Christmas parties can be difficult to cater for. Many office groups will have had a few drinks before arriving, whilst pent up office tensions (and romances) threaten to boil over in a less formal environment.

Your waiting staff will be in the middle of this revelry, whilst many Christmas parties stay later than an assortment of smaller tables may have done. What's more, because your customers are splitting the bill and Mary from accounts has taken charge of proceedings using her iPhone, the tips aren't likely to be great. In short, your staff will have had better shifts.

Keep things fair by rotating your staff and not making the same people cater for every Christmas party. Obviously, this needs balancing against ensuring you have enough experience and confidence in each team to keep staff safe and ensure your staff have a good time.

Many business owners in University towns are likely to have at least a couple of students on their books. Given many go home for Christmas, be prepared to lose these workers for up to a month as they bus around the country to devour everything in their family's cupboards. Hopefully your student staff will have made their intentions clear, but now's a good time to make sure they've written down what dates they're available throughout the festive period.

Your staff's religious freedoms are protected by a variety of EU and Irish laws and making them work during a recognised religious holiday could be a violation of their rights. More importantly, however, forcing someone to work during a religious holiday which is important to them is incredibly cruel! Even as a last resort, this isn't sustainable and is bound to result in high staff turnover and a poisonous atmosphere within your business.

Again, making staff work when they really don't want to isn't a good idea! It'll harm workplace morale and result in customers getting a surly and uncooperative service. This staffing difficulty is one reason why many businesses choose to close on key festive dates. That said, some people love working at Christmas because of the festive atmosphere and the possibility of bumper tips from sympathetic patrons.

Christmas Day is defined as a Public Holiday in Ireland and this means business owners have the choice of a number of different ways to compensate staff. Business owners can choose which of these options to pursue, but must offer one of the given forms of public holiday entitlement and make it clear to staff well ahead of time.

'Double Time' actually represents the entitlement which was defined by P III S 20 of the revised Organisation of Working Time Act 1999 as 'an additional day's pay'. This act also outlined the other options for employers, but decision makers should always ensure they have checked for the latest employment law information, available from the Workplace Relations Commission.

Keeping everyone happy at Christmas can seem impossible, but why not avoid confusion between yourself and your staff by sharing the information which you access with them? Ultimately, Christmas is a stressful and difficult to time to work in catering and you need everyone to stick together as a happy and cohesive team. 

Oh, and a Christmas bonus never hurt staff morale...

Have a good festive season!