Despite the overwhelming evidence that the traditional office party can cause serious problems for employers, most continue to host such affairs. So, if you don't have the courage to cancel yours and split the money you save among your workers, there are many guidelines for how to limit the potential fallout from an office party gone horribly wrong.

First, understand that employee "misconduct" is perhaps expected by most employers who throw such parties. Two-thirds of employers who responded to a SHRM survey report that they serve booze at the holiday event. What do they think is going to happen? Further research indicates that more than a third of employers report bad behavior at holiday parties — and how many more are either unaware of it or, for various reasons, decide not to report it?

The misconduct takes many forms, which most staff people who have attended holiday parties have witnessed: drunkenness, sexual advances, off-color jokes, inappropriate comments of all kinds spoken too loudly in the presence of the wrong people. There are reports of fist fights breaking out over the punchbowl, and, of course, the more tragic driving drunk incidents that have been widely publicized.