• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia

Trendingnow

1

Markets tumble worldwide as Fed resets expectations: $400 billion wiped off SpaceX stock

2

After forcing workers back to the office, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase are now letting their staff work remotely—but only for the World Cup

3

Former U.S. Secret Service agent says bringing your authentic self to work stifles teamwork: 'You don’t get high performers, you get sloppiness'

1

Markets tumble worldwide as Fed resets expectations: $400 billion wiped off SpaceX stock

2

After forcing workers back to the office, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase are now letting their staff work remotely—but only for the World Cup

3

Former U.S. Secret Service agent says bringing your authentic self to work stifles teamwork: 'You don’t get high performers, you get sloppiness'
Workplace CultureHuman resources

‘Ambulances had to be called, it was a whole thing’: How HR leaders deal with too much fun at holiday parties

By
Vicky Valet
Vicky Valet
and
HR Brew
HR Brew
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
Vicky Valet
Vicky Valet
and
HR Brew
HR Brew
Down Arrow Button Icon
December 2, 2025, 11:26 AM ET
Talent culture and DEI consultant shares tips on company holiday parties.
Talent culture and DEI consultant shares tips on company holiday parties.Getty Images
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

’Tis the season to be jolly. Just not too jolly—at least not at the company holiday party.

“Ambulances had to be called, it was a whole thing,” Dani Herrera, a talent culture and DEI consultant, said of a situation in which an employee had a little too much to drink at a holiday party. “That person fell down the stairs and, I think, broke a leg or something like that. Not great, friend.”

Herrera has seen it all. And she shared it all—from what she’s seen, to what you, the HR professional, can do should you encounter similar situations—with Kate Noel, SVP and head of people operations at Morning Brew, during a recent episode of HR Brew’s People Person podcast.

The following has been edited for length and clarity.

Have you ever experienced a crazy holiday situation?

So, I’ll start maybe with a positive one. Okay, so the positive one was many, many years ago I was working at a company and what they did was they actually had it during the day and they did it like some sort of a retreat of sorts. So you actually had spaces indoors and outdoors and everybody could do whatever it is that they wanted to. No alcohol was around, which made it way more inclusive and a little bit better. So that was a really good one. But the worst ones are really, really bad. I’ve seen everything. I’ve seen harassment, I’ve seen sexual harassment. I’ve seen someone falling down stairs because they were a little bit tipsy. So yeah, not great.

Now, it’s the day after, and we are now dealing with the aftermath of the party. What are some tips for HR pros to be prepared?

First and foremost, try to do it on a Friday.

Thursday is [also] ok, because Friday could be hopefully, it’s a little bit more flexible. You could come in a little bit later, but let’s not do it on a Tuesday. I understand, especially in New York, real estate is expensive. So you will have your party whenever it is that you can have it, but tough on the middle of the week.

And then I would strongly recommend, especially if you’re doing it in the middle of the week, let’s make sure that the next day is a little bit more flexible. If we are a full 9-to-5 and you have to be at 9am and that’s in the company policy, maybe the party needs to end a little bit early.

Let’s just say we get some tea: We hear something that went down at the party, or maybe there was a little after party. As an HR person, what would you recommend as the best way to approach these things?

So it goes back to whatever policy you have in place and the culture that you’ve built…But if you are hearing, as I was talking about before, someone had an accident, there are processes and steps that you have to follow. You might want to make sure that that person is actually okay. Are they in the hospital? Do we need to notify their managers? Do we need to reassign the work that they were doing or whatever that is? If the tea is a little bit on the unfortunate side, there is, I don’t know, harassment, that is some more difficult conversation that we need to have and some difficult decisions might need to be made. But again, it really depends on what the situation was, what your company culture is, and what your policies are. And if you do not have any policies to cover any of the things that we were talking about, maybe this is the time to actually get those done.

For more from this conversation, tune into the People Person podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube, or watch it below.

This report was originally published by HR Brew.

The Fortune 500 Innovation Forum will convene Fortune 500 executives, U.S. policy officials, top founders, and thought leaders to help define what’s next for the American economy, Nov. 16-17 in Detroit. Apply here.
About the Authors
By Vicky Valet
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
By HR Brew
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon
Add Fortune on Google for similar content.

Latest in Workplace Culture

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Fortune Secondary Logo
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • World's Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
  • Lists Calendar
Sections
  • Finance
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Features
  • Leadership
  • Health
  • Commentary
  • Success
  • Retail
  • Mpw
  • Tech
  • Lifestyle
  • CEO Initiative
  • Asia
  • Politics
  • Conferences
  • Europe
  • Newsletters
  • Personal Finance
  • Environment
  • Magazine
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
  • Group Subscriptions
About Us
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • About Us
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

Latest in Workplace Culture

The hidden cost of your AI rollout: burning out the high performers running it
Workplace Cultureburnout
The hidden cost of your AI rollout: burning out the high performers running it
By Mikaela Cohen and HR BrewJune 23, 2026
4 hours ago
work
Workplace Culturework culture
Worker engagement just hit a decade low — and new data from 88 million employees shows why managers are the problem
By Bob Batchelor and The ConversationJune 23, 2026
7 hours ago
Photo of Fiona Fung
Workplace Culturework culture
Anthropic engineering head says Claude Code made employees’ work a ‘lonely experience’—and it could hint at Big Tech’s bigger morale problem
By Sasha RogelbergJune 23, 2026
10 hours ago
brett
CommentaryManagement
Middle managers aren’t going extinct—they’re evolving into something more powerful
By Brett HurtJune 23, 2026
13 hours ago
Man working on a laptop from home with his dog sitting next to him
Successreturn to office
After forcing workers back to the office, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase are now letting their staff work remotely—but only for the World Cup
By Orianna Rosa RoyleJune 23, 2026
13 hours ago
jalen
CommentaryLeadership
What leaders can learn from the Knicks ending their 53-year championship drought
By Melissa Dawn SimkinsJune 22, 2026
1 day ago

Most Popular

Markets tumble worldwide as Fed resets expectations: $400 billion wiped off SpaceX stock
Banking
Markets tumble worldwide as Fed resets expectations: $400 billion wiped off SpaceX stock
By Jim EdwardsJune 23, 2026
15 hours ago
After forcing workers back to the office, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase are now letting their staff work remotely—but only for the World Cup
Success
After forcing workers back to the office, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase are now letting their staff work remotely—but only for the World Cup
By Orianna Rosa RoyleJune 23, 2026
13 hours ago
Former U.S. Secret Service agent says bringing your authentic self to work stifles teamwork: 'You don’t get high performers, you get sloppiness'
Success
Former U.S. Secret Service agent says bringing your authentic self to work stifles teamwork: 'You don’t get high performers, you get sloppiness'
By Sydney LakeJune 21, 2026
3 days ago
Current price of oil as of June 22, 2026
Personal Finance
Current price of oil as of June 22, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJune 22, 2026
2 days ago
Meet the 2 men putting New York's $300 billion pension fund in play for the first time in 20 years
Investing
Meet the 2 men putting New York's $300 billion pension fund in play for the first time in 20 years
By Nick LichtenbergJune 22, 2026
1 day ago
By 7 a.m., Bank of America’s CEO has already read 5 newspapers, his email inbox, and hit the gym—he says if you’re late to meetings, you’re ‘selfish’
Success
By 7 a.m., Bank of America’s CEO has already read 5 newspapers, his email inbox, and hit the gym—he says if you’re late to meetings, you’re ‘selfish’
By Preston ForeJune 22, 2026
1 day ago

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.