It’s the season of the office Christmas party, but for many women, the festive anticipation is dampened considerably by the stress of how to get home safely.
While we’re selecting our finest sequins, many of us are also plotting the route back to our front door, making that fraught judgment call between walking, jumping in a taxi, or waiting on a dark street for the night bus to arrive.
The work do can present more problems than your average night out, especially if you’ve moved further away from the office, thanks to remote working, you’re not comfortable crashing on a colleague’s sofa in the way you would be with a friend, or you’d usually party with a housemate or partner in tow.
These safety dilemmas are nothing new, but feel depressingly heightened in 2021, a year where the murders of Sarah Everard, Sabina Nessa, Bibaa Henry and Nicole Smallman, and so many others have prompted collective mourning.
On top of that we’re out of practice, with this being the first Christmas party season for two years and the Omicron variant only adding to our anxieties.
Jasmine Granton, who’s 28 and from Bedford, says she’s hyper-aware of how she gets home after Christmas events, due to past experiences, as well as the violence against women and girls she hears and reads about from friends and the media.
“The news is definitely heightening my awareness this year, but I’ve always been fairly terrified since certain events have taken place,” she tells HuffPost UK.
During December, she’ll be staying in a hotel after several events, rather than making the journey home late, and has bought a lock and alarm for the door to feel safer.
“When it comes to Uber, I make them aware I’ve taken a picture of the front of their car and sent to several people. If they don’t like it, I won’t get in,” she says. “I literally say ‘I’m taking a picture of your reg for my safety and will be sending it to my partner and dad, are you okay with that?’ I’ve never yet had anyone have any issue and thankfully, I’ve never had a bad experience in an Uber.”
But Megan Bevis, 23, from Northampton, says she wouldn’t feel safe, even after taking these measures. She avoids walking and taking public transport or taxis at night.
“If I can’t get a lift from my partner or a family member, I would usually just decide to not drink so that I can drive myself home,” she says. “Although I’m still cautious of where I park and checking the backseat of my car before getting in.”
Other women on Twitter have also shared the lengths they go to in order to feel safe on the way home after Christmas parties, many of which probably wouldn’t factor in for male colleagues.
The onus should never be on women and girls to change their behaviour to avoid violence, but until there’s a fundamental societal shift, campaigners are finding ways to help us feel safer.
A new initiative, Home Safe London, launches on December 1 to provide women, girls and anyone who needs it a subsidised Uber ride home. Set up by student Match Sienkiewicz, the campaign has crowdfunded more than £5,000 to “alleviate the financial stress” that leads some women to choosing another (sometimes more dangerous) route home. It follows a similar scheme set up by an Edinburgh taxi firm in April, to help women get home safe after pubs reopened.
Some women also have safety fears related to Uber or licensed taxis, meaning walking home on a busy road can feel like a better option than getting in a car with a stranger.
For those facing the walk alone, there’s Strut Safe, a campaign started by Alice Jackson, a 22-year-old recent graduate, and Rachel Chung, a 28-year-old PhD student.
The friends, based in Edinburgh, initially launched a service that sends volunteers out to meet people and escort them to their destinations. This still operates on Friday and Saturday from 7pm-3am and Sunday from 7pm-1am in the city.
However, the nationwide response was much larger than they expected, and they’ve since launched a phone line so people across the UK can call if they need reassurance or sign-posting to other resources. They started the initiative in March of 2021, following the murder of Sarah Everard.
“We felt helpless with the knowledge that she had been arrested, abducted, and assaulted by a police officer,” says Chung. “We felt that those who perpetrate violence against women, queer people, people of colour, disabled people, and other vulnerable people do so in part because they think that they’ll get away with it.”
Since launching, Strut Safe has taken more than 250 calls, which goes to show how widespread the need is. According to the Office for National statistics, almost half (49%) of women don’t feel safe walking home after nightfall in a public place, compared to 19% of men.
This is Strut Safe’s first holiday season, so the friends have no idea just how busy they might get. One thing that has surprised them so far, is the number of callers requesting support when coming home from work, as well as nights out.
“The holidays can be a difficult time for some people, and we hope that we can be there during our regular hours for anyone who needs us,” says Chung. “We also expect to be busy over New Year’s Eve, when many more people than usual are out past midnight.”
To reduce the stress of Christmas party safety planning, some workplaces are putting new policies in place to help colleagues get home.
Jodie Harris, head of digital PR at Blue Array, has booked hotel rooms for employees worried about the trip back.
“We understand that it has been a particularly stressful year for women and as employers, we need to make sure every woman feels comfortable and safe,” says Harris, who’s 34 and based in Woking. “If I, a woman, feel anxious travelling far on public transport in the evening, I couldn’t expect anyone else to do the same.
“I hope this makes employers realise sacrificing some of that drinks budget saved for the Christmas party could ensure their staff get home safely is the right thing to do.”
Help from bosses and campaigners is, of course, welcome, but considering your safety when you want to be enjoying the company-subsidised fun is exhausting.
As Chung says: “In an ideal world, Strut Safe would someday become obsolete, but as long as people feel unsafe traveling alone, we hope that we can be there on the other end of the phone.”