No one likes a hung-over Santa Claus—and this year, Publicis is pulling out all the stops to ensure that there won’t be any shenanigans under the mistletoe.
A memo sent to all staff this week—and to us today—looks to curb those alcoholic impulses by keeping the workplace entirely liquor-free. At least until 6 PM.
Here’s the Spark Foundry version of the memo, which went out to all agency leadership via CEO Chris Boothe:
Spark Executives:
Effective immediately, PM Americas office leads have been asked to help cascade the following rules in regards to alcohol in the workplace and enforcing compliance to these rules moving forward.
We have been asked to ensure that all Spark employees remove any and all alcohol from public display. This includes any wine or spirts from vendors/clients or from events in the past that may be on employees’ desks or in offices.
Across all Publicis offices in the Americas, alcohol owned by the company should be held under lock and key by senior personnel.
This alcohol will only be accessible after standard work hours, which is 6pm.
Some more helpful guidelines are below:
• No consumption during office hours – only by exception directed by Brand CEO / Office Lead
• Any alcohol for staff consumption under lock and key
• No displays of alcohol in offices, rooms, areas other than under locked cabinet
• Where clients are involved (Miller Coors, Brown-Forman, etc) discretion to be used in public areas with displays and signageThank you for your help enforcing this policy. If you have any questions please feel free to see me.
Chris Boothe
The memo, you may notice, does not elaborate on the reasons behind this new policy—nor does it specify how long the new restrictions apply.
It may well be for the same reason PR reps warned agency executives not to flaunt their rose bottles at Cannes Lions last year.