (34%), with 23% losing their purse/wallet or jewelry. Of more eyebrow raising concern, 13% confessed to losing their underwear and 6% office papers or computer at the last event. Perhaps not surprisingly, 23% admitted to telling their partners white lies about what they did at the party.

Kevin Brown, Commercial Director of FollowUs, commented:

ìThe end of year should be a time for good cheer ñ but when good spirits verges on the irresponsible then employees and employers should take note. The fall-out can be considerable. And whilst location services such as FollowUs can certainly help people find their possessions the next day ñ it will take more than technology to get them out of some of the situations they put themselves in at office events.î

According to the FollowUs poll, over 27% of respondents ìsaid or didî something to a colleague which they later regretted, with 6% becoming the victim of threatening behaviour. Of those that experienced threatening behaviour, 29% of incidents were reported either to the company or police ñ with 62% of those reported to the company leading to disciplinary action and 31% of those reported to the police leading to a conviction.

Kevin Brown added:

ìWhilst some situations can never be catered for, it is clear that some simple pre-planning could avoid many of the more common mishaps recorded by this poll.î