Jackafal

Inclusion, But Make It Festive! 🎉

The festive season can be a wonderful time of year to connect with colleagues and clients in good spirits - but there are also unique inclusion pitfalls to watch out for. In this article, Jackafal highlights some ways to ensure you’re being inclusive during the holiday season, and some common slips to avoid.
Empty space, drag to resize
Ah, the festive season! From San Francisco to Sorong*, December brings cheer and goodwill in many places across the world as people gather with their families for a plethora of cultural and religious reasons. But while widespread merriment is a wonderful thing, it can sometimes lead to people forgetting to be as inclusive as they are at other times of year. Never fear - we’re here to give you a few handy tips on inclusion pitfalls to look out for during the holiday season.
*after spotting Santa Claus at the airport on our recent trip to West Papua, we’ve seen the proof!
Empty space, drag to resize
Empty space, drag to resize

Chipping In

Between buying gifts and paying for travel to see family, the holiday season is undeniably an expensive time for a lot of people in their personal lives. But the expenses often don’t stop at home: whether it’s whip-rounds for colleagues who are leaving before the New Year, Secret Santa gift exchanges, office lunches, or charity donations, work can be just as expensive. Because it’s a time of goodwill and cheer, people may feel more uncomfortable opting out of these activities due to financial struggles, or requesting a more budget-friendly option when the rest of the team is excited to celebrate.

Tip: If you are planning office activities that require a cost to participate, ensure you do your best to keep it budget-friendly. You could also account for the fact that some people may not be able to afford the activities with a ‘pay what you can’ policy (though that will require some careful budgeting, and some additional goodwill on the part of the company/other colleagues to cover the rest, so it can be a difficult one to arrange).
Empty space, drag to resize

Raising A Glass

December is often a time for festive cheer, good food, and let’s face it, more alcohol than you can shake a stick at. Whether it’s mulled cider, eggnog, glühwein, champagne, ponche navideño… Well, you get the idea.A number of cultures around the world incorporate alcohol into their festive celebrations, and given many people enjoy this part of the season with reckless abandon (cue the traditional memes about the office Christmas party), it can be hard to avoid alcohol at this time of year.
But not everybody drinks, whether that’s for religious reasons, health reasons, addiction recovery - or simply because they don’t want to. Having festive activities centred purely around alcohol can make these people feel excluded.

A group of colleagues are toasting with glasses amongst gold confetti
Tip: When organising your office outings, it’s important to make sure there are options available for non-drinkers that you’ve put some thought into. Being stuck as the only one drinking lime and soda when everyone else is cracking open the champagne hardly screams goodwill. Putting some effort into your non-alcoholic options (e.g. some festive mocktails, some non-alcoholic fizz) will go a long way to make non-drinkers feel included.
Also be aware that some members of the team may not be comfortable in alcohol-heavy environments such as pubs or bars, so if this is your primary venue for your office party, consider having a pre-party at a more neutral location so they can still join in with the fun and peel off before the boozy antics!
Empty space, drag to resize

🎵 I’m Dreaming Of A… Blue Christmas? 🎵

The festive season is for many a time to celebrate with their loved ones, but for others, it can be a lonely time. Whether grieving lost loved ones, estranged from family (statistically more likely among the LGBTQ+ population), living abroad, or experiencing homelessness, the festive season is a time when those who already feel alone can find that feeling amplified. A combination of the barrage of messaging about togetherness, the fact that the shops and ‘normal life’ will invariably stop with no distraction, and happiness being the assumed default at this time of year, can make the holiday season feel like a very lonely time indeed for some people.

Tip #1
Tip #2
Tip: Signpost groups such as Christmas Buddies Dinners in your local area so that anyone feeling lonely at your organisation can subtly look into those opportunities if they would like to.
Tip: While you may be cheery yourself, avoid encouraging people to ‘get in the holiday spirit’ - it can be insensitive if people are experiencing loneliness or distress and feel uncomfortable discussing it.
Empty space, drag to resize

Speaking of Christmas…

…not everybody celebrates it - there are other festivals and celebrations in December! That doesn’t mean that you can’t have specific Christmas celebrations at your workplace - to the contrary, it is important to celebrate shared culture and traditions, and for many people, Christmas is a huge religious and cultural festival. That said, the festive season also a great opportunity to celebrate a range of cultures and traditions consider. One way to do this is to consider whether all of your festive celebrations are purely Christmas-themed, or if any of them incorporate other festivals and celebrations that are taking place at this time of year. 
Empty space, drag to resize
Created with