Not Your Company’s Holiday Party
One Upstate company has taken the traditional holiday party to new levels, mostly due to one woman’s desire to bring a little extra joy to the workplace.
If we are talking nature versus nature, it is hard to say whether Jane McCutcheon learned how to entertain at a young age or if it is simply in her DNA. “My family entertained a lot,” she recalls, noting that somebody always happened to be conveniently dropping by right at dinner time. Ingrained with this natural inclination to put a smile on someone’s face, especially over a meal, she has taken her family training a bit further—entertaining not just at home but at work, too.
When McCutcheon arrived at Coldwell Banker Caine, a local real estate agency serving the Upstate since 1933, the Thanksgiving office party was already in place. But something was missing. Turkeys were brought in from a local barbecue joint and employees toiled away in their offices until the designated time to gather to consume the presented meal. It was all “fine” in every sense of the word—but McCutcheon looked around and said, “We can do better.”
She brought the turkey preparation in house, beginning with organic turkeys deep-fried right on site. The frying is handled by the agents themselves and, with about 180 of them on the team, more than a few are up to the task. Take agent Blair Boan, for example, who is a competition barbecue chef who has upped the ante by not just frying the turkeys but sending a few through his smoker as well. Coldwell Banker Caine agents and employees bring their best side dishes and family recipes, totaling more than enough to line a hallway that feels like a football field in length.
As a result, a simple holiday gathering has turned into an event people look forward to and talk about all year long. Four turkeys have turned into nine to satisfy demand, and gone are the days of work getting done in the morning before the food arrives. Instead, the frying begins at 9am and the camaraderie right along with it. I am told McCutcheon’s Jezebel Sauce is the stuff of legend and even though signup sheets are designed to prevent four different macaroni & cheese contributions from showing up, they always do and nobody ever complains.
McCutcheon and Director of Marketing Kate Dabbs tell me that the whole event feels like a family gathering and is the perfect example of the company culture that Coldwell Banker Caine strives to achieve as a third-generation family business now celebrating 85 years. The fact that they tell me this in their office’s “Family Room” on a long, comfortable half moon couch in the presence of a big screen television, bicycles, an Etch-O-Sketch, and a vintage Ms. Pac- Man arcade game brings the point home.
The good tidings do not end with the party, as any leftovers are donated to Project Host to ensure that nothing goes to waste. Even the spent turkey carcasses are reclaimed by McCutcheon for the batches of broth she makes after the event. Consider this my public application for one modest size container of whatever this eventually becomes this season, shall we, Jane?
Holiday fun courtesy of Jane McCutcheon continues well past Thanksgiving with her annual World’s Smallest Office Party event.
Looking to provide a lighthearted and comical alternative to the standard company Christmas party, McCutcheon took it upon herself to come in to the office one evening when nobody was around and decorate her 10 foot by 10 foot space as if it were a miniature North Pole. Lights and decorations were hung wherever they would fit and just enough room was left over for the food and drink she had prepared for the event. To be clear, by “food and drink” I mean beef tenderloin, shrimp, smoked salmon, and bourbon slushies.
That day, co-workers filtered through Jane’s office, no more than a couple at a time, to grab a plate and a glass and exchange some holiday cheer in the least-expected office setting.
All of this is told to me by McCutcheon and Dabbs in the Family Room. Much of what Dabbs tells me is met by another blush and “thank you” from McCutcheon. Conversely, much of what McCutcheon tells me begins with “Don’t put this in the story” or “I never told you this part, Kate”. It is humility and sincerity at its finest, of this I am sure.
Kate Dabbs summarizes Jane’s holiday spirit in the simplest of ways: “It is a dream to have someone like Jane here.” At this Jane squeaks out her last quiet “thank you” of the day and I privately wonder if Coldwell Banker Caine might have any openings for an extremely part-time freelance writer—or really any job that puts me in the same room as a kind-hearted soul like hers. And maybe a bourbon slushie and a game of Ms. Pac-Man, of course.
