CHRISTMAS AT WORK

            As I remove the holiday décor on my office door to welcome the New Year, I realize how important Christmas is in the workplace.

Contest for the Best Decorated Office Door

   Celebrating Christmas in the various offices in the Philippines is like attending an adult version of a “kiddie party.” There are rowdy games, delicious food, loud singing, and upbeat dancing. This is the event when adults become children, especially when forced to join parlor games during the party. This is the time when office workers become like students, especially when ordered by management to prepare song and dance numbers or to organize a beauty pageant.  

       The best part of it is that office Christmas parties can reveal the wacky side of everyone who are supposed to be serious at work. Having an office Christmas Party in this country means having the janitors, employees, and management come together and have fun. Everyone gets the license to present another side of themselves through the “entertaining games” that they have to participate and through the “mandatory programs” (song, dance, skit, or whatever) that they have to present. If you are lucky enough to have a cool boss in the office willing to sing, dance, or join a game, then you might get a rare chance to see your manager make a fool of himself.

        It is usually during Christmas when employees get to be more creative. Organizing holiday activities in the office generally brings out the creative geniuses in us. For Christmas 2013, our boss organized a contest for the best decorated office doors. The past year, the head of our agency asked us to have a Broadway show featuring all the famous musical plays and made an office-wide competition out of it. In another year, our supervisor wanted an environment-themed Christmas party and required us to have a fashion show of clothes and accessories personally made out of recycled materials.

"Christmas Party" Photo from FSI

         It is also during Christmas when employees get to be more generous. People just GIVE (willingly or unwillingly) to officemates and bosses. Even janitors in the offices, whom people sometimes do not take notice of, are given something. There are actually various ways people in the workplace give:

1. Raffle Prizes: usually highly-paid, high-ranking bosses are solicited to “donate” something generic and of higher value (like gift certificate, electric appliances, food baskets, wine etc)   

2. Kris Kringle: requires certain gift description that people should follow when buying gifts (something soft and small, something cute and fussy). Essentially nobody really checks if people are strictly following the gift descriptions. And if someone does not, the receiver cannot return it anyway…   

3. Monito-Monita: can be related to kris kringle or can simply be an exchange gift. There are several variations of this. Some people make a wish list so that their prospective “sponsor” or “parent” have an idea what they want to have. But essentially, people set a price for the gifts to be given (maybe at least 300 pesos). Then one draws the name of the person whom you will give a gift.

 

         Essentially, giving for Filipinos during the holidays is their expression of sharing their blessings to the people around them and of appreciating the people who have helped them in their daily work in the office.

"Exchange Gift" Photo by BryMac

            It is also during Christmas when employees tend to be more reflective of the year that is coming to an end. This is when people assess their productivity in the office and evaluate their relationships at work. It is when people pat each other’s backs or feel disappointed for goals unmet (which is quite unlikely but still unfortunate). It is when officemates express appreciation of each other. It is also the most fitting time and the most convenient reason to approach and talk to colleagues whom one has an issue with in the past. Indeed, Christmas brings an air of reflection, sentimentality and hopefully, forgiveness. 

     I like spending Christmas in the Philippines and celebrating it in the various companies and offices in the country. After all, it is only in the workplace and only during the holidays when the adults are allowed or even forced, to become kids again. But hopefully without their children knowing about it. (sshhh…) 

          I am certain that no Filipino working adult can escape playing, singing, and dancing in the workplace during Christmas. Admit it! You have done it! After all, Christmas in the Philippines are supposed to be “more fun.”