However, one question looms over the event. We’re talking about alcohol and more specifically, about whether alcohol should be a part of your Christmas social. It often seems as though this notorious group of beverages is the constant, perhaps even the necessary companion of the Christmas social. Histories of socials down the years have been punctuated with Simon dancing on the table, or Penny revealing an inappropriate, albeit highly juicy, piece of gossip which she had been told in confidence to all and sundry. Many workers are now asking whether this annual social and alcohol have to go hand in hand. Whether for religious, health or personal reasons, team members across the UK are beginning to look for ways to spend time together and celebrate Christmas without being perpetually accompanied by the demon in the bottle.
Here we will outline some brilliant ways to enjoy an alcohol-free social.
Challenge Yourselves In An Escape Room
Teams that win together stay together. To emerge from an escape room victorious, your team will have to work together and combine everybody’s individual strengths to push a successful team effort forwards. After you’ve been locked in an escape room with them, you’ll understand far more about the people you work with every day than they would ever reveal in a meeting. You will learn huge amounts about each other, like who’s a great listener, who’s the most perceptive, who’s willing to take the most risks, and conversely, who’s the most risk-averse. You can then use this knowledge to better distribute tasks and responsibilities when you get back to work. Most importantly, you’ll all have an amazing time, and nobody will be left having to give awkward explanations about their behaviour the next day.
Quad Bikes Are Cool
Often, socials involve sitting in the office, before going to a bar and then going back to the office for a bit before going home. If you were feeling stressed about a work issue, this is not going to help you to relax. On the other hand, wheeling a quad bike through dirt tracks and focusing on roaring through 20x faster than Paul from Accounts will take your mind off anything negative which may have been pre-occupying it. Quad biking gives your competitive streak so many avenues to express itself. Who can ride the fastest without their Santa hat falling off? who can throw the most tinsel on the trees on the course? The opportunities for seasonally themed happiness are endless. This kind of social would be so much more enjoyable for everyone on your team than just drinking and are also considerably cheaper.
Go On A Team Holiday
Everyone deserves a holiday. Especially when you spend five days a week staring at one screen or another. Relaxing as a team next to a beautiful beach somewhere hot or taking in deliciously warming local delicacies at one of the world’s wonderful Christmas markets will give you some time to recharge and reflect on the year you’ve just had as a team, whilst celebrating the lead-up to Christmas.
After all, socials are about getting to know everyone in your team and just relaxing without having to worry about work, or how your behaviour might impact work. By changing the format of your social to one which doesn’t pressure people to drink alcohol, you can include as many team members as possible, and encourage them to be themselves rather than trying to drink the most and be responsible for the social’s most infamous anecdote.
Read more on how to have a stress-free Christmas.
At Altruist, we’re passionate about helping teams understand each other so that they can look after each other’s mental health and become more resilient to stress. If you think that we could help your team, take a look at our wellbeing at work courses, including Resilience Training and Online Resilience Training and more.