So Much for the Office Holiday Party

Dec. 10, 2009 — -- Tara Goodwin Frier isn't throwing her employees the annual holiday party this year. Instead, she used the money she would have spent on holiday meals and staff gifts to hire back Amanda, the crackerjack junior employee she had to lay off this fall.

"No one felt like celebrating," said Goodwin Frier, CEO of The Goodwin Group, a small marketing firm outside Boston. "We would rather use the money to bring in Amanda one to two days a week so we can land the accounts necessary to bring her back full time."

For the decade-old firm, 2009 has meant lost clients, more tap dancing to sign new ones ("what used to take two meetings to close now takes four or five," Goodwin Frier said), delayed commission payments for staff and the sacrifice of Goodwin Frier's own paycheck during weeks with low cash flow.

"My staff has been good about the cutbacks, saying, 'We're all still here and we're still employed,'" the CEO explained.

In other words, holiday party, schmoliday party.

Not all businesses have spent the year as close to the edge as the Goodwin Group. Nevertheless, the canceled or greatly scaled-back holiday party has become a familiar recessionary tale: The rented hotel ballroom has been replaced by the company conference room. Five-star dining by pizza and beer. Year-end employee bonuses by $10 coffee gift cards.