This post originally appeared on Forbes on November 28, 2024.
Does your festive season networking schedule seem lighter than usual? If so, you're not alone. New research from LinkedIn shows that 30% of U.K. workers are less likely to go to festive parties this year than five years ago, which is surprising given a tough job market where competition for jobs is stiff. The holiday season is traditionally ripe with various corporate-sponsored parties that do double-duty as networking events — but people have a declining interest in attending. Janine Chamberlin, Head of LinkedIn UK, explains why we're seeing this decrease in traditional networking.
"The same circumstances that are impacting the world of work are reflected in how the traditional concept of networking is also changing," says Chamberlin. "We've done research around this, and we can see that people just don't invest as much time in networking because they don't believe they have the time for long lunches or staying out late after work. So, professionals are finding new ways to network while they balance all of these other things that have come to the forefront over the past several years." According to the research, the most common causes for the slowdown in attending in-person networking events are that people don't want to extend their workday, they're under too much pressure with their current workload to carve out time, and they have personal commitments that are more important.
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