By the way | Mind your social media manners

I have looked everywhere for the timesheet code for 'Christmas socialising' but it seems to be missing. I must report that to human resources when I find a spare moment, as my December time recording would be off the scale if such events counted for anything.

Kennedys hosted its annual client Christmas party at London's Guild Hall, which is a spectacular venue. It can be almost overwhelmingly full of people however, as I believe our room's capacity is almost 1,000, meaning that in order to avoid rudely peering at people's name badges in the dark to find those most relevant to one's practice area one needs to have a strategy. Our team was very organised this year, planning various sets of pre-party drinks with key clients. This meant that we could all walk together to the venue and nobody became separated from the group in its cavernous interior, which worked well. ?The bubbles flowed, canapés abounded and everyone seemed to enjoy the evening.

Our office party was cunningly held a fortnight in advance of mad Friday, although Manchester was still pretty lively. We went slightly off the beaten track geographically speaking, heading out to Castlefield where we completely off-roaded on the culinary front with a Christmas barbeque. I was rather dubious regarding the menu choice in advance, as I believe were numerous colleagues, but I have to say that the food was absolutely delicious, with not a turkey leg or sprout to be seen.

Now that we are in January the pace usually slows down a little as the hustle, bustle and festive memories fade and people strive to stretch their paypackets until the end of the month by entering social hibernation. This year will not be so for employees of Kennedys, as the firm very diplomatically held a vote regarding when staff would like to be paid in December, ie whether we all appreciated the ancient tradition of an early pay packet in advance of Christmas. The answer given by precisely two thirds of those who responded, myself included, was a firm negative. I would much prefer to have a normal cashflow pattern throughout the year, as money ?does seem to evaporate once it has made? a fleeting appearance on my bank statement, so as far as I am concerned the longer it remains in the hands of my employer the better.

I also struggle with the concept that Christmas costs an absolute fortune, as in my family it has always been celebrated ?in a generous but not over the top fashion. The idea of needing to be paid early so ?I can wander around shops or tap away ?on computer keyboards whilst haemorrh-aging money is rather alien to me. My ?poor children.

My team was also interviewing last month, as we have an opportunity in Manchester for a junior solicitor. I enjoy having an involvement in recruitment and co-interviewed one candidate. I am reluctant to say anything further however, as thanks to the wonders of modern technology I know that said savvy candidate viewed my LinkedIn profile two days following our meeting, which proudly advertises this article. They may well therefore make a point of reading this very piece, meaning that I shall (for once) keep my counsel.

As something of a technophobe, I am continually amazed by the simultaneous wonders and dangers of the internet. I understand from speaking with a colleague that you can protect your identity on LinkedIn when viewing others' profiles, if for example you might be having a sneaky peek at the opposition's offering. I note that the site also now offers an account upgrade, although it comes at a monthly price, which I believe allows you to unlock the identity of any such electronic 'stalkers' and see precisely who has been checking out your professional credentials. I have to say that I'm not too bothered about paying for that level of service, as I believe that the majority of those who take the time to keep their identities private when viewing my page are probably recruitment consultants for whom tripping around such websites forms part of their daily routine.

Those much less likely to have the user knowledge/interest in going undercover are the viewers which intrigue me. According to my current information, my profile has been viewed in the past three months by a dad from school who is head clerk at a local chambers to whom I recently sent instructions for the first time, our interviewee and a few anonymous ones. It has also been looked over by a former colleague from around 10-years-ago whom I recently invited to connect with me but has so far declined to do so. How rude!
I think he needs to learn about protecting his identity when viewing others' profiles ?if he's going to dish out electronic social snubs such as that. I could seek revenge by telling the story of how he once mispronounced 'Pouilly Fuissé' when we were out at dinner with my former firm and a pile of wine-buff clients, but that would just be churlish.

As you are reading this, it must mean ?that the Mayan calendar was wrong and ?the world did not end on 21 December ?2012 after all. I therefore wish you all ?a very happy and prosperous new year which presents itself full of opportunities and only cyber-stalkers of the well mannered kind.