We're all, no doubt, familiar with the embarrassment that can follow the office Christmas party.
But for one Australian worker, he came back in January to find he no longer had a job.
The Sydney Morning Herald carries the story of a man who, after drinking ten beers and a vodka, told a company director to "f*** off" and forcibly kissed another colleague.
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[/comment]The Fair Work Commission in Australia, however, found that the company could not fully insist on workplace standards of behaviour when they were supplying unlimited free alcohol, and decided he had been unfairly dismissed.
The team leader at a construction company is also reported to have asked a colleague "who the f*** are you? What do you even do here?" and told another female colleague "I thought you were a little bitch but you know you’re okay and I like you".
Documents note one of his female co-workers said he approached her while waiting for a taxi, and told her "my mission tonight is to find out what colour your knickers you have on."
However, she said she was not offended, and knew he was very intoxicated.
However, Vice President of the FWC, Adam Hatcher, decided that the dismissal was too harsh, citing his good record and the isolated nature of this incident.
"It is contradictory and self-defeating for an employer to require compliance with its usual standards of behaviour at a function but at the same time to allow the unlimited service of free alcohol at the function," he wrote in his conclusion.
"If alcohol is supplied in such a manner, it becomes entirely predictable that some individuals will consume an excessive amount and behave inappropriately."
The decision sets an interesting precedent in Australian labour relations - but we urge our readers to bear in mind it doesn't change anything for employees here.
Discretion at the office party is still a
.