• A Third of office workers have gone home with or kissed a colleague at their office Christmas party • A tenth of male workers have been sick in front of colleagues due to excessive drinking • Technicians discover strange items found in photocopiers including; a sleeping cat, a kitchen knife and a snake!

REIGATE, December 1, 2005 – Canon, leader in digital imaging technology, today revealed a startling insight into the highlight of the office social calendar – the Christmas party. Independent nationwide research revealed that a tenth of office workers have told a colleague or boss that they fancy them and over a third of workers have struck lucky and kissed a colleague or ended-up going home with them.

Office parties are social minefields, with over a third of workers admitting dreading “the walk of shame” to work the next morning, to find out whether they had enhanced or limited their career the night before. Research revealed that a tenth of female workers take the opportunity of their bosses’ ‘high spirits’ to ask for a pay rise, whereas a similar proportion of the UK’s male population confessed to being physically sick in front of colleagues due to excessive drinking – a tactic sure to affect next year’s chance of promotion.

According to the research, the most Scrooge-like bosses in the UK are from the East of England with over 40% of office workers from Nottingham to Norwich admitting that they had never had an office Christmas party. Yorkshire workers, however relish the opportunity to let their hair down with a third of staff owning up to ‘dancing like an idiot’ in front of the boss, and a fifth of employees regularly belting out karaoke songs in front of their colleagues.

With digital cameras now present at more than 70% of office parties, 7 out of 10 employees lamented the fact that they are subjected to pictures of their indiscretions either on the night or the next day, with 1 in 10 stating that digital pictures are even posted on the company website.

Other festive office past times include photocopying body parts and, in an additional survey of Canon UK’s 700 highly-trained technical support team, 46% of those questioned stated that they had been called out to repair a printer/copier due to ‘non-work related’ incidents, such as revellers sitting on it or office-workers standing on it to put up Christmas decorations.

Overall, it was found that almost two-thirds reported up to a 25% increase in call outs over Christmas, with 32% of technicians called out to repair broken glass which had been sat on, or to fix paper jams that revealed evidence of embarrassing images. One technician reported that a customer suggested an office identity parade to find the provider of the incriminating evidence! The survey also discovered bizarre items which had been found in a photocopier such as a sleeping cat, a snake, a kitchen knife, a sausage roll, a condom, stockings, a vibrator and even a cheque for £6,000.

David Smith, Marketing Director, Canon UK commented, “People obviously let their hair down at Christmas time and the printer/copier tends to get a bit of extra-curricular activity during the festive period. Our highly-trained technical support team are experts at solving customers’ printing and copying issues, helping them to get the most out of their technology - within reason! Fortunately, nothing surprises them these days – not even intimate advances from their clients at office Christmas parties!”

Statistics from an independent survey of 1000 office workers:

• A third of office workers have gone home with or kissed a colleague at their office Christmas party.
• A tenth of male workers have been sick in front of colleagues due to excessive drinking.
• A tenth of office workers have told a colleague or boss that they fancy them.
• A third of office workers admitted dreading “the walk of shame” to work the next morning.
• A tenth of female workers take the opportunity of their bosses’ ‘high spirits’ to ask for a pay rise.
• Two fifths of office workers from the East of England admitted that they had never had an office Christmas party.
• A third of workers from Yorkshire owned up to ‘dancing like an idiot’ in front of the boss.
• A fifth of employees from Yorkshire regularly belt out karaoke songs in front of their colleagues.

Statistics from a survey of Canon UK’s technical support team:

• 46% of those questioned stated that they had been called out to repair a printer/copier due to ‘non-work related’ incidents
• Two-thirds reported up to a 25% increase in call outs over Christmas
• 32% of technicians had been called out to repair broken glass which had been sat on, or to fix paper jams that revealed evidence of embarrassing images
• 68% of technicians are regularly invited to one of their customers’ office parties

Some Canon technician quotes…

• Steven Mannion from the North of England said,”I had to repair a machine with a photocopy of a man’s groin jammed in it. The manager suggested an office identity parade to see who Canon could charge for the call out charge.”
• Geoff Bush from the North of England recounted, “I was called out for the usual ‘glass broken due to someone sitting on it,’ but in this case a young lady had copied her rear and broken the glass, but at the same time jammed the scanner. To her dismay, the un-fused copy was still in the machine and every one in the office recognised who it belonged to.”
• More encouragingly, Paul Newton from the North of England said, “Due to the fact that the copy board glass thickness has changed from 3mm to 4mm in recent years, the number of call outs have gone down for broken glass.”

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