Paul Turner: Holly jolly holiday office party nearing last call?

You have to wonder.

Is it curtains for the office Christmas party?

Coming on the heels of a season of seemingly daily accusations and revelations about male misconduct with women (and other men), the already beleaguered workplace holiday bash now flirts with extinction.

If so many men aren’t to be trusted when it comes to recognizing the line between friendliness and harassment, what are we to do?

The thing is, the increasingly tame office Christmas party has been staggering through a legal and social minefield for many years. Office managers didn’t just discover that alcohol and a mixed workforce can be a combustible combination. Holiday parties started getting scaled back and sobered up decades ago.

And now as wave after wave of publicized reports of sexual misconduct wash over us, it seems fair to ask if the classic (if often mythical) seasonal setting for gender-charged social interaction is about to disappear altogether.

How one feels about that is a matter of perspective.

If you are a woman with unpleasant memories of being pawed by some hammered letch from accounting, you might have ample reason to say good riddance to the office holiday party.

But if you remember being single and frisky, you might have fond memories of feeling unquestionably consensual sparks fly with someone you had longed to know better.

For some, the prospect of a party – any party – includes imagining countless happy scenarios. The holiday workplace version can have the advantage of familiar faces and the conviviality that comes with the holly jolly.

I’ve been writing about the office Christmas party since the late 1980s. At first, I had one mission: Find people in Spokane who recall workplace revelry akin to the no-holds-barred office Christmas party in the movie “The Apartment,” the Academy Award winner for “Best Picture” of 1960.

In one extended scene at a big insurance company, office workers holding drinks are making out right and left and there is high-kicking dancing on desks.

But, as I wrote in 1999, pumping elders for real-life risque recollections could be frustrating.

“Sure, a few older folks are willing to admit that things occasionally got wild after someone in the steno pool spiked the eggnog way back when. But lots of white-haired retirees seem to have adopted selective memories about their own roles in those seasonal bacchanals.”

Can’t say that I blame them.

One man I spoke with, someone who has long since died, did not challenge my premise that the free-wheeling, high-spirited office Christmas parties were once a fact of life. He just noted it wasn’t anything to get nostalgic about.

“It was bad business,” he said. “Hurt a lot of families.”

That was then. How about now?

Just consider the news. Too many guys apparently don’t know what an unspoken invitation from a woman looks like. Maybe they’ve never seen a green light. So they blunder ahead.

What about when the company removes booze from the equation?

There’s no question that reins things in. But why not just do away with the party altogether?

Some businesses cite the value of tradition. Others savor the opportunity to entertain clients or customers at a festive bash.

It could be argued that some problem male behavior is not apt to surface in 2017 versions of the office Christmas party. Too many people around who might witness transgressions.

So does the holiday workplace bash have to die? It depends.

Whatever its perceived value to the organization, it’s a pretty easy item to cut from the budget.

Especially if the person making that call is sick of dealing with harassment complaints.