Deck the halls with boughs of folly

A CRY of pre-festive joy was heard reverberating around Lawyer 2B's office on 17 November as the first press release warning of the dangers of office Christmas parties was posted through the virtual letter box. "An increasing number of companies are cancelling Christmas parties to avoid having to deal with issues that arise," the missive began. "Even where parties do take place, HR managers are not attending or leaving early so they don't have to witness colleagues behaving badly and take steps to rectify the situation." But what's this? Cancelled parties? Surely not. Surely the Dickensian days of Ebenezer-like tyrants running their offices with no thought for the well-being of their lowly, underpaid staff ended with the death of the steam tractor?

The press release continues with some spurious statistics, but frankly, by then the damage had been done. The title of this gem? "Yule be sorry". Says it all, really.