Christmas parties get the chop at London firms
City bosses have cancelled their traditional Christmas parties for a second year running over Covid fears.
Blowout Christmas celebrations usually held by London’s accounting, insurance and law firms will be scrapped in favour of smaller dinners and events for individual teams the Telegraph first reported.
Despite large gatherings being allowed under current Covid rules, top city law firm Slaughter and May has reportedly cancelled its annual pre-Christmas dinner dance at the five-star Grosvenor Hotel while rival Linklaters has also decided to ditch its festive office-wide party.
Ernst and Young, which has has previously hosted lavish black tie dinners complete with fire dancers, has also scrapped its Christmas party this year. However, the big four accounting firms will reportedly give their UK staff an extra day off on Christmas eve to make up for missed fun.
Insurers Aviva and Hiscox are also scaling back plans for social gatherings in the run up to Christmas.
The news could make it harder for big firms struggling to retain graduate talent amid the pandemic. With firms forced to cut back on in person contact morale is low amongst many younger employees still working from home.
The decision to cancel Christmas parties will come as a relief for some city bosses, however, as firms were increasingly under pressure to introduce measures to police behaviour at work social gatherings before the pandemic set in.
Read more: Did fewer Christmas parties drive an end of year boom at Keystone Law?