Halloween and Bonfire night are a distant memory and so the shops are now brimming with Christmas decorations. The countdown is well and truly on towards the big day! Most employees really look forward to this time of the year, spirits are high in the office, celebrations are underway and of course lots of professions have a good break from the workplace over the festive period.
Many big businesses are holding smaller Christmas parties within departments, rather than larger, company-wide events. Uncertainty over the Omicron Covid variant has added to safety concerns over large gatherings. Several companies, including NatWest, Aviva and Deloitte are hosting smaller team-based parties, and said attendance at any event will be a personal choice.
Abbey Total Care Group was no different. Even though many stakeholders and industry friends could not join us for our Christmas Lunch and knowing how challenging the past 20 months were our senior management decided to boost the morale of our employees and go ahead with the Christmas celebrations. The management decided to organise a Christmas Lunch on 19th of December (Sunday) at the Tower Hotel – allowing the guests to enjoy the spectacular view of the Tower Bridge and the River Thames.
Guests were offered champagne as a welcome drink (for those who are not drinking – a variety of juices), a 3-course meal (based on individual’s food dietary requirements) and a DJ was also tasked to play a selection of songs & requests from the guests. The length of service with the company was also recognised with at least 5 people invited from each nursing home (criteria: the longest length of service). Those who could not find a child minding services – were invited with their children and children were not forgotten either – each child received a Christmas gift from the owner’s wife.
Half an hour speech was held by the owner and founder as well as the owner’s son and nephew. The tradition of the transition of power was also kept with the owner’s son introducing his son to the company. Words like ‘my father was bringing me to these events when I was young, and it is now my turn to bring my son’ were memorised and the long-term commitment for developing a company build to last for the generations ahead was expressed clearly.
Although Abbey Total Care Group went ahead with the Christmas lunch gathering, safety measures were not forgotten. As per the Government’s guidelines the staff in the nursing homes are tested on daily/weekly basis and the external stakeholders were also offered a rapid test before the event. Two boxes of facemasks were brought to the venue as well as hand sanitisers and test kits for the ones that may have small doubts about the Covid spread.