In a hilarious scoop featured in today’s AFR it is revealed that soon-to-merge mid-tier Deacons has shunted staff with a dodgey xmas party.

The article reports:

In light of office-wide parties next year to celebrate the merger with international law firm Norton Rose, Christmas 2009 is an afterthought at Deacons.

The firm invited employees to a small soiree on level 18 of its George St building last Friday. Drinks were served from 5pm to 9pm and staff were encouraged to dress in theme - Deacon blue and gold - to commemorate the firm’s colours (Norton Rose’s colour is red).

“They’d be better off saying, ‘suck it up till the merger party’ and not having a Christmas party at all, than having cheese, dried fruit and some mixed nuts - and I’m not talking cashews,” says one employee who was overseas at the time . “I wouldn’t go if I was there”.

Neither would we! But was chief executive partner Don “Dubya” Boyd in attendance? You know, the fellow embroiled in arguably the most major client gaffe of 2009? If so, did he cop a dried fig to the face? Justifiable, we would have thought, given the dodginess of the xmas festivities, and his apparent baulk at lifting the  pay freeze.

This from an anonymous source last night:

The soon to be deceased Deacons is in the same boat. Pay fozen in June, with a promise to deliver in December, but alas disco Don Boyd sends out another email informing staff that revenue is still not predictable enough to justify anything remotely like a pay rise. But never fear perhaps some news in January 2010 when where under the Norton Rose banner. You can’t even finalise a secondment policy so how on earth do you expect to make a decision on pay rises. Sorry Don I think I’m going to have to vote with my feet. See ya around.

1. locked the stationary cupboard;
2. forced workers to crap in the dark;
3. encouraged workers to wear face masks to the office;
4. made a worker redundant, and then hired a “replacement”; and
5. revealed that chairman Nick Abrahams is a serial sacker, having been involved in two major redundancies - first as the “bloom came off the dot com rose” and then recently at Deacons;

Will these reprehensible Deacons antics take the “bloom” of the Norton Rose merger?

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