#137 Important Considerations for Your Office Party and Bonuses

Christmas time is fast approaching. This episode answers questions on whether or not to serve alcohol at your Christmas office party, how to compensate employees for the holidays and days the office is closed, and a discussion on how to create a Christmas or end-of-the year bonus. 

• Olivia Wann, Esq. blog:   https://bit.ly/3RoA4O6
• DOL and Overtime-Salary Compensation: https://bit.ly/46RgQqk
• DOL and Compensation and work hours:  https://bit.ly/3GEVth5
• Business News Daily - Small Business Guide to Paying Holiday Bonuses https://bit.ly/3REGSZn

                                                 https://www.thecompliancedivas.com

Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:04

Welcome. I'm Leslie Cannon. I'm Mary Gavoni.

SPEAKER_02 0:09

I'm Linda Harvey. I'm Olivia Juan, and together we are the Compliance Divas. Welcome to the Compliance Divas podcast. My name is Olivia Juan and I'll be your moderator with this episode. Today we're talking about important considerations for your Christmas office party and bonus. We've received support calls on this topic and thought it would be timely for our audience. Questions such as these come up at this time of year that relate to whether or not an employee is getting a bonus, whether they're going to be paid for the week between Christmas and New Year's if the office chooses to shut down, and whether or not to serve alcohol during a Christmas party. As the Compliance Divas, we bring clarity and simplicity to compliance by navigating regulatory compliance to keep you on course. Please subscribe to the Compliance Divas podcast through your favorite podcast channel or on our website, thecompliancedeevas.com. Any resources that we mentioned during the episode can be found on the compliance divas website. Please submit your questions to support at thecompliancedivas.com. And we also appreciate a review. So when you're listening to the podcast, just scroll down and give us a review. So let's get started. I'd like to start with our diva, Mary, and get some input from her about her thoughts on serving alcohol at a Christmas party.

SPEAKER_01 1:47

Mary, I'm going to pass the mic to you. Thanks, Olivia. Well, I will say nobody likes a party more than I do, and especially with adult beverages. But there are issues that certainly can arise because we know that the more alcohol we consume, we might become less of an adult or making good choices. So number one would be where is the party going to be? Is it going to be at a restaurant? Is it going to be at somebody's home? Is it going to be at the office? And then you make a decision, you know, are you going to be served from the bar at a restaurant? Or is the doctor perhaps opening up his or her home for the party and serving alcohol? Or are we going to do it at the office? In the case of doing it at the office and at a doctor's home or even a team member's home, there, of course, then is the personal liability that someone has from serving alcohol and not perhaps having some safeguards for too much consumption and or how are people going to get safely home? If you're at a restaurant, that liability falls primarily on the restaurant owner, but of course, an employer could have some liability there as well. But the other things that come to mind are um what could happen, what potentially can happen if people do have too much to drink? Sometimes people exhibit inappropriate behavior. There might be some sexual harassment, or um, sometimes people will say things that they might not normally say, and personal relationships can get injured. But the, you know, the real issue is what kind of provisions do we have to make sure people get safely home? Are you gonna have a taxi? You're gonna have a designated driver, are you gonna take away people's car keys? Um, we're gonna call a ride service to get people home. Um, those are the thoughts that go through my mind that you know, if people are responsible and have a drink or two in moderation, cool, but sometimes the holidays just bring out that desire to drink more than we should. So, Olivia, with your legal brain, um, I'd love to hear your version of whether we should do this or not.

SPEAKER_02 4:24

Well, Mary, I agree with you that there's a potential for liability. So when dentists are planning these parties or office managers are planning these parties, uh, look at the liability and you make several good points. There, there are multiple layers of complexity. Uh, I like the idea of if you know, if they're having a party that is at a venue to consider employing a professional bartender because they have special training to cut people off. They're licensed, they're insured, and that helps with some of this liability because they're trained to spot the signs of someone overindulging. Uh, another thing that we've learned from conferences that we mutually attend is they just give you two drink tickets. That's it. Maybe one or two drink tickets, and that and you're done. So that's typical at a conference setting. Uh, I've worked with a client that actually arranges transportation for his work-sponsored events when he serves alcohol. Or to make it simple, you may opt to just not serve hard alcohol and limit the choices to beer and wine. Or if the party is during the week, just make some mocktails. I've seen some recipes for mocktails that look beautiful, they're festive, they're enjoyable, and it helps minimize that risk for an employer-sponsored event for someone getting hurt or driving under the influence. So these are some important things to think about, and I appreciate your input, Mary. And you want to add to that?

SPEAKER_01 6:01

I do. I love the idea about mocktails. That could even be a competition among the team members. But the other thing to consider is that if you are at a separate venue and people do consume too much alcohol and get a little out of hand, think about the potential for other people in your community to be there and observe that. And that may have an effect on the reputation of the practice.

SPEAKER_02 6:27

Good point, Mary. Now I'd like to focus in on the question about compensation, whether dental employees are paid for the holiday, paid for their time off between Christmas and New Year's, and what about the party itself? So we want to look to our diva, Linda, for some answers on this.

SPEAKER_00 6:47

Olivia, this is such a timely topic, and then talk figuratively and literally here at the end of the year. So this is a I'm glad that we're discussing it today. Compensation is a big question. It's a big concern, let's face it, for team members, because here we are coming up to the holidays, beginning of the year, and many offices will close a certain amount of time between Christmas and New Year, depending on how the holidays fall. And team members want to plan their finances accordingly, whether they're shopping for Christmas or taking a trip or whatever, or want to take a vacation themselves during the holidays. It's the perfect top thing to talk about. So one thing about holiday pay, think if they're mandatory to attend, if if an office makes it mandatory to attend the party, then that must be paid. So it's in the office's best interest in the doctors to it's a voluntary social event. And I love the idea of the mocktail, so that way we can keep it kind of light and fun. And if it happens during work hours, you're going to do it over an extended lunch period, for example, then it definitely is paid time. It's paid time if it's mandatory. So sometimes then the best option becomes Olivia, offering it on a weekend, you know, it's Saturday evening, afternoon, Friday evening, or maybe just a Friday lunch if that's the day that the office doesn't work. There are plenty of ways that you can celebrate the holidays and the end of the year with your team and just also fulfillment of how do we do this year? We're celebrating your goals or celebrating the beginning of a new year. So it can happen anytime that they want. It doesn't have to be on a Saturday night where everybody's thinking about um we're going to party hardy, because that's not the uh influencing the approach that you want to take. And then when it comes to time off as far as leave time, a lot of that, Olivia, is going to depend on the office policies and procedures, what's in their employee handbook. So if the office is shut down during that time frame, the policies depending upon whether it's mandatory for the team members to take, say their PTO, or whether it can just be unplayed paid time. It is team members need to be able to plan for that because if they are, if they have to take their PTO at an unexpected time versus when they want to or when they need to, that can sort of dampen the spirit of closing out the holiday season and the current year, you know, getting ready to ring in a new year, it can really dampen that spirit and the relationship with the practice. So this is something that I would advise, Olivia, that the doctors be sure that they address this proactively, as you and Mary have been speaking about, and have it written in a written policy.

SPEAKER_02 9:16

Thank you, Linda, for those points. So just to reiterate what you've said, if the if the Christmas party is mandatory, they're going to be paid. Now, when are times that that would be mandatory? And in my mind, I'm thinking if the doctor office manager makes it a time to discuss, as you alluded to, year-end pro productivity numbers and how the practice is progressing and so forth, that sounds more like work. And so if it sounds like work, they need to be paid. And your handbook should address when the office is closed, whether or not they're paid. But be really careful because if someone is a salary exempt employee and they're off during that week and the doctor sends them some work emails, it could trigger payment for the workday. So just want to have a little caution there. And another thing I wanted to mention is being sensitive to team members who do not observe Christmas holiday. So whether their faith system does not observe uh Christmas, uh, we need to be mindful that they may not wish to participate in that holiday event. And if you have those that do not celebrate Christmas, it make sure that that holiday party is voluntary. And the whole goal of the holiday season is to bring joy and happiness and health to everyone. So we want to focus on these areas. So I appreciate that information about compensation. Do you want to chime in, Mary, with some thoughts?

SPEAKER_01 10:54

I do. Thank you so much, Olivia, for bringing that up about people who may not observe the Christian Christmas holiday. Um, we've seen a lot of issues about other religion and um other faiths um rear their ugly heads in our society over the last few months. And it I think it's important for an employer to recognize that if he has Jewish employees, let's recognize Hanukkah and um the um other holidays that are not Christian holidays during this time of year, because it may leave employees with a feeling of resentment if all the emphasis is on one particular holiday that they don't observe and not theirs, and not understanding that those days are important to those people.

SPEAKER_02 11:55

Good points, Mary. I appreciate that extra information. All right, Diva Leslie could not be here with us on this episode, but she was going to talk a little bit about Christmas bonuses. And I thought I would share some information in her place. For one thing, when we look to the Bureau of Labor Statistics and we survey employers with less than 100 employees, which is typical for us to work with, uh, only 14% of this size of employer actually provides a year-end bonus, and only 9% provide a holiday bonus. And I was surprised at those numbers because when we look to the dental profession, it is very typical for our clients to provide a holiday bonus or a year-in bonus. So I just wanted to establish that if you do receive a bonus from your employer, please thank them because they're sharing something that they are not required to do. Now, the bonus is subject to tax, so we have to be aware of that. And also, if the bonus system is not set up correctly, if it's set up like a year-end bonus, it could actually be harmful to the practice. So please consult with your practice management consultant or your CPA or tax professional on how to set this up properly. And also, you may want to talk to your team, getting back to the Christmas party thing. If you're accustomed to putting on elaborate parties, you know, some people don't even want to go to a party because we're all so busy, the days are short, there's lots of parties and family events to go to. Maybe the employees would rather have the money than spending it on a holiday party at a venue. So talk to your team and get their input because they may just prefer to have the money divided among them than spending it on a party or an event. What are your thoughts, Linda?

SPEAKER_00 14:01

Olivia, it's interesting that you mentioned that because I've experienced that both of those scenarios with to do two different clients. One is a client that decided they would do their holiday party earlier in November. So that way the team members have all of December to do whatever they want with family and friends and different parties because there's there's different association groups. There might be a church group, a school group, you know, neighborhood group, all other things that are happening. So that way they don't miss out on those things that are important to the team members as well. And we just, you know, they they've done so many creative things. So I think it's just really interesting to think about those. So I want to circle back to something you you and Mary Lynch mentioned earlier as well. And that is just promotion of the event. How are you setting the stage? What kind of language are you using? And I I use the phrase party hardy when we were talking earlier, and you want to make sure that that's not the phrase and the phraseology, let's get loose, let's party, you know, because then you're setting the tone for people that will want to drink and want to party. And that's not the demeanor of the professional conduct and code that you have in your practice. And I have seen offices um have trouble with this, where somebody had one drink too many, and maybe it was only, maybe it's only the two drinks that they had. And then, you know, with the saying about loose lips sinking ships, they might not have been speaking negatively or or creating a ruckus in front of their team members, but just how they respond to one another can set off somebody's emotions. They might be unintentionally rude because they're they've had a little bit too much to drink. And something can happen that can just really change the whole office dynamic so quickly when there's a lot of alcohol. And sometimes for some people it doesn't take very much. So just little things to be mindful of. This is a great topic, Olivia.

SPEAKER_02 15:46

Thanks for those added comments. So, just in summary of this episode, um, if you're serving alcohol, think about the potential for liability there and whether you should just go with mocktails as we discussed, or drink tickets, or using a professional bartender, or not serving it at all. We also talked about compensation to make sure we've defined in our handbooks about the period between Christmas and New Year's, whether or not employees are paid. Also, if it's a mandatory party that employees are paid, and the discussion as well about a Christmas bonus or year-end bonus. We hope this helps our listeners to carefully consider these basics of hosting an office Christmas party so that they can enjoy each other's company and welcome in the new year. So, thank you for joining us as the Compliance Divas. We bring clarity and simplicity to compliance by navigating regulatory compliance to keep you on course. Please submit your questions to support at the compliancedivas.com. Any resources that we mentioned will be available in the show notes. Thank you for joining us, and we'll see you next time.