To think sacking someone for drinker idiocy at the Christmas party is a bit harsh?

[andapartridgeinaRowantree]

DH works for a company which put on an annual Christmas shebang with free drinks all night. It's for staff and big clients.

A colleague got drunk and was warned a couple of times to calm down.

He then did the caterpillar and cracked his two front teeth.

Returned to work and was told to pack his desk. He was not a permanent staff member.

Is it me or is this a bit harsh?

YABU. After being warned twice and there were big clients there? Not remotely harsh, he could have seriously damaged client relationships and cost the company significantly.

Plus if he's lacking in enough intelligence to realise that getting completely off his head at a client function then ignoring the fair warning he was given might risk his job he's only got himself to blame.

Not harsh in my opinion. People shouldn't be getting pissed at work dos, that's just asking for trouble. You are still sort of at work, and do you really want your boss to see you you like that?

The free bar was for the clients NOT for the staff really I would suspect.

Was there a separate staff only do op? And what industry?

YABU. He is an adult male and if he doesn't care about the consequences of his actions, he must take the consequences.

Perhaps he isn't aware that not everyone will find him entertaining, or be prepared to indulge his antics.

I'd have sacked him, too.

Still baffles me as to why 'free bar' means 'drink yourself unconscious' to some people.

I've seen this happen; with a permanent member of staff.
He made a drunken arse of himself whilst representing the company, and ignored warnings to stop, what do you think the section should be?

sanction

The guy's an idiot, that's for sure BUT:

If I was the 'boss' and saw this member of staff behaving like this, I would have stopped him at the pass and got him home in a taxi, not allowed him to carry on in front of the clients.

Also, I'd make it quite clear to staff that yes, it's a semi-social occasion BUT it's still work and there are 'outsiders' present, ie. clients. Letting your hair down too far is not an option here - it's not the office party.

The boss is also at fault; the free bar will always be an enticement to some and surely it is in the company's interests for a weather eye to be kept on the drinky types to make sure that they don't step out of line. Being clear about expectations of staff would also be a good thing and prevent a heap of trouble.

I would have stopped him BEFORE he became a caterpillar, at the point of the second 'calm down' warning.

People need to take responsibility for their own actions. He chose to drink himself silly and there are consequences.

How do you know the staff weren't told what the expectations were before the stupidity commenced?

Perfectly reasonable - it was a do for big clients, not the office party. If you work in a client-facing role, your boss has to be able to trust you to handle yourself in social situations. This person obviously can't.
Agree with posters who have said it was a shame no-one thought to get him off the dance floor and call him a taxi home. OP, do you think your husband and his colleagues were glad to get rid of this colleague? Was he a bit of a dick generally?

I don't know, Shelley, I just do know that this person was allowed to get past the point of two warnings and onto some dodgy breakdancing. Depends what the objective was really... to protect the Firm and it's clients' perception of it - or to make some shrewd - and cheap - personnel decisions?

No, bosses should not have to keep a weather eye on the "drinky" types; they're all adults and capable of understanding you don't get pissed in front of important clients. No company wants to employ a loose cannon who can't understand that.

He was representing the company and made a total arse of him self, he has himself to blame.

Who wants clients at their company work party?

One year a manager pissed up against a partition in the hall, I really struggled to take him seriously after that.

Every meeting sitting opposite him remembering him lulling about in piss drenched shoes with his tiny todger in his hairy hand.

Yuck

Not sure if this is applicable in the UK, Flogging, but this is interesting from a US perspective:
www.tlnt.com/2010/11/22/what-every-employer-needs-to-know-about-office-parties-and-liability/

Not at all cut and dried as some might think.

Those of you suggesting that the employer is partially to blame - remember that this wasn't a permanent staff member so the liability is likely to be different. Not sure about temps, but if the person was a contractor then they would be an employee of either their own limited company or an umbrella company, plus their contract is likely to have been through an agency not directly with the company they did the work for.

Not harsh at all.

A couple of years ago our works night out shared a venue with several other groups. A man from one of the other groups was completely sloshed. He was really loud, kept bumping into other people on the dance floor and mistook me for someone he knew and wouldn't let up. His own group kept warning him and he was warned by someone from the venue but still continued. I went home. He intimidated me and spoilt my night out. I would have been delighted to have learned of his sacking and two missing teeth!

Not harsh in my opinion.

We had a girl in my last company who made a total arse of herself on a work night out. She offended loads of people and was repeatedly warned. She wasn't sacked but was spoken to very firmly the following week. She's since been made redundant and this behaviour just highlighted her general crapness at the job.

If it's a contractor, they have very little comeback on anything and they know this. I suspect it was probably a straw that broke the camels back incident and it was the excuse they were looking for.

I'm really surprised that nobody thought to get him a cab home if alcohol was affecting his behaviour so much that he was pulled up on it more than once?
People do tend to lose their inhibitions and there is always someone who is a it of a wally, but he must have been acting like a right dick and deserves to be sacked imo.

This was the only Christmas do. The company host one every year with a free bar and this is the first time any clients were invited.

DH says there were about 250 people there and probably a dozen of them were clients.

I still can't get over how the poor bloke would have to break to his family he's been sacked the week before Christmas. He's obviously made a tit of himself but DH company has gone from being a very cosy and nice environment to cut throat in the past couple of months with a change of director.

still can't get over how the poor bloke would have to break to his family he's been sacked the week before Christmas

He should have thought about that before getting hammered.

Taxi home - if the party was in central London, a taxi home could be totally unfeasible, in my case it would be way way into 3 figures (over an hours train journey, plus 5 mile drive at the other end) assuming you could GET a taxi to go outside the greater London area.

He was a contractor, not a staff member. There's a huge difference, the biggest one being that contractors get paid a lot but have almost no employment rights. He behaved like an idiot in front of clients and in the boss's position I would have done exactly the same and terminated his contract.